Letter from the Pastor
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September 3, 2023Welcome to September, the ninth month of the year. It is the month of beginnings: the school year, the fiscal year, a new season of autumn, a new Jewish Year and other observances as well. The month begins with a national holiday, Labor Day.
Labor Day began in New York City on September 5, 1882. Twenty thousand workers marched in a parade up Broadway. They carried banners that read "LABOR CREATES ALL WEALTH," and "EIGHT HOURS FOR WORK, EIGHT HOURS FOR REST, EIGHT HOURS FOR RECREATION!" After the parade there were picnics all around the city. Workers and celebrants ate Irish stew, homemade bread and apple pie. At night, fireworks were set off. Within the next few years, the idea spread from coast to coast, and all states celebrated Labor Day. In 1894, Congress voted it a federal holiday.
Today we celebrate Labor Day with a lot less fanfare than in the past. Some cities have parades and community picnics, but most Americans consider Labor Day the end of the summer, enjoying the last three-day weekend. But it is time for us to reflect on the value and the holiness of our work.
Many people today find themselves in "dead-end" jobs, or in work they feel is without purpose or at best, frustrating. A recent poll suggested that only about half of American workers are satisfied with their jobs. For most people, throughout most of history, the experience of work has not been very pleasurable or even comfortable, let alone holy.
The book of Genesis tells us that God worked to create our world. At the end of the week, after His work was done, "God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). He worked for six days, and then rested to enjoy His labor on the seventh day, thus instituting the weekly Sabbath rest (Genesis 2:1–3).
God did not want to enjoy His creation alone; He wanted to share His world and its development with His greatest work, man and woman. God wanted to share in the joy of His work. God wanted Adam and Eve and their descendants to have the joy of tending the Garden of Eden, thus work was indeed a blessing, even a joy. However, we know the rest of the story; they sinned. Our first parents rejected God’s sovereignty over them and His way of life. What was a blessing is now looked at as a curse! Cursed is the ground for your sake;in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread (Genesis 3:17–19). Thus began the long difficult history of work, until the Lord came to earth and redeemed work! From then on, work once again became a blessing, a value, which gives dignity to the human person.
In working the earth, we give honor and glory to God and we continue the “work” of Adam. Work gives human beings a sense of dignity and self-respect, his true worth. It is necessary to work. It is not good just to sit around and do nothing; it is terribly harmful to the individual and to society.
Work leads to sanctity whether it be the husband who works in the office or factory, the wife who labors at home, at a career, or the day care center; the parents who work at their child’s sick bed, or the children at school. Even the retired folks who still help with the grandchildren, or pray for the world by attending daily Mass. Work done properly and with love, in union with God’s plan and Divine Will, leads to sanctity, a sharing of God’s work in this world. Remember that the next time you get dressed for work or for school.
And then you can rest from your labors. You deserve the rest, in fact, do it once a week, and let’s call it Sunday! If you don’t rest on Sunday, maybe you can start something new.
