‘Without work we cannot fully flourish’
BELMONT — Work can and should be an integral part of one’s faith life. That was the message from Andreas Widmer, an author and entrepreneur who delivered the annual Cuthbert Allen Lecture Feb. 26 at Belmont Abbey College.
Widmer directs the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship at The Catholic University of America’s Busch School of Business and Economics. He is also the co-founder of The SEVEN Fund, Social Equity Venture Fund, an organization dedicated to ending poverty.
Widmer served with the Swiss Guard, protecting St. John Paul II from 1986 to 1988. The late pope guided Widmer towards a closer relationship with Jesus Christ and a different perspective on work. Widmer wrote about his Vatican service and how it informed his later career choices in “The Pope & The CEO: Pope Saint John Paul II’s Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard.”
Widmer began his lecture, “Business as a Vocation,” by reminiscing about his experience as a Swiss Guard for St. John Paul II:
“One thing about St. John Paul was that he never told me what to do. Instead, he would always say, ‘I will pray for you.’ He was always advocating for me. I started watching him closely, thinking this is the guy that prays for me.
“In everything he did, he was fully present. He was the fullest human being I have ever met. At the same time, I would watch him spend hours in front of the altar praying.
“Whatever he had, I wanted. He became my idol – and he noticed. ‘You want a relationship with Jesus Christ. You want to find your full humanity. That is the reason you admire me,’ he said to me. Then, he taught how to pray the rosary.”
The young Widmer started attending Mass and praying the way Pope John Paul II showed him. And before long, Widmer recalled, “I started to develop faith. They spoke of the Trinity and creating the universe. I was constantly thinking about the Trinity. The Trinity was not up there singing to each other but truly having a nice, very real conversation. Someone in our image and likeness created a human being out of matter. Created all of creation – all totally beautiful. Who made this? God. Why? For me.”
The Trinity and creation relate to business and invention, Widmer continued.
“God Creates, God is a doer. God gets stuff done. God gives us ideas and through creation, we can imitate God. We can do the same thing on the business side. When you think about product, you are making something out of nothing, using your own will. You are the creator. What happens when you copy God? You become holy.”
“Work is a path to holiness,” he continued. “When you create, you become holy. Cows and monkeys can’t make things out of logic. Work is spiritual, and comes from a higher level. When we work, it becomes part of our path to heaven.”
“Without work we cannot fully flourish,” he emphasized. “When people do not work, they waste away.”
“Everything God creates is in abundance,” he also said. “Your company can do this by being profitable. Work should be satisfying and rewarding.”
Then Widmer offered “three successful business tips”: “Be creative. Be supportive by creating goods and services that benefit and serve society. Be abundant.”
Widmer opened the floor to questions and reminded the audience, “There are ideas and there are business ideas. Do not feel afraid to know the difference. Are you producing goods that are truly good? Does your service truly serve? Do you create more freedom?”
He then urged the audience to “find your ‘Super Pin’” – that one great idea which stands out from the rest.
Widmer ended the night by crediting the inspirational experiences he had serving St. John Paul II as his roadmap through the business world.
“Anything you do has eternal consequences. With every act you can glorify God. How did John Paul II do it? He would always pray to God and say that he was going to meet that person on their level. He prayed that God would let him see this person the way God saw this person.
“God loves every single one of us so much. He thinks we are so special. That is why we are here.”
— Lisa Geraci, correspondent
To order a copy of “The Pope & The CEO: Pope Saint John Paul II’s Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard”: https://stpaulcenter.com/product/the-pope-the-ceo/
JEFFERSON — The cemetery at St. Francis of Assisi Church might be brand new, but it already has three occupants and two more burials are expected soon.
“Everybody’s dying to get in,” quipped one parishioner before the dedication of the cemetery March 23.
Presiding at the dedication service was Bishop Peter Jugis, who led the group of parishioners in prayer and used holy water to bless the cemetery grounds that overlook the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The bishop commended the Jefferson parish for setting aside part of its 15-acre property for use as a cemetery, demonstrating its importance in the life of the parish.
He pointed out that the San Damiano crucifix in the center of the cemetery is a symbol of Christ’s victory over death and a sign of hope in eternal life for our loved ones. Death, he said, “is not the final word” for those who follow Christ.
The dedication service was the culmination of 18 months of effort to plan and build the cemetery, and it is the first major construction project since the church itself was built in 2014.
The quarter-acre cemetery has space for 100 full body plots and 50 cremains plots. It sits just downhill from the church – facing east – so that people can come from Mass and visit and pray for loved ones buried there, the pastor Father James Stuhrenberg said.
It is the only Catholic cemetery in Ashe County and the second such project for Father Stuhrenberg, who also led the effort to build a cemetery at St. Frances of Rome Mission in adjacent Alleghany County in 2015.
Pictured: Bishop Peter Jugis traveled to St. Francis of Assisi Church in Jefferson March 23 to dedicate a new cemetery. The only Catholic cemetery in Ashe County features 150 plots adjacent to the new church and its prayer garden. (Above) The focal point of the cemetery is a San Damiano crucifix set upon a stone pedestal. (Photos by Patricia L. Guilfoyle | Catholic News Herald)
“One of the corporal works of mercy is burying the dead,” he noted. “It is part of our mission of the Catholic Church and therefore our parish. It demonstrates our belief in the resurrection when we give care and honor to the bodies of our loved ones.”
The cemetery is purposefully located next to the parish’s prayer garden, he added, “so people can meditate and pray in the garden before and after visiting their loved ones in the cemetery.”
“The cemetery represents an enduring symbol both of our parish membership and a reminder of those we’ve shared time with on the journey of life,” added David Thomas, chairman of the parish’s building committee.
The $20,000 project was paid for by donations and many hours of volunteer labor, especially to clear the rocky ground. Parishioners gathered on Sundays after Mass to clear stones by hand, using them to line the drainage ditches that were necessary on the steeply-sloped property.
Gary Prange, cemetery committee chairman, thanked the cemetery committee members who designed the layout and developed the cemetery use policies; land surveyor Thomas Herman Co. PLLC, that surveyed the property, supervised the grading and marked the graves; and Bill Hart Construction, which graded and put in the gravel road.
“It’s great how the community has come together,” Prange said.
Prange said there’s more work to be done in the cemetery – additional landscaping, an improved entrance and walkway to connect to the prayer garden, and perhaps some more statues. It will take time and more donations, he said, but “it’s going to be beautiful.”
— Patricia L. Guilfoyle, editor