The Catholic Church values both work and those who labor. There is a sacred link between dignified work and faith.
More than simply making a living, good work provides insight into who we are as human beings. Our work contributes to God’s work of creation and should be done for his glory.
If work is misused it can become oppressive, but if used properly work can be offered to God and joined to the sacrifice of the Mass.
In the United States and Canada, Labor Day honors workers and is celebrated on the first Monday in September. Although it is a civic holiday, it is also a time for Catholics to reflect on how our work aligns with the work of God.
Work is an opportunity to save souls:
Using the talents that God has given for his glory:
The LORD God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.
Genesis 2: 15
God is a worker and created man for work also:
Unlike ancient cultures, Christians embraced work:
By broadening certain aspects that already belonged to the Old Testament, Christianity brought about a fundamental change of ideas in this field, taking the whole content of the Gospel message as its point of departure, especially the fact that the One who, while being God, became like us in all things devoted most of the years of his life on Earth to manual work at the carpenter’s bench. This circumstance constitutes in itself the most eloquent “Gospel of work”, showing that the basis for determining the value of human work is not primarily the kind of work being done but the fact that the one who is doing it is a person. The sources of the dignity of work are to be sought primarily in the subjective dimension, not in the objective one. Such a concept practically does away with the very basis of the ancient differentiation of people into classes according to the kind of work done.
Pope John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, 14 September 1981
Workers and their labor have value:
Workers have rights and should be treated with respect:
The sign of man’s familiarity with God is that God places him in the garden. There he lives “to till it and keep it”. Work is not yet a burden, but rather the collaboration of man and woman with God in perfecting the visible creation.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 378
Man carries his cross daily in his work:
Work should be balanced with family and prayer:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
Finding God in silence:
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