Why Are You Working?
Why are you working? Do you enjoy your work? If so, you might be tempted to just think: I work because I enjoy my work. But what about if you don't enjoy your work. You'd still work, right?
Work is a fundamental part of God's plan, a basic part of what we do as God's creatures. We were made to work in this world. Work is not a punishment that God meted out after Adam and Eve sinned. Lots of Catholics think that, but it's not true. I've been talking about this a bit in recent posts. Now let's get into more specifics of why we work.
Let's look at work from the point of view of the family. Work makes it possible to establish a family. It's what maintains a family. For many of us, supporting our family and maintaining the way our family lives motivates us to work hard.
Working hard is OK as long as we don't make work an idol. We can be tempted to spend too much time and energy at our work, even when it's not necessary. Some of us work really hard to get more "stuff." That's not good. When we do that, work becomes an idol.
Or maybe we really enjoy our work - to the detriment of our family life. We spend too much time at work. That's not good either. Again, work becomes an idol.
But I suspect most of us simply work hard because we need to work hard - especially in these tough economic times. So let's assume we're not making work an idol. We're working hard either because we want to establish a family or maintain our family.
The Church teaches us that the family has social priority. It's more important than the state and more important that the company we work for. Of course, you wouldn't know this from the way the government acts, or many of our companies act, but it's the truth. The family comes first. In fact, the Church teaches that society and state institutions must respect the priority of the family- must in fact protect, appreciate and promote the family.
Now we all know this isn't always the way the state and society as a whole behaves, but that's the way it's supposed to be. So if we're working for our family, we've at least got our priorities straight.
As a matter of fact, the Church refers to the family as a "domestic society." We, as Catholic men at work, have the right to the fruit of our labor, not only as individuals, but as a member of a family. Not only that, but if our wives stay at home with our children, the work they do must be treated as equal to work outside the home.
Well, that's the way it's supposed to be. But, sadly, that's not the way our society works these days. Some of us work pretty darn hard and don't really make that much money. As for our wives who stay at home, well, the only ones who appreciate their work is us (at least I hope you appreciate your wife's work!).
The Church has been fighting against society's treatment of us, our families and our work from the beginning. Remember that Jesus redeemed us from our sins and liberated us from being slaves to the world, the flesh and the devil. Of course, we Catholics understand this, but the rest of the world doesn't always get it.
The early Church Fathers lived at a time when work was seen "opus servile." But the Fathers taught that work was "opus humanum." Simply, man wasn't made to serve work; work was intended to serve man.
From where I sit and work, we're still fighting that battle. We're still living in a world where someone thinks that we work for them.
Too many employers treat their workers as a commodity - a commodity that exists to produce profits for the company - for them. Often, the government taxes us so that much of our time is spent working to pay taxes for the government - for them.
Will this ever change? Will we live in a society that understands all this? I don't know. But we understand it.
That's why knowing why you're working is so important. It's why getting your priorities straight is so important. The more of us that know what work's supposed to be about, the better off we'll all be.
Meanwhile, it's back to work - for ourselves, our families...and for the greater glory of God.
Work is a fundamental part of God's plan, a basic part of what we do as God's creatures. We were made to work in this world. Work is not a punishment that God meted out after Adam and Eve sinned. Lots of Catholics think that, but it's not true. I've been talking about this a bit in recent posts. Now let's get into more specifics of why we work.
Let's look at work from the point of view of the family. Work makes it possible to establish a family. It's what maintains a family. For many of us, supporting our family and maintaining the way our family lives motivates us to work hard.
Working hard is OK as long as we don't make work an idol. We can be tempted to spend too much time and energy at our work, even when it's not necessary. Some of us work really hard to get more "stuff." That's not good. When we do that, work becomes an idol.
Or maybe we really enjoy our work - to the detriment of our family life. We spend too much time at work. That's not good either. Again, work becomes an idol.
But I suspect most of us simply work hard because we need to work hard - especially in these tough economic times. So let's assume we're not making work an idol. We're working hard either because we want to establish a family or maintain our family.
The Church teaches us that the family has social priority. It's more important than the state and more important that the company we work for. Of course, you wouldn't know this from the way the government acts, or many of our companies act, but it's the truth. The family comes first. In fact, the Church teaches that society and state institutions must respect the priority of the family- must in fact protect, appreciate and promote the family.
Now we all know this isn't always the way the state and society as a whole behaves, but that's the way it's supposed to be. So if we're working for our family, we've at least got our priorities straight.
As a matter of fact, the Church refers to the family as a "domestic society." We, as Catholic men at work, have the right to the fruit of our labor, not only as individuals, but as a member of a family. Not only that, but if our wives stay at home with our children, the work they do must be treated as equal to work outside the home.
Well, that's the way it's supposed to be. But, sadly, that's not the way our society works these days. Some of us work pretty darn hard and don't really make that much money. As for our wives who stay at home, well, the only ones who appreciate their work is us (at least I hope you appreciate your wife's work!).
The Church has been fighting against society's treatment of us, our families and our work from the beginning. Remember that Jesus redeemed us from our sins and liberated us from being slaves to the world, the flesh and the devil. Of course, we Catholics understand this, but the rest of the world doesn't always get it.
The early Church Fathers lived at a time when work was seen "opus servile." But the Fathers taught that work was "opus humanum." Simply, man wasn't made to serve work; work was intended to serve man.
From where I sit and work, we're still fighting that battle. We're still living in a world where someone thinks that we work for them.
Too many employers treat their workers as a commodity - a commodity that exists to produce profits for the company - for them. Often, the government taxes us so that much of our time is spent working to pay taxes for the government - for them.
Will this ever change? Will we live in a society that understands all this? I don't know. But we understand it.
That's why knowing why you're working is so important. It's why getting your priorities straight is so important. The more of us that know what work's supposed to be about, the better off we'll all be.
Meanwhile, it's back to work - for ourselves, our families...and for the greater glory of God.
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