Analysis of Milton, Soto, and Kolvenbach

    After reading all three pieces by Milton, Soto, and Kolvenbach, I had a hard time, at first, finding a common theme that jumped out at me. I reviewed my annotations and the information that I had highlighted and immediately made the connection. All three literary pieces describe work to some extent. I did not recognize this at first because they describe it in different ways and situations.

    In the first piece, “When I consider how my light is spent”, Milton describes work through the life of a person who has been blinded later on in his life. He begins to explain how God put each human on Earth with a specific gift that we must utilize to serve Him. Although this person may think that they are useless to God since they are blinded and can no longer work for Him, it is later revealed that God appreciates a faithful person just as much as a worker. Just because you are no longer able to utilize the gift that God gave you, does not mean that your relationship with Him ends here. Instead of working to serve Him by exercising one’s talent, they must work hard to be faithful to God without giving up.

In the second piece, “A Red Palm”, Soto discusses work from a more laborious point of view. The narrator of this poem expresses regret towards not getting a substantial education throughout his life. He now has to work strenuous hours in extreme conditions in order to make a living for his entire family. He observes how much effort he puts into providing for his family and often wishes he had done something about it when he was younger. Towards the end, the narrator emphasizes the importance of education and hopes that his son will be better off when he gets older by learning from his father. The father works hard to make sure everything is perfect for his family while ensuring that his children will have a better experience with work when they grow up because they received more education.

Finally, the last piece, written by Kolvenbach, refers to working towards harmonious environments created by the Jesuits. The author addresses the work behind the scenes that occurs in most organized groups. The thing that stuck out to me the most in this piece, however, is when they discuss their commitment to justice. Justice is something that societies are constantly working towards, and it is not an easy goal. The promotion of justice has become an integral part of the Jesuit identity after a long process of integration. Although they have included the promotion of justice to who they are today, everything is always advancing and there is always something to work towards next.