Letter from the Pastor
-
September 1, 2024Like so many, I too question, how can this be Labor Day weekend already? Labor Day weekend is customarily the end of summer, the last chance to get away before school starts. High school and elementary school will start this week, most colleges and universities have already begun. And for most parents it’s The Most Wonderful Time of the year!
On this Labor Day when we celebrate and appreciate work, we have in our country a real labor problem: no workers.
Businesses are having difficulties either finding workers, or workers with a good work ethic. Restaurants ask their customers to be patient because they lack staff; there are empty tables and chairs that can’t be used. Some places displayed signs like “Pardon Our Wait Times” and “Thank Those Who Showed Up.” Even foreign youth who would normally work down at the Shore as part of the “Summer Work and Travel” visa program didn’t come to America this year, not interested.
A lot of people don’t see the dignity in working, or they simply don’t want to work. There is now a whole generation perhaps two, that would rather stay at home, play video games and “collect.”
The social teaching of the Church has always taught that unemployment is a social evil. Business and government leaders are urged to strive to maximize employment. We need to teach our young that work is not only necessary, but also vital to the health of the country and the individual.
Labor is not just a “thing” or a “commodity,” it is essentially a human reality that is good. Labor is an expression and extension of God’s creative act: man and woman, made in God’s image and likeness and charged with dominion over the world, to carry on God’s work of creation. Sure, labor also has its downsides (the resistance to work and the injustices done to labor), but those flaws come from sin, not work itself.
Social scientists have noticed this trend before Covid struck, but now even more so. Are we as a people losing the will to work?
As we celebrate today all the labor that made our country great, we always need to remember: America is a great nation because God has shed His grace on us, individually and as a society enabling us to enjoy the fruits of our labor and the blessings of freedom.
These two great goods are in peril now for many reasons, but not least because some of us have foolishly come to believe, contrary to our own best American tradition, that we can secure them without acknowledging God.
Work was an original blessing to Adam and Eve, and then the Fall happened where work became a curse, and then work was redeemed and sanctified by Christ. Our Lord was a worker; He worked at His father’s carpenter shop. Yet His greatest and ultimate work was our salvation.
Don’t be afraid to work, as Mother Teresa taught, “You have eternity to rest, work while here on earth.”
