Work is a human
vocation. To work
is indeed a calling.
Through work, man
must earn his daily bread. Without work, it is
not possible to sustain life
in order to reach the full
development of one’s
personality. Work is the
duty of man which arises
from the very needs of man’s
life. Only work that is well
done and lovingly completed
deserves the praise of the Lord. It is no good offering to God something
that is less perfect than what our human
limitations permit.
It is not true that man’s duty to work is a
consequence of original sin. From the beginning of
creation, man had to work. We remember that God
commanded Adam and Eve to “conquer the earth.”
He put them in the garden of Eden to cultivate it, that is,
to work on it and make it productive. (cfr. Genesis
2:15). Work binds man to man. Work teaches us
mutual service and gives us a chance to perform
it. Through associating with our neighbors, we
come to feel the need of service—to want to
serve others. This means to want to serve our
family, our neighbors, our fellow workers, our
country.
Work, which teaches us love, leads us to a sense
of our need for one another. Work also teaches us the
feeling of dependence and humility. The sense of our
need for one another in a human society somehow
brings us to new possibilities of development through
the adjustment, division, and intensification of combined
human efforts. This is the social bond and the
brotherhood of people through work.
We also remember that the Son of God
became one of us and worked like us. He did the
humble work of a carpenter. And in doing so, our
Lord Jesus Christ ennobled all human work. Our
work contributes not only to our material wellbeing.
It also contributes to the salvation of the
world. It is not only paghahanapbuhay; it is also
pagbibigay-buhay. It helps not only in the
salvation of the economy but also helps the
economy of salvation. We can translate the
Gospel in carrying out our everyday tasks and
responsibilities in our respective line of work. It is faith in God, faith in
ourselves, and faith in the
government that can move us
to be productive. Our efficiency in
work can contribute much to the
credibility of our efforts.
Though we should humble
ourselves, we can also take a legitimate
pride in ourselves and in our work.
No matter how small our part is in the
great undertaking of rebuilding this
nation, still without us, the whole
system will not work properly. It is
through the small contribution of each
one of us that we can complete our
task.
Man is made to be in the
visible universe an image and
likeness of God Himself, and man
is placed in the world in order to
subdue the earth. (Genesis 1:28).
From the beginning, therefore, man
is called to work. Work is one of
the characteristics that distinguish
man from the rest of creatures,
whose activity for sustaining their
lives cannot be called work. Only
man is capable of work. Only man
works, at the same time by work
he occupies his existence on earth.
Thus work bears a particular mark
of man and of humanity, and it is
the mark of a person operating within a community of persons.
When man, who had been
created “in the image of God…,” hears
the words: “Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the earth and subdue it,” even though
the words do not refer directly and
explicitly to work, beyond any doubt,
these words indicate that work is an
activity for man to carry out in the world.
Man is the image of God partly through
the mandate he received from his
Creator to subdue and to dominate the
earth. Work then presupposes a specific
dominion by man over the earth, and in
turn, it confirms and develops this
dominion. As man, through his work,
becomes more and more master of the
earth, and as he confirms his dominion
over the visible world, again through
his work, man nevertheless remains in
every case and at every phase of this
process within the Creator’s original
ordering. Indeed, work is a human
vocation.
Work is a human
vocation. To work
is indeed a calling.
Through work, man
must earn his daily bread. Without work, it is
not possible to sustain life
in order to reach the full
development of one’s
personality. Work is the
duty of man which arises
from the very needs of man’s
life. Only work that is well
done and lovingly completed
deserves the praise of the Lord. It is no good offering to God something
that is less perfect than what our human
limitations permit.