By Daniel S. Mulhall | Catholic News Service

What is your attitude toward work? Do you work in order to live, or do you live in order to work? How do you express yourself through your work? Do you feel that you accomplish something of value most days, or do you feel that your labor is meaningless toil that only achieves your minimal paycheck?

These questions reflect some of the many attitudes that people have toward work.

Catholic social teaching has much to say about the importance of work for the human person. While recognizing that people often perform jobs that may seem unimportant or even meaningless, the church's teaching also notes that work helps to shape our character. Work also helps us to participate more actively in God's creative activity.

The importance of work is found throughout the first social encyclical, "Rerum Novarum" (On Capital and Labor), published by Pope Leo XIII in 1891. The document was written when workers were moving from farming and crafting to being cogs on factory assembly lines.

Pope Leo identifies a series of rights that every worker is owed, including the right to a fair wage, reasonable work hours, decent working conditions and being able to form unions to negotiate for them with business owners.

According to the pope, these rights flow from the worker's dignity: "Now, when man thus turns the activity of his mind and the strength of his body toward procuring the fruits of nature, by such act he makes his own that portion of nature's field which he cultivates -- that portion on which he leaves, as it were, the impress of his personality; and it cannot but be just that he should possess that portion as his very own, and have a right to hold it without any one being justified in violating that right."

The fullest presentation of the church's social teaching about the dignity of work is found in St. John Paul II's 1982 encyclical, "Laborem Exercens" ("On Human Work"). In this magisterial teaching, St. John Paul builds upon the foundation laid down by "Rerum Novarum," published 90 years earlier.

The encyclical begins by stating the importance of work for society. For it is only through work that we earn a living, not just for ourselves but for a family. It is where we increase knowledge, where we help advance society through science and technology, and elevate "unceasingly the cultural and moral level" of society.

Through work we fulfill our God-given responsibility to make the world a better place and to make visible "the invisible God." According to St. John Paul, it is through work that we are distinguished from the rest of creation and fulfill our "very nature."

St. John Paul writes that the church finds the source of the conviction that "work is a fundamental dimension of human existence" in the first few lines of the Book of Genesis. Being created in God's image and likeness, men and women are charged with being fruitful and filling the earth. The pope further states that in carrying out this mandate, "every human being reflects the very action of the Creator of the universe."

What makes work valuable is that it is done by the efforts of a human being, and not by the quality of what is produced or whether it involves great toil. When we turn our minds to work, we imbue it with dignity. The most meaningless of jobs can have great worth simply by the dignity of the workers who labor.

St. John Paul writes, "The primary basis of the value of work is man himself, who is its subject."

Thus, work "is for man" and not man "for work." Finally, "it is always man who is the purpose of the work, whatever work it is that is done by man -- even if the common scale of values rates it as the merest 'service,' as the most monotonous, even the most alienating work."

In "Laborem Exercens," St. John Paul notes how work today is often dehumanizing, treating what the worker produces and sells to the employer for a wage as "merchandise".

According to the St. John Paul's writings, such thinking misapplies the teaching of Genesis. What is important is the person doing the work, not what the work produces. Work exists as a way for humans to express their God-given dignity; their dignity is not determined by the work they do.

That said, work is most valuable when it allows us to express this dignity and helps us to recognize that we are created with this dignity:

"If one wishes to define more clearly the ethical meaning of work, it is this truth that one must particularly keep in mind. Work is a good thing for man -- a good thing for his humanity -- because through work man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves fulfillment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes 'more a human being.'"

In so doing, we share in God's work of creation.

Mulhall is a catechist for adults who lives in Laurel, Maryland.

The holy family, and us, in search of the dignity of work

By Mike Nelson | Catholic News Service

Tables and chess sets. Bookends and treasure boxes. All fashioned from good, solid wood, usually oak. Cut and shaped, sanded and smoothed, nailed and glued, polished and stained and lacquered, and sometimes enhanced with a velvet lining.

The works of human hands. And boy, do they last.

They were made by my wife's late Uncle Joe, a kind and gentle man for whom woodworking was more hobby than occupation. But he spent a good deal of time at it, and he took pride in doing it well -- as is evident in the wonderful creations that today grace the homes of family and friends.

Like the little, dark brown lamp table that rests in my peripheral view as I type this. It's maybe a foot high and a foot square, with a lower shelf for small books. Hardly imposing, and neither was Uncle Joe. But there is a noble simplicity and dignity about this little table, which speaks to the noble simplicity and dignity of Uncle Joe, and of the work he did.

Thinking of Uncle Joe reminds me of his saintly namesake who also worked with wood and, like Uncle Joe, raised a family: St. Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, the patron saint of all workers and the principal subject of "Redemptoris Custos," St. John Paul II's 1989 apostolic exhortation.

"Work was the daily expression of love in the life of the family of Nazareth," noted St. John Paul in the document. "At the workbench where he plied his trade together with Jesus, Joseph brought human work closer to the mystery of the redemption."

And so Jesus -- known as "the carpenter's son" -- most certainly knew about the role and the dignity of work from both his parents: Joseph, toiling as a carpenter, and Mary, maintaining a household.

"If the family of Nazareth is an example and model for human families, in the order of salvation and holiness," said John Paul, "so too, by analogy, is Jesus' work at the side of Joseph the carpenter."

Most of us -- I would hope all of us -- have an innate desire to contribute in a positive way to the good of society, to help make the world a better place through the work we do, and not simply to earn a wage to support our families and pay our bills.

We work because that is a part of who we are, because that is who God, through his divine work, created us to be.

"More than mere obligation," said Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, "human labor has a value and worth in itself because it represents a participation in the very creative action of God."

When we are without work -- as I have been, on occasion -- we feel less whole, like a part of us is missing -- our dignity, our value, our self-esteem. Such times, for me, are times for prayer.

Not just a selfish prayer that says, "Lord, please let me find a job." There is also a prayer of appreciation and gratitude:

"Lord, I am grateful you have blessed me with skills and abilities to do good work, and to know what it means to contribute to the world. Please, in my time of struggle, let me not forget that there are others without work who seek to contribute. Help them as well.

"And let me always appreciate and respect not only the work that others do, but the God-given dignity of each person who works in his or her own way -- like Uncle Joe, and St. Joseph -- to make the world better and more beautiful for us all.

Nelson is former editor of The Tidings, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.”

Work, its benefits and pitfalls

By Marcellino D'Ambrosio | Catholic News Service

The way we often talk about work, you'd think it was a scourge. But that's not God's plan for work, according to Scripture. It is curious that work is one of the very first things we find in the Bible. The first chapter of Genesis is all about God's artistic work in the six days of creation.

In the next chapter, work becomes a gift from God to man. God sets Adam in the garden to look after it and care for it. Of course, this garden happens to be paradise, and so the work is pleasant. This chapter, however, contains another important teaching on the nature and value of work. God rests on the seventh day after his work of creation is completed.

This serves as a pattern for men and women who are later commanded to follow God's example. Work has great value, but not ultimate value.

The Sabbath is a gift to humanity -- a weekly occasion to rest from work, enjoy and give thanks for the fruits of human labor and divine generosity. Throughout the Bible, we find great emphasis on observing this Sabbath with rest. We are cautioned to make sure that work does not become greedy and compulsive.

Yet if work is so good, why do so many dread it? The third chapter of Genesis supplies the answer. Sin not only spoils man's relationship with God, it also disrupts humanity's relationship with the earth and corrupts the vocation to work.

Jesus comes to redeem every aspect of human life, including work. He takes the most despicable task of all, the washing of another's feet, and makes that the sign of the kind of servant leadership that is to be the hallmark of his disciples (Jn 13).

In the New Testament we also find the same balance regarding work as we see in the Old Testament: Work is a blessing, but it never should become frantic compulsion.

When Jesus comes to visit his friends in Bethany (Lk 10), he gently rebukes Martha for her frenetic fussing and praises the sister who knew enough to rest at his feet and listen to his words.

Yet the hard pastoral work of the apostles and elders is praised in the New Testament. And Matthew 10:10 reminds us that "the laborer deserves his keep."

But St. Paul, despite his right to financial support from the church, takes pride in the fact that he voluntarily worked with his hands "night and day" so as not to be a burden on the community. In this he sets an example for us all: "If anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat" (2 Thes 3:10).

Paul's most important advice has to do with the proper motivation for working hard. Ultimately, Christians work neither for money nor for approval: "Whatever you do, do from the heart, as for the Lord and not for others" (Col 3:23).

D'Ambrosio is co-founder of Crossroads Productions, an apostolate of Catholic renewal and evangelization.

Food for Thought

Work and the dignity humans find in it long has been part of Catholic social teaching.

"Work is more than a paycheck; it helps raise our families, develop our potential, share in God's creation and contribute to the common good," said Bishop Stephen E. Blaire, of Stockton, California, in a 2012 Labor Day statement about "Placing Work and Workers at the Center of Economic Life."

Bishop Blaire asked others to work toward a reality of providing work for all, especially urging "people of faith" to stand in solidarity with those who struggle to meet the most basic of needs.

He said society needs "to reflect on the moral and human dimensions of too much poverty and not enough work. We are called to work together -- business, labor and government -- to build a productive economy that offers opportunity, creates jobs, generates growth, protects the dignity of working people, respects the family and promotes genuine human development."