Restoration Projects and Worship with Mark Helprin

Author Mark Helprin writes a story about a man who experiences worship of the Creator  anew as he partakes in a spectacular renovation.  In the story, “Monday,” a contractor accepts the job of restoring an old New York City apartment for the widow of a man killed in the South Tower on September 11, 2001.  Without her knowledge, the contractor decides to do the work for free, and a remarkable work of art is created as his laborers join with him in this self-sacrificial gift.  Helprin describes the restoration project:

“The work itself became the object and never in their lives had they done better.  Never had the walls been straighter or smoother, never had the plaster been whiter, never had the wood been closer joined, never had the joints been tighter, the colors more intense, the proportions more artful….when they fitted it all in…the men kept on saying, “Look at that!  Look at that!” because nowhere in New York or perhaps anywhere was there a better job….This was repeated in the rosewood paneling, in limestone baseboards, in nickel, marble, granite, and unobtrusive plaster molding that physics said could not be whiter, purer, or more like snow in bright sun.  It was apparent in the ironwork, brasswork, and glazing.  The solid walnut doors were two and a half inches thick, with the same brass hardware and hinges as in the White House, and they closed more smoothly and quietly than the doors of a Rolls-Royce.  (Mark Helprin, “Monday,” in The Pacific and Other Stories, 2004).

The contractor, as he watches this marvelous transformation, understands worship in a way that he never had as he attended Mass:

The mass existed, in his perhaps heretical view, to keep, encourage, and sustain a sense of holiness, and to hold open the channels to grace that, with age and discouragement, tend to close.  Witness to those who had little sacrificing what they had, to their children contributing to the work in their way, and to the fathers’ pride in this, Fitch felt the divine presence as he had not since the height of his youth.  (Helprin, 68)

For reflection: When has God’s creation caused you to respond with a gut-punching, breath-taking worship, the kind where you grab your friend or a stranger by the arm and say, “Look at that!  Look at that!” (And remember, as this story suggests, it need not be something from the environmental world, it could be a work of art, music, sports just as easily as a sunset, a shark, or a storm)