The Catholic Church values both work and those who labor, emphasizing that there is a sacred link between faith and dignified work.
More than simply making a living, good work provides insight into who people are as human beings. Man’s work contributes to God’s work of creation and should be done for his glory.
At the very beginning of the Bible, God works to create Heaven and Earth. Created in the image and likeness of God, man then participates in God’s creative activity through his own work.
After the fall, sin allows man’s view of work to change, experiencing it as difficulty and suffering.
If work is misused it can become oppressive, but if used properly work can be offered to God, participating in the the redemptive suffering of Jesus and joined to the sacrifice of the Mass.
Throughout its history, the Church has held labor in high esteem, respecting the dignity of workers and defending their rights, including fair wages.
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:
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
Workers and their labor have value:
Workers have rights and should be treated with respect:
In many passages, the Bible shows that work is one of the original conditions of the human being. When the Creator shaped man in his image and likeness, He asked him to till the land. It was because of the sin of our first parents that work became a burden and an affliction, but in the divine plan it retains its value, unaltered. The Son of God, by making Himself like us in all things, dedicated Himself for many years to manual activities, so that He was known as “the carpenter’s son”. The Church has always, but especially in the last century, shown attention and concern for this social context, as the many social interventions of the Magisterium testify and the action of many associations of Christian inspiration show; some of them are gathered here today and represent the whole world of workers.
Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, 19 March 2006
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
A message of love and peace:
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