Musings on the Dignity of Work

Few people enjoy looking for a job. It's one of the most depressing bits of drudgery we can find ourselves involved, regardless of whether or not we're employed while we look. I'm presently seeking a new job despite having two part time jobs at the moment. Instead of another part time job or one one that pays like one I'm seeking a full time job. Yeah, me and everyone else it seems. It's an open secret that the economy is in a pretty rough place at the moment, with economic growth stagnant and job creation middling along at a snails pace.

Catholic Social Teaching formally teaches that the economy must serve people first. The Bishops and the Magisterium have a lot to say on this subject but in the end it all boils down to the radical idea that all things in life must place human beings and their liberty to pursue family and God first. We are not cogs in a machine, regardless of what the corporate capitalists or socialist will say. Man has a purpose, which is to know and love God in this life so we may be perfected and join him in the next.

They say you can't run an economy on the pursuit of God. Perhaps not, but it seems you can't run an economy based on pursuing nothing but profits either. There are those that say that work is the pure purpose of man and that we were made for work. CST teaches the opposite: that work was made for man. We are perfected in work. Work is almost sacramental in nature. How do we know this? The Bible begins with God working. In all things we are to emulate God. Our missions as Christians is to become Christ-like, to be Christ in the world. One means we have is work. Thus we work, either for ourselves or others, and put our all into the work we do, which when it is right-ordered perfects us. Work brings us closer to God.

This of course means that we have duties in the work we do. Christians shouldn't engage in work that separates us from God, work that is sinful in nature. I'd be suspicious of Christian abortionists or Christian strippers or any having any other job whose work by its very nature is offensive to God and violates His commandments. This is doubly true for Christians in political work. Can a Christian work for a socialist? I doubt it, given the history of hostility towards the faith by socialist governments, even the supposedly democratic ones.

Funny enough the formal teaching of the Church relies on property ownership being widespread. Employers are encouraged to share ownership of the organization with employees. Individually we should be owning land or shops or whatever other 'means of production' is available to us. The idea is to be both economically independent and interdependent -- that is, we must recognize that through work we build the Church through greater brotherhood with our neighbors. That's the rub: work brings us together. As in everything in Catholic Social Teaching and in the faith more broadly, it's about relationships. So pray that I find work as I continue looking and applying. I'm not being super picky, other than avoiding problematic jobs.