ABVM PARISH COMMUNITY

BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART Pope Saint Leo the Great (d. 461) gave a sermon on the Beatitudes.  Here is something of what he had to say about the sixth Beatitude: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  The blessedness of seeing God is justly promised to the pure of heart. For the eye that is unclean would not be able to see the brightness of the true light, and what would be happiness to clear minds would be a torment to those that are defiled. Therefore, let the mists of worldly vanities be dispelled, and the inner eye be cleansed of all the filth of wickedness, so that the soul’s gaze may feast serenely upon the great vision of God. Beatitudes can be found in the Old Testament, with God promising to bless those who obey him, avoid idolatry, and treat their neighbors justly.  Another word for beatitude is “blessing,” which is found often in the Psalms.  They declare that a person is blessed by observing the conditions of the promises which God made to Abraha

  THE SPIRITUALITY OF WORK I want to conclude my reflections on Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical Laborem Exercens (“On Human Work”), which he promulgated on September 14, 1981 by focusing on the final section with the subtitle “Elements of a Spirituality of Work.”  Feel free to learn about other elements which he covered, which would take too much space here, by googling “ Laborem Exercens” and downloading it from the Vatican’s website. According to the Holy Father, a particular task of the Church is to show how work can become a means by which human beings grow closer to God and “deepen their friendship with Christ.”  Work involves the whole person, body and spirit, “whether it is manual or intellectual work.”  To view work from the perspective of the gospel will help us to see work as God sees it, a means by which we extend the kingdom of God on earth and prepare for our eternity in heaven.  Saving our souls involves more than attending Mass on Sunday and avoiding mortal sin.

  MAN IS THE SUBJECT OF WORK What is meant by stating that man is the subject of work?  Pope St. John Paul II clarifies it for us in his encyclical “On Human Work” ( Laborem Exercens ).  “ Man has to subdue the earth and dominate it, because as the image of God he is a person, that is to say, a subjective being capable of acting in a planned and rational way, capable of deciding about himself, and with a tendency to self-realization. As  a person, man is therefore the subject of work.  As a person he works, he performs various actions belonging to the work process; independently of their objective content, these actions must all serve to realize his humanity, to fulfil the calling to be a person that is his by reason of his very humanity.”  Catholic social teaching places human beings at the center of all economic activity.  The product of work may be objectively good or bad.  For example, building a hospital is good, but building a concentration camp is bad.  The subject of work,

  LABOREM EXERCENS – ON HUMAN WORK The first papal encyclical I read was as a student at Villanova.  My academic focus was on French and Economics but the university required that I take three religion courses.  To partially fulfill the requirement I chose to take a course on Catholic social justice.  The professor required each of the students to study a subject and give a presentation on it to the class.  I was not Catholic at the time but was a committed Christian and a believer in capitalism.  I admired Pope John Paul II, who grew up under communism in Poland and was an opponent of it.  I chose to do a presentation on Laborem Exercens.  This was one of the pope’s first encyclicals, which commemorated the ninetieth anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s innovative encyclical Rerum Novarum , On Capital and Labor.  This is the founding document of what has become known as Catholic social teaching. I was overwhelmed by what I read, how the pope incorporated Scripture, traditional Christian id