This weekend in the United States we celebrate and recognize Labor Day and the efforts of all people who work. We acknowledge the American Labor Movement, and the social and economic achievements of all who have worked since the holiday was established. The Library of Congress says that the first Labor Day was established by the Central Labor Union and was celebrated on a Tuesday in 1882. Then in 1894, Congress enacted the law making Labor Day a national holiday, celebrated on the first Monday in September. Over the years it seems to be more of a final long summer weekend, a demarcation of the end of summer and the beginning of the school year for students. What if we honor and celebrate the work that we do all year on this weekend?
I listened to an interview this week with Bishop Robert Barron on the Word on Fire Show regarding the Theology of Work. It was a wonderful interview talking about the Catholic Church’s teaching on work. I especially loved the story of Bishop Barron’s first job, as a high school student, at Kroch’s and Brentano’s bookstore in Oakbrook, Illinois, and his brother throwing a used copy of A Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton at him and how that book ended up being so influential in his life.
Bishop Barron discussed how our work participates in the creativity of God and that if done with loving purpose, work is sanctifying. He talked a little about work before and after “the Fall”, and how we have gotten the idea that work is laborious, with all its negative connotations, but he stated that work is ultimately life-giving and how we “work creation” to make it even more beautiful. I was struck by his statement that God has nothing to gain from us. It’s true, my work doesn’t make God or the world any better, but it can participate in “His causality”. Everything God has created is good, but Aquinas says it doesn’t make it finished, it continues to unfold with our participation in it.
Bishop Barron talked about Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical, Rerum Novarum, and the importance of that writing at a time of horrible conditions for workers. I probably relate more to Pope John Paul II’s encyclical, writing on the anniversary of Rerum Novarum, Laborem Exercens in which he talked about the value of human work. Work has value not because of the work being done but because of the human person that is doing the work. Regardless of the work we are doing, God wants us to invite Him into that work, to prosper (not necessarily financial) the work of our hands.
I reflect on the many jobs, or variations of work, I have done over the years. There wasn’t a weekend growing up, in high school, that my brothers and I didn’t have to work at our family business, waiting on customers, drying off cars after the car wash (the unique spin my father added to the automatic car wash he operated), washing towels (Oh, the towels in the winter!) and working in the little store that had snacks, beer and soda, and a lottery machine. When I had my own little shop, I worked harder than I ever have at any job, cleaning ice cream/yogurt machines at 5:30 in the morning, making soup and washing the floor all before opening for the day, but I can honestly say I have never loved any work as much as that, because it was my business and I took pride in it and enjoyed the customers I served.
Any employment, if just viewed as a job with tasks to complete, will make work tedious. But when we begin to view the efforts of our labor as a use of our gifts and talents, a contribution in some way to the lives of others, even if solely providing for our families, or the way we are adding to, or contributing to creation, perhaps we will see, and feel, the dignity of that work in a new way.
I am fortunate that in all my different jobs and careers, I have always tried to ask “how am I serving God in this work?” It’s a gift now, to be in a ministry position, with Ignatian Ministries, where we constantly, and openly, seek the greater good for the ministry and our gifts, seeking “the magis”, the more, in all we do. This seeking, or reorientation, is available to all of us as we consider the work of our hands.
Don’t forget that we have just entered the Season of Creation, which began on September 1st with the World Day of Prayer for Creation, a season of grace to consider our way of living and renew the relationship between Creator and creation. It will conclude on October 4th, the Feast of St. Francis and the publication of Pope Francis’ follow up to Laudato Si’. As we reflect on the work of our hands, we are called also to consider that our work, or the way we live and consume products each day, does not exploit the earth. It is one of the most significant challenges of our day.
Create joy, Deena
Fill us at daybreak with your mercy,
that all our days we may sing for joy.
Make us glad as many days as you humbled us,
for as many years as we have seen trouble.
Show your deeds to your servants,
your glory to their children.
May the favor of the Lord our God be ours.
Prosper the work of our hands!
Prosper the work of our hands!
Psalm 90
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Deena Pavinato - Journeys 