First Assignment

DO YOU remember your first job? The butterflies in the stomach going to work that first day. The sigh of relief at the end of the day. You survived! And you did okay. Tomorrow you’ll do better. Then arrives the first paycheck – your own hard-earned money. Wow! Maybe you really are capable! Other jobs will come, but the first is special.

People learn more on their first job than just how to do the job. They learn how to deal with an employer and fellow workers. In many jobs, they learn how to deal with the public. That public could be friendly, fearful, belligerent, hesitant, or uninformed. The job holder soon learns that each situation, like each person, is unique. No single technique always works. The workplace is a testing ground for social and business skills and a preparation for subsequent jobs. You, not someone else, were hired because your employer saw traits in you that seemed right for the position.

Fernando de Bulhoes, the future Saint Anthony of Padua, was assigned a job in his monastery. Let’s imagine how that might have happened.

Guest Master

In the ample library of the Augustinian Abbey of the Holy Cross in Coimbra, sunlight was pouring through the high windows, making reading easy. At one of the large wooden tables, Master João was paging through books of natural science. He was creating a lesson on God’s hand in the weather, hoping to metaphorically link various types of precipitation to the spiritual life.

“Master.” Came a soft whisper that startled him. The monks were taught to walk quietly, and this one was especially light-footed.

Ah, Brother Pedro. Pedro nodded toward the door. João understood. He and Pedro walked quietly into the adjacent hallway, closed the library door behind them, strolled down the corridor into the courtyard, and sat on a bench facing the fountain.

“I’m sorry to trouble you,” Pedro began, “but you must assign a new guest master now. It can’t wait until the Prior returns.”

If he ever returns, João thought. The Prior had been excommunicated by the Pope for mishandling monastery finances and for unspeakable sins of the flesh. He was in seclusion somewhere, doing penance. How much penance could make up for what he’d done?

“The Pope put you in charge. As you told me to do, I’ve been helping Father Bartolomeu in the parlor, but it’s getting more and more difficult for him. Today a soft voiced woman came asking for confession, and Bartolomeu could not hear what she was confessing, even though she was shouting. I was waiting outside…”

“And you heard,” João concluded.

“Yes, but I cannot absolve. Not yet.”

“How many years do you have to ordination? Two?”

Pedro nodded.

João studied the water cascading from the fountain. The years go quickly, like that. “Did Bartolomeu absolve her?”

“It took him a while until he could comprehend her.”

What monastery priest would be a suitable Guest Master? The teaching priests would not have time or availability.

“I could assign someone newly ordained,” João offered.

“Mateus, Fernando, Lucas.”

“Who do you think would be good? You’ve taken classes with all of them.”

“They’re all good men. Mateus is somewhat timid. I don’t know how strong he would be if a great sinner showed up.”

“Like Big Nathan the bandit,” João smiled. “We don’t get many Nathans here.”

“Admittedly not. Lucas is stronger, but he takes a while to grasp what someone is telling him.”

“Like how?”

“Like if I say, ‘Meet me after class at the well,’ he might say something like, ‘Which class? What well? You mean right after class? What time exactly?’”

João pondered that.

“Fernando?”

“He’s quick minded. Excellent memory.”

João nodded. He knew that from teaching Fernando.

“Fernando seems pretty fearless. He listens, doesn’t rush you, understands. He doesn’t shock easily, but he’s solid in the faith.”

“I’ve seen him many times in the chapel, praying. Very focused. He’s a good choice. Do you think you can work with him?”

“I can’t imagine anyone not being able to work with him,” Pedro commented.

“Then I’ll ask him after recreation tonight.”

Great confessor

Six months later, Master João’s class on spiritual metaphors in nature had concluded. Prior João, hopefully repentant, was scheduled to return in a few months. Father Bartolomeu spent the rest of his days in prayer in the chapel or at rest in his room. Having done well in his studies, Brother Pedro was on track for ordination.

Father Fernando made an excellent Guest Master. Once a week at recreation, he’d share with Master João one or two unusual incidents from his time in the parlor. One week, he had heard the confession of a father who took so long that Brother Pedro was exhausted from playing Apanhada (a catching game) with the father’s three children. The boys had run so quickly in all directions that agile Pedro could barely tag them. However, the game did keep them out of earshot. Another week a large group of penitents arrived. Pedro tended the door and handed out food while Fernando heard twenty-six confessions in a row.

Five raggedy friars

On this sunny November day, Master João sought Fernando at recreation. Sitting on a bench in the shade of a huge pine tree at the edge of the cloister garden, João smiled as Fernando again told him about the raggedy followers of a merchant from Italy. They’d been begging at Holy Cross for several months, taking the food Fernando gave them back to the hovels they called their monastery at Olivares.

“I don’t think I’m going to see the five of them again,” Fernando was saying.

“Are they being transferred?” João asked.

Fernando nodded. “To Morocco.”

“There are no Christians in Morocco.”

“That’s why they want to go there,” Fernando said softly. “So they can gain converts for Christ.”

“That’s foolish. The Muslims aren’t going to convert to Christ. They’re trying to eliminate Christians.”

“The friars know that. And if they’re the ones eliminated, they know where their souls are going.”

“They’re going to Morocco to be martyred?”

“That’s what they hope.”

“They hope? That’s really foolish.”

Fernando scuffed his sandals against the grass. “Were the apostles foolish? ‘Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.’”

He had just quoted Matthew 24, verse 9. João felt an inner confusion. Was it right to purposely walk into danger?

“Do you want them to be killed?” he quietly asked.

“We have to want what God wants,” Fernando said just as softly.

Meditation

Sometime during his years at Holy Cross, Fernando was ordained a priest and appointed Guest Master. The job entailed welcoming guests, distributing food to those who asked, hearing confessions, and giving counsel. This first appointment prepared Fernando for what would come later.

What did you learn from your first job? How did it prepare you for future progress? Did you learn anything from your first job that changed the course of your life? Was it something you had anticipated? How was your life different after your first job?