May 1 is the International Workers’ Day worldwide. On such an important day one is invited to reflect on the inherent value of human work. In his encyclical celebrating the ninetieth anniversary of the first and pioneering social encylical ‘Rerum Novarum’ by Pope Leo XIII, the late Pope John Paul II, in ‘Laborem exercens identifies’, hails and promotes the human person’s ability to work. ‘Work is one of the characteristics that distinguish man from the rest of creatures, whose activity for sustaining their lives cannot be called work. Only man is capable of work, and only man works, at the same time by work occupying his existence on earth’ (§ 1). This was also the stance ardently defended in a recent TV programme, Erga’ Lura, conducted by Edward Spiteri.
In its very first chapter, the Bible presents an exhaustive catechesis on human work. When God created the human person, in his own image, as male and female, he gave them the subsequent mandate: ‘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… Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food’ (Gen 1, 28-30). The ensuing life implications of this passage include: (1) Man is created to extend his existence by procreating himself as a human being together with the work of his hands; (2) through working responsibly Man facilitates creation’s inbuilt capacity to perpetuate its existence and preservation; and (3) by his work, Man glorifies the Creator as the fons et culmen of his working activity.
Unfortunately, when man lost his loving relationship with God, the Merciful and Just Worker, work ended up being an oppressive vehicle for exerting power, domination and discrimination over the weaker members of society. Rather than valuing and advocating the human person’s inalienable dignity through the effective use of her/his God-given talents, thanks to sin, work became reductive in its outlook and orientation towards life. What mattered now was the ‘shameful gain’ (1 Pt 5, 2) of the few not the individual and common good. As a result, instead of creating communion in solidarity, work became a destructive tool for instigating and supporting class struggles. This unhappy sequence of events led to the catastrophic loss of work’s decency.
In view of this decadent situation, on 1 May 2000, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Workers, Pope John Paul II pleaded for “a global coalition in favour of ‘decent work’”. Pope Benedict XVI, in ‘Caritas in Veritate’, took up the decent work issue and expounded it. For the German Pontiff, decent work ‘means work that expresses the essential dignity of every man and woman in the context of their particular society: work that is freely chosen, effectively associating workers, both men and women, with the development of their community; work that enables the worker to be respected and free from any form of discrimination; work that makes it possible for families to meet their needs and provide schooling for their children, without the children themselves being forced into labour; work that permits the workers to organise themselves freely, and to make their voices heard; work that leaves enough room for rediscovering one’s roots at a personal, familial and spiritual level; work that guarantees those who have retired a decent standard of living’ (§ 63).
When addressing the elders of the Christian community, Saint Peter exhorts them to carry out their assigned shepherding task with willingness, eagerness and by being examples to their flock (see 1 Pt 5, 2-3). Similarly, every worker is called to work with willingness and eagerness, thus setting a convincing example for her/his fellow workers to follow. Constraint, shameful gain and domination should give way to dialogue, just wages, and participation within the working domain. Since the value of human work resides in the human person’s cooperation in God’s activity of creation, may we, as workers, always bear in mind this motivating and encouraging insight of the French Jesuit philosopher and theologian, Pierre Teihlard de Chardin, as our unwavering guide: ‘The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of one’s self to others.’ Fortunately enough, human work offers us this unparalleled opportunity!
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap