M
MockSock
Guest
But to some extent, the devil and the Communist work ethic are right, work really is beneath the dignity of the human person. Yet this dignity was forfeited by Adam who had been entrusted with it on behalf of the whole human race, and is repeatedly forfeited by us each time we sin. Whereas we still have God as our Creator, and whereas all that God creates through love is good and therefore each human person bears a value in God’s eyes, nonetheless we no longer have the dignity, the worth, of God’s friendship and grace. We have rejected it as a race and as individuals. Only through baptism is that dignity restored once more.
Yet ours is an incarnational religion in which God makes use of His own creatures to bring about the restoration of those creatures. In other words, God works through people, things, and circumstances to restore to us what we have forfeited. When God’s Son came down to earth and took human form, He sanctified and gave meaning to the human condition. The very fact that the Son of God Incarnate applied Himself to manual labour as a carpenter means that human work became vested with meaning and value. Our Lord’s supreme work was, of course, the work of our redemption, incorporating all that was involved in His sufferings and death. The Cross, then, becomes the means by which human work is made holy and given a value.
But human work is still not meaningful, still does not have value, in and of itself. It is only sanctified when it is united to the work of the Son of God made Man. When we offer to God our work of each day, when we unite our work to the work of Our Lord on the Cross, when we are willing to work for His sake, and for the sake of our neighbour, then human endeavour and servile work is given meaning and becomes hallowed. This is why the Morning Offerings in our prayer books offer to God all that we will do each day.
Like all that is difficult or painful, like sickness, and disease, and death, work is not a good in itself, but Our Lord has given it meaning and value by making use of it for a greater good, by raising it up, and by sanctifying it through His own work which He, in turn, offers to His Father.
Although St Joseph lived and died before his Foster Son accomplished the work of our redemption, nevertheless he, St Joseph, embodied the value and meaning of human work as it was to become sanctified by Jesus, and, indeed, taught Jesus, in His humanity , how to work. In this, St Joseph has become the patron saint of all who work, especially those who work at servile labour or menial tasks, but indeed of all those who choose to offer their efforts and their tasks to God.
Yet ours is an incarnational religion in which God makes use of His own creatures to bring about the restoration of those creatures. In other words, God works through people, things, and circumstances to restore to us what we have forfeited. When God’s Son came down to earth and took human form, He sanctified and gave meaning to the human condition. The very fact that the Son of God Incarnate applied Himself to manual labour as a carpenter means that human work became vested with meaning and value. Our Lord’s supreme work was, of course, the work of our redemption, incorporating all that was involved in His sufferings and death. The Cross, then, becomes the means by which human work is made holy and given a value.
But human work is still not meaningful, still does not have value, in and of itself. It is only sanctified when it is united to the work of the Son of God made Man. When we offer to God our work of each day, when we unite our work to the work of Our Lord on the Cross, when we are willing to work for His sake, and for the sake of our neighbour, then human endeavour and servile work is given meaning and becomes hallowed. This is why the Morning Offerings in our prayer books offer to God all that we will do each day.
Like all that is difficult or painful, like sickness, and disease, and death, work is not a good in itself, but Our Lord has given it meaning and value by making use of it for a greater good, by raising it up, and by sanctifying it through His own work which He, in turn, offers to His Father.
Although St Joseph lived and died before his Foster Son accomplished the work of our redemption, nevertheless he, St Joseph, embodied the value and meaning of human work as it was to become sanctified by Jesus, and, indeed, taught Jesus, in His humanity , how to work. In this, St Joseph has become the patron saint of all who work, especially those who work at servile labour or menial tasks, but indeed of all those who choose to offer their efforts and their tasks to God.