By Chris D’Souza –
What might be the significance of May 4th when it comes to workers and work? The International Worker’s Day, observed on May 1st each year, has its origins in the Haymarket riot that took place at the Haymarket square on May 4th, 1886 in Chicago. It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour work day (they worked a straight 15 hour day), but ended with casualties on the side of the workers as well as the police. Eventually the working world started observing May 1st as International Worker’s Day in memory of this struggle.
Ever since the time of the Industrial Revolution and its aftermath of urbanization and consequent poverty, there has been a constant tension between the working class or proletariat, who continually clamoured for their rights and the business owners who generally sought to squeeze as much as possible out of the working class. They were often deprived of their basic rights as workers. You may be thinking.. well, so what’s this to do with the Church? Did she involve herself in this struggle? Did she see it relevant to get involved?
At a broader level, what has faith to do with business, economics and politics? Actually, a lot. At least so thought Pope Leo XIII in 1891 and in his wisdom devoted an entire encyclical “Rerum Novarum” (‘of the new things’) which primarily dealt with the social question or the relationship of ‘labour’ to ‘capital’. Since then subsequent Popes have dedicated several documents that dwell on the Social Doctrine of the Church and make it relevant to the times. Over time, the Social Doctrine of the Church has expanded and is supported by a few major principles which rest on the unchangeable cornerstones of human dignity, solidarity and subsidiarity and which can be applied in different ways according to situations and times. All of this culminated in The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which was published in 2004 by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace at the request of Pope St. John Paul II.
Pope St. John Paul II deserves special mention when it comes to promoting the cause of workers and the need for just remuneration, especially through his encyclical Laborem Exercens (‘On Human Work’), released in 1981, commemorating the hundredth year of the release of Rerum Novarum.
So what is the Church’s teaching on Work?
The Church believes that we are not just material beings and therefore our concerns cannot be reduced to merely economic ones. We have a spiritual component and ultimately a spiritual end. The Church has to be concerned about economic issues because she is concerned with the ‘whole’ person and makes a claim on the whole person. True development is integral development, a point which Pope Benedict XVI made powerfully in Caritas in Veritate. This is why our work life and our faith cannot be separated.
Work adds to man’s personal dignity. This involves what the Church describes as the ‘subjective’ dimension of work – it originates with man as the subject and involves both body and spirit. That is why it assumes such high value (Laborem Exercens, 6). When offered to God it is thereby sanctified or made holy.
Right from the beginning man has been called to work by subduing the earth (Gen 2:15). Pope John Paul II puts it this way, “man is the image of God partly through the mandate received from his Creator to subdue, dominate the earth. In carrying out this mandate, man, every human being, reflects the very action of the Creator of the universe” (Laborem Exercens,4) According to St. Thomas, work is a good thing because apart from providing for man’s needs, it actually transforms human nature by fostering the virtue of industriousness.
Work provides for our family and for the poor. Right from its inception, the fathers of the Church have strongly advocated sharing of wealth with the needy and even today the Church is the largest provider to the poor and alleviator of material poverty and human suffering. The aim is to lift people from less than human conditions (of both material and moral poverty) to flourishing in truly human conditions where human necessities are met, human life and dignity valued and goods are equitably shared. (Caritas in Veritate, 9)
Work needs to have a long-term focus. A focus on short term profits and exploitation or even exclusion of certain sections of society have led to a ‘use-and-throw’ mentality at the workplace (Evangelii Gaudium, 53).
And what does all of this practically mean for me as a professional? Here are some possible takeaways:
• My work is intimately connected with my prayer life. I cannot live my faith and work life in separate compartments. Each affects the other.
• To please God, I don’t necessarily need to get into ‘full time’ ministry. My work spot can become my pulpit and place of ministry. Whatever I do, I need to do with all intensity and excellence because it is ultimately done for God (Col 3:23)
• At work, honest labour and integrity can evangelize more effectively than mere preaching alone.
• My work doesn’t just concern my employer and God. It concerns my fellow employees too. It needs to become an instrument that aims at better conditions for all human beings who are connected to each other by ties of solidarity (Populorum Progressio, Pope Paul VI)
• Since work adds to man’s personal dignity, I need to remember that my co-workers are not just tools of production. They are also endowed with human dignity and my partners in progress.
• My colleagues are not competitors, but fellow team members working together to make the human family, the world-wide fellowship of humankind flourish (Pacem in Terris, 22)
• Leaders need to explore the concept of Servant Leadership, which seeks to put the growth and interests of the employee first. This is in line with the notion that authentic human development concerns the whole of the person (Caritas in Veritate, 11) and the example of Jesus.
• When in doubt or confused, we need to look to our moral compass which is the Word of God, the Social Doctrine of the Church and our individual conscience, which will together provide us with a proper and contextualized understanding of the issues we face and point the right way forward. Dr. Michael Naughton, Director of Catholic Studies of the University of St. Thomas has this to say, “Business leaders need to see things whole, not just parts. They need to see things in relation to each other (including inherent tensions between things) and begin to form judgments about the overall nature of realities they encounter.”
• Work is a blessing, not a curse. Redemption has set right what we lost during the fall and that covers the dimension of work too.
• Finally, lest we think we are alone in this effort to live a faith-filled work life, we need to remember that Jesus too was a worker (“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” Mt 13:55), who belonged to the working world.
Chris is a Leadership Coach with around 20+ years’ experience in People Development and Global Delivery in various organizations – IBM, HCL Technologies and Citibank. He is presently Director at Lead Strategic Development Pvt. Ltd. He conducts leadership programs for corporates, colleges and religious institutions too. He holds an MBA, is an ICF credentialed Coach and has a certificate in Catholic Social Doctrine from the Catholic University of America. He is on the core team of ‘God is in Control’ fellowship, a Bangalore based Catholic ministry dedicated to living one’s faith at the workplace. He can be contacted at [email protected]