COST OF DISCIPLESHIP
To our brothers and sisters in the United States, I wish you all a wonderful Labor Day.
Labor Day marks for many the conclusion of the summer holiday. Many schools will be opening for the 2023/24 school year tomorrow. The school in my parish school has already opened since August 22nd. In any case, enjoy the warm weather.
Labor Day is a day to reflect upon the value of human labor and recalls its essential role in the vocation and destiny of human beings. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continued participation in God’s creative action. Labor Day provides an opportunity to give thanks to God for the gift of work which ‘anoints’ us with dignity. It is an opportunity to pray for those who must work in jobs that ignore their dignity and for those who’ve lost their jobs and are seeking work at this time.
Work is a means to become holy, it is a sanctifying activity. The laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven. Lumen Gentium (“Dogmatic Constitution on the Church”), Pope Paul VI, 1964 #31
The road to holiness for most of us lies in our secular vocations. We need a spirituality that calls forth and supports lay initiative and witness not just in our churches, but also in business, in the labor movement, in the professions, in education and in public life. Our faith is not just a weekend obligation, a mystery to be celebrated around the altar on Sunday. It is a pervasive reality to be practiced every day in homes, offices, factories, schools and businesses across our land. We cannot separate what we believe from how we act in the marketplace and the broader community, for this is where we make our primary contribution to the pursuit of economic justice.
Economic Justice for All, U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1986 #25.
The gospel reminds us of Jesus’s ministry and the cost of doing his Father’s will. To be a prophet is not an easy vocation. There is the danger of persecution, rejection and even death. The reading from the prophecy of Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth (Isaiah 61:1-2) and Jesus’s homily incensed the Nazarenes. What started out as a celebration of the hometown boy making good, ended with the Nazarenes leading Jesus out of the city to be thrown down a cliff for blasphemy.
May we continue to do the work of God. The word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path (Psalm 119:105). It is a sure foundation that we can build our lives upon (2 Timothy 3:16).
Have a wonderful Labor Day
