Michel Quoist
MEET CHRIST AND LIVE!

translated by J. F. BERNARD
GILL AND MACMILLAN

11. The commercial smile and the Christian smile

All human work is a participation in the great Christian mystery of the creation. Together, each of us in our place, we are completing the universe; and no one has the right to withdraw from that providential task.
The role of our grocer is to feed other men. He makes it possible for them to live and to grow.
All human work is also a service rendered by men to other men. In the case of a grocer, the service is rendered directly.
Thus, a tradesman should not try to sell only the most expensive items. He should try to 'serve' his customers to the best of his ability by selling them what they actually need.
He must think of others before he thinks of the cash register.
A businessman who deceives his customers, who creates artificial needs by exaggerated advertising, is a thief and an oppressor of mankind. He is not serving humanity. Taken as a whole, this kind of businessman, when joined to all the others who look only for profit, is building that 'consumer society' which alienates man and forces innumerable young people into despair, revolt or escape.
Work is not a one-way street. It is an exchange of services. My grocer sells vegetables, cheese, fruit and so forth, to feed us. We give him money-which he exchanges for shoes, clothing, housing.
We must therefore change our attitude towards tradesmen. For it is proud, unreasonable and out of place: 'I pay; therefore I should be thanked.' Instead, we should thank one another.
Through the daily exchange of services, God offers to businessmen and their customers a heaven-sent opportunity to tighten the bonds between men, and to strengthen that human unity for which Jesus died. It is the particular responsibility of Christians to channel Jesus' love into these natural relationships.
Everything that works for greater attention to persons opens the way to the Lord. For cust9mers, this means simple things, like not wanting half-a-pound of butter to be split, and trying to do one' s shopping at the least busy times of the day.
In retail selling as in many other professions, the exchange often goes far beyond mere objects. There are human contacts, handshakes, smiles, words and the marvelous gift of a moment of real attention.
We must replace the 'commercial smile' with a Christian smile. Jesus needs the grocer so that every day he may serve his brothers and give them-as Jesus himself did-bread and fish, and also infinite love.
Business makes it possible to create ties not only at the level of distributors and buyers, but also at the level of those who are in the same business.
Business should be organized and practiced so as to give better service to customers and to allow businessmen to live honestly and honorably. In this sense, such things as quantity-buying, middle-men, distribution, price-fixing, price-control and taxes, all pertain to charity and therefore to the mystery of Christ.
Work should allow the worker to develop. lt should not make him less a man, or crush him. It should pay him a living wage, obviously; but it shou1d also offer him the opportunity to fulfill himself by giving of himself, by allowing him to seek just treatment, and by giving him responsibility.
To belong to professional organizations and participate in them is therefore-here as elsewhere-to work with the Lord in building the Kingdom of the Father in and through human reality.
Work is not a punishment. It is an honor, and a great honor, conferred on man by God the Creator; but, because of sin, work has become a burden. That is one of the consequences of sin.
None the less, Jesus Christ came down on earth to give meaning to work, as to all suffering. What was useless before his coming, the spoiled fruit of human selfishness, is now an opportunity for salvation. We participate in the Redemption, not by enduring the pain of work, but by bearing it and offering it to Jesus.
Once a businessman commits himself to the struggle for the best possible management of his profession, all that is painful in his life as a businessman becomes, if he is a Christian, an opportunity for redemption-the demands of his customers, fatigue, pressure, uncertain business conditions, the effort it takes for him to be pleasant.
The opportunity we have to participate in the Redemption comes to us in our daily lives. And, (or every one of us, the Way of the Cross may be found along the road of our working lives.
We all have 'vocations'. We are called by God to be sellers or buyers, merchants or consumers. Jesus waits for us in our work, as he waits for us in all other aspects of our activity.
At the price of our entire lives, we share holiness with him.