THE SPIRITUALITY OF WORK

 

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.  We must also love our neighbor, and work provides a unique opportunity to do this.  After all, for most people work involves at least half of their waking hours.  When St. Paul tells us to “pray without ceasing” there must be a way for us to offer our daily work to God (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Our work is a participation in God’s ongoing work of creation: “man, created in the image of God, shares by his work in the activity of the Creator and that, within the limits of his own human capabilities, man in a sense continues to develop that activity.”  In whatever work we do we use the strength and skill which God has given us to advance his care of the earth.  This realization ought to help us through the difficulties and tiredness that we often encounter in work.  We are doing God’s will.  This, of course, highlights our need to discern our vocation and the way of life that God has called us to.  In the beginning God told Adam and Eve to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Genesis 1:28).  The first instructions God gave to Adam and Eve was to form a family and work. 

In the Gospels Jesus is referred to as a carpenter and a carpenter’s son.  Carpentry in Jesus’ day was different from how we think of it today.  It mostly involved masonry and building.  It was certainly arduous.  It is believed that Jesus spent more than twenty years working as a manual laborer.  This is the so-called “hidden life” of Jesus.  From the time of the Holy Family’s return from Egypt until his baptism by John the only glimpse we have of him is his finding in the Temple by his parents when he was twelve, after a three-day search.  According to Luke, then “he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.  And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man” (Luke 2:51-52).  According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “The hidden life at Nazareth allows everyone to enter into fellowship with Jesus by the most ordinary events of daily life” (#533).  When we work hard and honestly, we do what Jesus did for twenty-some years.       

The meaning of work finds its full significance in the Paschal Mystery – the Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ into heaven. Pope St. John Paul II brings his encyclical towards its conclusion with these beautiful words: “Sweat and toil, which work necessarily involves the present condition of the human race, present the Christian and everyone who is called to follow Christ with the possibility of sharing lovingly in the work that Christ came to do. This work of salvation came about through suffering and death on a Cross. By enduring the toil of work in union with Christ crucified for us, man in a way collaborates with the Son of God for the redemption of humanity. He shows himself a true disciple of Christ by carrying his own cross every day in his turn in the activity that he is called upon to perform.”  How appropriate, then, was it for the encyclical to be issued on the Feast of the Holy Cross!