This Monday, September 4th, marks the end of summer, the kick-off to a fresh school year, and a new football season. It’s also Labor Day! Though many of us will work on this day regardless of it being a national holiday, others will be given a day off work to enjoy an extra long weekend before the rush of activity propels us into the autumn season. Labor Day is also an opportunity to reflect on the dignity of both the work and those doing the work.
One document to help us do that is an encyclical, a papal letter sent to all of the bishops of the Catholic Church, called Rerum Novarum (on the Condition of Labor), written by Pope Leo XIII over 125 years ago (5/15/1891). Fundamental to the call of this encyclical is the God-given dignity of the human person rooted in how God made us – in his image and likeness (Gen. 1:26-27). “Key to this dignity is the availability of work that is fulfilling, with pay and conditions that protect the worker, satisfy family needs and promote community development” (Source: http://www.socialjustice.catholic.org).
The pope tells us that work addresses the deplorable plight of the industrial workers in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. When it comes to work and the working poor, the document emphasized the protection and dignity of the weak and poor, the obligations of the rich, and the perfecting of justice through charity while excluding socialism and class struggle as legitimate principles of change. We have seen in the past few years how wonderfully our Holy Father, Pope Francis has reminded us to take care of the poor, including the working poor. But “her (the Church’s) desire is that the poor, for example, should rise above poverty and wretchedness, and better their condition in life; and for this she makes a strong endeavor” (#28).
The letter also strongly affirms the rights of workers: the right to private property, the right to form and join professional associations, the right of the Church to speak on social issues, and the worker’s right to a just wage. While we have the right to work, we are NOT entitled to it. It’s a gift. While it may be a gift to do work, (though we may not always enjoy it or want to do it…Feel like hitting the snooze button in the morning ? 🙂 nonetheless, work serves other purposes too. The encyclical letter also discusses how work serves the common good. In addition, the pope talks about the role of the state and the balance between labor and capital. “Each needs the other: capital cannot do without labour, nor labour without capital” (#19). Labor is necessary despite the hardships that come with life. “Every one should put his hand to the work which falls to his share…” (#62). Even Jesus, though fully divine, was fully human and did his share of work as the son of Joseph, the son of a carpenter (Mt. 13:55, Mk. 6:3).
While workers have dignity, duties, and responsibility, so do employers. Here is a list (#20):
- Respect the dignity of your workers
- Don’t treat them as indentured labour or simply a factor of production, but remember that working for a living is an honorable thing.
- The employer’s great and principal duty is to give every one what is just.
- Justice demands that, in dealing with the working man, religion and the good of his soul must be kept in mind. Hence, the employer is bound to see that the worker has time for his religious duties.
- That the worker not be led away to neglect his home and family, or to squander his earnings.
- Furthermore, the employer must never tax his work people beyond their strength, or employ them in work unsuited to their sex and age.
- Wealthy owners and all masters of labor should be mindful of this – that to exercise pressure upon the indigent and the destitute for the sake of gain, and to gather one’s profit out of the need of another, is condemned by all laws, human and divine.
- The rich must religiously refrain from cutting down the workmen’s earnings, whether by force, by fraud, or by usurious (unreasonable high interest) dealing…To defraud any one of wages that are his due is a great crime which cries to the avenging anger of Heaven (#20). “Behold, the hire of the laborers… which by fraud has been kept back by you, crieth; and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of the Sabbath” (James 5:4).
Speaking of fraud, some Americans abuse our system of assistance. While some genuinely need assistance in the case of of crisis, others abuse the welfare system, like food stamps, or misuse “unemployment” even if not needed, and yet are available and healthy to work, but refuse. St. Paul and his disciples soberingly said, “if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat” (2 Thes. 3:10). (Obviously there are exceptions for good reason like those with handicaps, medical disability including workplace accidents, as well as those who have lost employment but have unsuccessfully tried to find employment despite their persistence).
One person who turned down unemployment but instead continued to clean houses and babysit in order to be a good example of work to provide for her and her boys was the mother of the now famous neurosurgeon from John Hopkins University and presidential Candidate, Dr. Ben Carson, who currently serves as the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Development. Carson’s mom, Sonya, a single mom, who raised Ben and his older brother, Curtis, in Detroit during the 50’s and 60’s, moved to Boston and then moved back to the Motor City. Though Ben and Curtis didn’t know their mom, Sonya, was illiterate, she “limited their time watching television and required them to read and write book reports on two library books per week” (Source: Wikipedia). To watch and listen to Dr. Ben Carson’s moving story, just “Google” or click the following link, “Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story.” You can watch it for FREE online. This hour-and-a-half, inspiring, biographical movie, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. as Dr. Ben Carson, affirms the dignity of hard work, while at the same time, addresses and overcomes racism, another rampant problem in our country at the moment.
Work is a gift, and the gift of work serves others. While one initiates to freely give the gift of work through service to another, the other benefits by receiving. Jesus says, “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). May we thank God for the gift of work, to give and receive it, and thank God for those who have worked to provide for us. May we also have a greater respect for the dignity of workers and the work they provide, and realize that to be able to work is a gift just like the movie portrays as well as appreciate the gift of an extra day off on Monday.
Enjoy, and have a blessed Labor Day Weekend!
Fr. Jeff
Further Reading:
1. Lanari, Barbara. “Rerum Novarum and Seven Principles of Catholic Social Doctrine. ( 1). The dignity of the human person, 2). The common good, 3). Subsidiarity, 4). Participation, 5). Solidarity, 6). The Right of private property, and 7). The universal destination of goods)
Source:http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2011/blanari_rerumnovarum_may2011.asp
2. Leo XIII, Pope. Rerum Novarum (on The Condition of Labor), 5/15/1891.
Source: http://w2.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html
3. Paul II, St. John. Laborem Exercens (on Human Work), 9/14/1981. (The meaning of work can only be properly understood when the dignity of labor is taken as an underlying premise).
Source: http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091981_laborem-exercens.html
"Speak The Truth with Love," A Catholic Blog by Fr. Jeff Allan 