Our Rational Nature Calls On Us to Work Not To Retire

Building on the idea from our last post that maybe it's better not to think of retiring at all, we'll continue digging into the true nature of work. But before we do, perhaps we can begin with a contrasting view of work that can, for some, maybe many of us, be all to familiar - a primarily negative concept of work, as meaning an absence of unemployment, where:

...a job is something which the individual is entitled to receive from the community rather than something which he does for the community, and our gloomy recognition that it will usually be monotonous and soul-destroying, filling the worker's time and providing him with a livelihood, but otherwise giving him little personal satisfaction or none. (from The Rule of Peace: St Benedict and the European Future, by Christopher Derrick)

The flip side of this negative view is what one might consider the pollyanna view of "You can be anything you want to be," where work is the great fulfillment of all your dreams - or some such spawn of "postivie thinking."

(Yes, this may seem like a kind of "heresy" to those who sincerely think we can be anything we want to be. But the fact is, this works out for some of us. From personal experience, it may not work out for all of us. And if it doesn't, it's not the end of the world; nor does it signal a lack of effort or a failure. Really.)

Two extremes, perhaps, but presented to make a point. Neither gets to the real meaning and essence of work. And so, as an antidote, we continue, as we did last time, with one of our posts from 2016 to help us dig deeper into a more meaningful and substantial understanding of work: 

 

Let's now look at how work preserves our lives and satisfies our material and spiritual needs. We begin by considering how our rational nature calls us to work.

In Working Your Way into Heaven, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski reminds us that we come into this world basically unprepared. While our parents or guardians may teach us to walk and talk, it's when our reason awakens that we begin to perceive our potential in life. God, who created us body and mind, has given us a rational nature to help us fend for ourselves. We do this when we work...

...(Work is) the indispensable means for the maintenance and preservation of life. As a result of this, everything by which man is served is prepared by work for direct use.

Just look around to see the fruits of your labor and the labor of your fellow man. Our work gives value to things, adapts them to our needs.

...work gives us a chance to satisfy hunger and thirst; it shelters us, raises a roof over our heads; it makes human life possible, easy, and pleasant.

But we need to dig deeper to find the full measure of our work. Yes, our physical needs motivate us to produce both the bare necessities as well as those material goods that make life easier. But our rational nature pushes us beyond these basics.

...work leads to the complete development of our spiritual powers and to the perfecting of man.

Just as Christianity elevated the social status of work, so too our reason raises the value of our work beyond material profit.

...because work is the duty of the rational being, man, and because it is for him the way to reveal and develop all his spiritual gifts.

This is why we want to engage all our skills and talents, to the greatest possible extent, in our work.

Our mind, will, feeling, and physical strength share in work. We have really got the ideal picture of the working man when none of these gifts is barred from participation in the course of work. The upsetting of the balance will always be detrimental to a man and even to his work itself.

It's the rare job that perfectly engages our mind, will, feeling and strength. But we can and should do our best to see to it that we engage in our work such that it benefits from the full spectrum our our human nature. If you've ever directed the efforts of a group of men in a project that requires physical exertion, you know that engaging their minds in the project by clearly laying ouy objectives works much better than trying to direct or dictate every movement of each individual. If on the other hand you sit in front of computer screen all day, you know how important it is to engage yourself physically from time to time, even if it's simply getting up and waling around. Our minds work a lot better with a healthy, energized body rather than one that's stiff, achy, and tired.

Summing up,

...work has a human character only when all of our faculties are joined together in it.

 

So, again, does "retirement" - as commonly understood - fit into this picture?