Labor Day Weekend – not just the end of summer

Sep 2

Written By Keel Agency LLC

Letter from the Pastor

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sept. 4, 2022

Labor Day Weekend – not just the end of summer

In the early 19th Century, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, the average American worked 12-hour days, and often seven days a week, simply to make enough money to live. It was not uncommon for children as young as 5 or 6 to work in mills, factories, and mines. They, of course, earned even less than their adult counterparts. Raising the dignity of work, and the workers, Labor Day was initiated by the labor movement in the late 19th century to recognize the contributions and achievements of the American worker. It became a federal holiday in 1894.

When I was in college I read Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Laborem Excercens [trans. Through Work.] (The first word or two of a papal encyclical becomes its name.) Pope John Paul begins this encyclical by writing, “Through work man must earn his daily bread and contribute to the continual advance of science and technology and, above all, to elevating unceasingly the cultural and moral level of the society within which he lives in community with those who belong to the same family.” [LE ¶ 1]

Written in 1981, it is part of the largely unknown area of Catholic doctrine known as Catholic Social Teaching which addresses matters of human dignity and the common good.

Pope John Paul predicted that technology would change our culture in ways similar to those changes brought on by the industrial revolution itself. He spoke of environmental issues and our need to protect the environment. He also asserted that all natural resources are a gift from God and for the use of all people. He welcomed the economic movement to the developing world but noted the great employment shift that it would create.

For the pope and the church, the dignity of the human person always comes first. Technology is a great benefit, but as a tool, not the master. People are more important than things [LE ¶ 12] and labor always takes precedence over capital. He sets forth that the rights of workers include full employment and wages and benefits that support the worker and their family.

This encyclical also speaks of the importance of unions, the dignity of agricultural work, the rights of disabled persons, and the challenges and benefits of emigrates seeking work outside of their native land. For Pope John Paul, work holds a unique spirituality in that we share the activity of God, the creator, in our work and in our rest. [LE ¶ 25]

You can find Pope John Paul II’s Laborum Excercens at the Vatican website.

www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091981_laborem-exercens.html

As we bid farewell to yet another summer, let us also thank God for the work that we have done, and that we continue to do, and let our work always strive, with God’s grace, to continue to build the Kingdom of God in our midst.

Happy Labor Day!