Dear friends of life and family:
Three day weekends are always a blessing. This long Labor Day weekend afforded me an opportunity to watch college football, to spend time with family and friends, and to barbeque. There's nothing quite like sitting on the porch with the aroma of smoked sausage and baby-back ribs drifting with the gentle breeze to lead one to consider higher things. With Labor Day on my mind, hickory smoke filling the senses, and the kids playing cheerfully in the yard, my thoughts turned toward the nature of work.
Blessed John Paul II often spoke of the great dignity of work. He emphasized that work allows us to earn our daily bread, to provide for our families, and to make our world a better place. Work, he said on more than one occasion, distinguishes humans from plants and animals; and through it we "subdue the earth," fulfilling God's command to our first parents.
Work has always had a lofty position within the Christian tradition. The Rule of Saint Benedict, for example, teaches that the life of the person pursuing holiness ought to be filled with work and prayer. Recognizing that "Idleness is the enemy of the soul," Saint Benedict saw to it that prayer and work were the two pillars upon which his monks lived their lives. More recently, Saint Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei (The Work of God), has inspired millions to use their daily tasks to grow in holiness and to sanctify their families and communities.
Work is good to the degree to which it upholds the dignity of the person. In his encyclical Laborem Exercens (On Human Work), Blessed John Paul II writes:
work is a good thing for man...it is useful or something to enjoy; it is also good as being something worthy, that is to say, something that corresponds to man's dignity, that expresses this dignity and increases it.... Through work...he also achieves fulfillment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes 'more a human being.'(9)
The Holy Father emphasizes, however, that if work is to be a "good thing for man" we must recognize that work is not an end in itself; that is, it should never be the reason for our being, as many people today tend to see it, but it should be directed at something greater. Ultimately, the work we do should bring about our own good and the good of others, and should not see anyone reduced to a mere cog in the machine or dehumanize him in other ways. The person, he says "is the purpose of work" and "work is 'for man' and not man 'for work.'" (6)
If the person is truly the center and purpose of labor, the work that is done gives glory to God. But we have to make sure that this happens. We should begin our work with prayer. Saint Benedict emphasizes this in the prologue of his Rule, "Every time you begin a good work, you must pray to Him most earnestly to bring it to perfection." His advice to begin every effort of labor with prayer is essential and helps the laborer to avoid what Saint Josemaría calls "professionalitis," an imprudent focus on professional interests and rewards. Labor imbued with prayer serves to unite us more closely with Christ.
This was the experience of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, a simple monk who spent most of his days cleaning pots and pans in the kitchen of the monastery doing what many would consider drudgery and punishment. But Lawrence constantly "practiced the presence of God" by regularly offering acts of praise, adoration, petitions, and thanksgiving in the midst of his work. Brother Lawrence serves as a model for us and his counsel found in The Practice of the Presence of God, serves us well: "Ask Him for His grace and offer Him your heart from time to time during the day in the midst of your work."
Few of us have vocations like that of Brother Lawrence or Saint Benedict. But we can all benefit from their teaching and example so that our professional vocation might help us along the road to holiness. Most of us are called to live in the world, but to not be of the world. As Saint Benedict wrote, "Your way of acting should be different from the world's way; the love of Christ must come before all else." Every baptized person, compelled by love of God and neighbor is called to seek, even within the workplace, to evangelize and proclaim the Kingdom of God. The workplace is a place for evangelization.
The primary way that we evangelize is by example - by living virtuously ourselves. Treating employees and coworkers well, praying before meals, showing genuine interest in every person, avoiding water cooler talk, speaking respectfully about the opposite sex, showing a sincere love of family, and even diligence and thoroughness in the work we do - all of these simple actions evangelize and open the door for more direct modes of evangelization.
So work, it seems to me, is a great good not least of all because it allows us to be in the world and to transform it right where we are. We don't have to work directly for the Church or the pro-life movement to evangelize society. The Church needs apostles, who are compelled by love of Christ and who are within the world to transform it from the inside out.
Let us be grateful for our work, and pray for those who are currently unemployed.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Arland K. Nichols
National Director, HLI America
