by Brett Manero
It’s Labor Day in the United States. For many, it’s a day off, which is always a nice bonus. I don’t have much time for a longer piece but I had some thoughts during Mass today that I wanted to get out.
Everything can be viewed from a perspective of faith, or as the Church calls it, the eyes of faith. From the Catholic perspective, everything starts to make much more sense. We can look at art, science, history, economics, politics, and so much more from the eyes of faith.
This includes the dignity of work. Almost all of us work and have to work. It’s not always enjoyable, but it’s necessary. We have to work to earn our living in order to simply survive. For so much of human history, work has been difficult. Indeed, God warns the newly-fallen Adam that work will henceforth be difficult as a result of sin:
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken;
you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3: 17-19).
Because of sin, Adam’s work in the world will be difficult, challenging, and exhausting. It’s rather amazing to think that had the scandal of sin not happened, then work would have been none of these: not difficult or challenging, but rather fulfilling and even enjoyable. Such is sin: taking something which is incredibly good and twisting it into something ugly.
The Prophet Baruch offers a haunting lament of Adam’s sin in his book:
If you had walked in the way of God, you would be dwelling in peace for ever (Baruch 3:13).
This is address primarily to the nation of Israel, which is in exile in both Assyria and Babylon during Baruch’s time (c. 580 BC). But with Scripture, there is always a deeper meaning: it’s a message for Adam and by extent, all of the human race. Had sin never happened, humanity would live in peace, would excel and thrive, and would devote all of its work to goodness and virtue.
But we know how the story went. We see the effects of sin in work. All of us have had less-than-enjoyable jobs. All of us have suffered in one way or another at work. There are countless people who suffer daily in their jobs. This is why the Church looks upon workers as children of God: deserving of dignity, of fair pay, of kindness and respect. Indeed, kindness towards all is so vitally important, because we know not how much the other person is quietly suffering.
It’s amazing just how wise Scripture and the Church are. One of four sins that cries out to heaven for justice is defrauding the worker of rightful wages. The Letter of James makes this clear:
Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts (James 5:4).
Perhaps this is why slavery is such a wretched thing: it is the ultimate abuse of the dignity of the worker. Ultimately, Scripture and salvation history is the story of moving from slavery to freedom: first, moving from slavery in Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land (in the Old Testament), and moving from the slavery of sin and death to the freedom of eternal life (in the New Testament). God disapproves of slavery and the abuse of the worker so much that He went to extreme lengths to free the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. Not only that, but He allows the Hebrews to take with them massive amounts of Egyptian gold and treasures in order to compensate them for 400 years of unpaid labor:
The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked of the Egyptians jewelry of silver and of gold, and clothing; and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they despoiled the Egyptians (Exodus 12:35-36).
This is not the Hebrews “stealing” from the Egyptians, after Egypt has been decimated by ten plagues. This is justice, the “forgotten virtue:” Egypt must rightly reimburse the Hebrews for the cruelty of slavery.
If work therefore is so difficult with sin, then how do we bear it? As always, Christ shows us the way. Nothing in Scripture is accidental: the fact that Christ spends so many years of His life working as a carpenter is perfectly ordained in God’s Providence. As we know, Jesus worked as a carpenter in Nazareth before His public ministry began. He inherited this profession from his earthly foster, St. Joseph. There is debate about what being a carpenter entailed in ancient Judea: some would say that a carpenter worked with wood (as a modern-day carpenter does), while others would say that an ancient carpenter worked with stone. Perhaps it was both. Either way, there is massive prophetic meaning: if wood, this points to the wood of the Cross. If stone, it points to Christ building the New and Third Temple. With both, it shows the goodness of Creation: God created the world “and saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:12). Sin entered and corrupted it. Now, Christ is reshaping it not only into its original vision, but into something even better.
It’s fascinating to think that Jesus spent so many years of His young life working the carpentry shop alongside Joseph. Joseph would have trained Jesus in the profession. Jesus would have learned carpentry at a young age and perfected His mastery of it as He grew older. They both would have taken orders from customers. They would have grown tired from the toil of it. They would have worked hard to complete orders on time. They would have received special requests for projects from friends and neighbors. In all of this, Jesus worked with dignity, grace, and perfection. Indeed, as the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us, He experienced everything we have, without sinning (Hebrews 4:15). He shows us that work is good, work is gracious, working is redeeming.
This is the genius of St. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei who was inspired by Jesus and Joseph working as carpenters. He saw that because all of us have to work, we can see in it a path to growing closer to God. He saw the dignity of all people in their work:
”It makes no sense to classify men differently, according to their occupation, as if some jobs were nobler than others. Work, all work, bears witness to the dignity of man, to his dominion over creation. It is an opportunity to develop one’s personality. It is a bond of union with others, the way to support one’s family, a means of aiding in the improvement of the society in which we live and in the progress of all humanity.”
—St. Josemaría Escrivá, Christ is Passing By
Wishing all a blessed Labor Day and a rightly-deserved day off!
Also, why did I post the video of the seminary? It’s where I work and I felt like making a quick video of it. Enjoy!