Man must work. This is required of him for the demands of justice and love. He must garner the necessities of life and provide for the well-being of those whose care he is charged with. To what end should a young man on the precipice of the “real world” aim in his work? How is he to know if no one is there to guide him?
Through the wisdom passed down from ages before him, a man can come to see his purpose and responsibilities in life. A love for Holy Writ, theology, philosophy, and great literature — the core of a proper education — will shape his affections for the good. Virtuous men in his life will be icons of the better path. In many, if not most cases, a man thus shaped will see work clearly and desire the best forms and practices of it. Dominion over Creation is his rightful place. Family of his own blood and neighbors of kin and creed are the home and polis he desires. A contemplative and active life is the best way to embody virtue more perfectly. Religious devotion must bind this all together in a higher, transcendent framework.
In short, he must strive to pour himself into meaningful work motivated by love.
When this young buck comes down the mountain (so to speak), a challenge presents itself. Work is toil and suffering, but this is not the real surprise. He has been told as much by those before him.
The surprise is that things aren’t so clear in a world bent and bruised. He is grieved by the world’s hatred of that which he has come to love: partaking in religious culture, pursuing virtuous economic relationships, or building beautiful things. His aim is for things now despised, subverted, or ignored.
Order has deteriorated, and now he looks around and can barely see life, peace, or harmony. A market economy, deemed most efficient, bears fruit that appalls him. Vice and ugliness yield great profits. Must he gain the world at the price of his soul? To take a step is to wade into danger, but this is the world he has been given. Kyrie eleison.
What should he do? A wise answer must dispel the paralysis of choice that seizes him. For a young man, this answer is generally more complex than for a young woman. His natural path towards the end of a good life and a family contains a variety of occupations bound together that attend to both home and polis. He must be invested in both, which creates a crisis when he finds himself placed in a polis culturally dominated by vice and ugliness. How can he, embedded in such darkness, work in all things “as to the Lord?”
In considering these questions, the young man is first drawn to immediate action: starting a radical life of fatherhood and meaningful work right away. The urge to build, fight, love, and bring forth life builds in his chest. He wishes the works of his hands to participate in the good, the true, and the beautiful. Physical work ensures joy and balance. Intellectual and aesthetic contemplation shape him, instilling purpose in an embodied life.
The sooner he can fit the mold of philosopher-craftsman or artist-farmer, the better. Excellence is his aim. But he is not alone. Headship of his family, he judges, will be his crowning role, and this means he will woo a woman, win her as his wife, and beget children. He must carry his elderly father, care for his mother, and love his siblings. His neighbors will have a seat at his table, and the Church will teach him his tithes.
Life will be costly, and this is no crime. Indeed, it is proper. But he is green at his work, and his pay may be inadequate to fulfill his obligations. Building ugly houses and glass boxes pays better. That dreaded office job in town is tempting. He knows that some goods are higher than others and that compromise could be the greatest excellence.
Another “good life” could be significantly different, after all. Among numerous other roads, a plausible alternative to grasping meaningful work immediately is the long way of preparation. Planning, saving, and building a stronger life over time may be a more excellent strategy. Why should this naïve youth expect to live a good life without earning it? Time may be the proper price to pay for such a life. It may be wise for him to get that finance job or work in an office with an eye on the future. To work where he can, provide for his people, live simply, and stock the ships of Troy – all this could be enough for a lifetime.
It is possible he may never see his aims accomplished with his own earthly eyes. He’s heard about an old man who planted an orchard, the fruit of which he will never taste. For his children’s children, he will clear land, dig, plant, and nurture without hope of tasting the harvest. This may be the truest test of his love: to patiently lay the foundations of a better order he can never live.
Such a young man sees these different paths before him and wonders what to make of it all.
Indeed, he wonders at the God who holds it all together and deigned to live the perfect life in the dust of the earth. No matter the confusion of his age and the frailty of his flesh, this is his Image. So, he must see His Way and take his step. Ora et labora.
The views and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the values and beliefs of Cogitare Magazine, nor of Grove City College.
