Hi All,
I have been chronically un/under employed for the past two years. My wife tells me not to worry but I am beginning to lose all hope
Dear BigZen,
As a man who has experienced a very protracted period of unemployment owing to ill-health, I wholly sympathise with your present plight. Life can begin to look increasingly bleak and it is so very easy to become thoroughly demoralized and dehumanized as a consequence of having no work.
What often doesn’t help matters is the, sometimes, uncharitable and harsh attitudes towards the unemployed within our parishes. If we have been schooled in the so-called ‘Protestant Work Ethic’ (industry, honesty, resourcefulness, thrift, etc.), then there may be a tendency to despise those who are loosers in the struggle to survive, as if somehow they are to blame. Having only quite recently converted to Catholicism, I am not really sure as to what extent this sort of attitude prevails within the Church. People being people I am certain that it does exist, but I have not encountered it so far. Of course it goes without remark that there will always be a
small minority who have no intention of working and who prefer to sponge on the community. However, it cannot be emphasized enough that such persons constitute a minority. The vast majority of the unemployed want nothing more than to work, but, alas, simply cannot secure a suitable position. There are many reasons for this; sometimes they are the victims of a deep recession or are unable to cope with the stress engendered by the new technology.
There is need therefore for more Christian compassion and sympathy towards those who find themselves unemployed and more pastoral care. Some people in our parishes need to repent for looking with disdain upon the unemployed in their midst. They need to remember that the words ‘workless’ and ‘worthless’ are not synonymous. In any event there should be, at least within the Catholic community, no stigma attached to unemployment. Moreover, St. Paul’s often cited dictum, ‘if a man will not work, he shall not eat’ (2 Thess. 3: 10) was addressed to voluntary not involuntary unemployment, to the indolent not the redundant.
Thus we need to lovingly embrace and support, e.g. financially or by invitations to supper, the unemployed in our parish churches; otherwise our pious talk about ‘ministering to the needs of the Body of Christ’ becomes a sick joke.
Big Zen may I take this opportunity to commend you to our heavenly Father’s loving care and protection at this time. May He strengthen and support you through this very difficult period when you find yourself without work. May He prosper all your diligent efforts to secure gainful employement and may you be set free from want and anxiety to work in peace and security; may you soon have employment and the assurance of a livelihood. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Warmest good wishes and prayers,
Portrait
