Non-Labor Day

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fairness, Labor Day, pandemic, responsibility, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, workers

I have often thought that the holiday we celebrate today is named incorrectly because it sounds like just the opposite of what the intention is. The truth is that this holiday truly was initiated to protest unfair and unsafe working conditions for adults and even young children toward the end of the 1800s, at the height of the Industrial Revolution. There were many violent events in different cities that led to the idea of a “workingmen’s holiday” until Congress passed an act making Labor Day a law, signed by President Grover Cleveland on June 28, 1894.

Many of us have memories of history lessons in high school where names and terms like Eugene Debs, the Pullman Railway strike, or the Haymarket Riot of 1886 strike a chord. The story is often not as clear as the title, however, and the struggle for fairness practices overlooked as we eat our picnic foods and celebrate the end of the summer vacation season.

This year is different. There should be no large gatherings in parks or on beaches. We cannot celebrate in the same way because businesses are closing down and many more people find themselves unemployed by the day. The situation will not change until the virus which is ravaging the world is conquered. That will not happen until all people come to understand that we are each responsible for the health of all of us. Our “work” now is to care enough for the whole to discipline ourselves, to follow the instructions set out by health officials while waiting for a vaccine to be conceived and approved to end the pandemic.

My prayer for this day is that we will all come to recognize that this “work” is necessarily shared by all of us and it will be a united effort or we will fail. I am reminded of a song. We know it. It goes like this:

What the world needs now is love, sweet love. That’s the only thing that there’s just too little of…

Patron and Protector

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advocate, helper, obedient, patron saint, protector, St. Joseph, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, workers

On this feast of St Joseph I am drawn to the word “patron” as that is what we Sisters of St. Joseph call the man behind the name. Information about Joseph is almost nil. We know only from scant mention in Scripture and from legend that he was a quiet man, husband of Mary and human father to Jesus. Obedient to his dreams and visions, we find him trustworthy and faithful to his family and his God.

It is rather extraordinary that we who live in this time of an information glut but who are generally unwilling to take most things “on faith” would see Joseph as someone to be revered without much proof. It says to me that we are still a people willing to believe in what we have been taught of goodness as well as extrapolation from what is written, e.g.: Joseph’s dreams saved Mary’s reputation and actually her life as well. He saved Jesus from the violence of Herod and taught him to work in wood – a noble occupation. Thus, he must have been loving and courageous in a quiet sort of way.

Here are some words that describe a patron: promoter, friend, guarantor, helper, supporter, advocate, champion protector, supporter…We trust that Joseph was all those things. And others in the world believe all that of Joseph as well. In a list generated by the Franciscan Media website, we learn that the following countries and groups and life issues have been placed under the patronage (protection) of Saint Joseph: Belgium, Canada, carpenters, China, fathers, happy death, Peru, Russia, Social Justice, Travelers, The Universal Catholic Church, Vietnam and workers the world over. Oh yes, and Congregations of religious Sisters of St. Joseph everywhere.

So what is to be learned from all this? I might say that a person ought not to try to be something s/he is not but only be the best person possible in order to respond to the unique destiny offered by the Divine. And if one is blessed to be placed under the “patronage” of one as revered as Joseph, today should be a day of deep gratitude and celebration – as it always is!

Happy St. Joseph’s Day!

St. Joseph the Worker

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dignity of labor, grateful, honest labor, necessary services, social justice, St. Joseph the Worker, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, workers

Yesterday when I wrote about attitudes toward work I wasn’t thinking that it would be a segue to a reflection on St. Joseph the Worker. We celebrate the feast of St. Joseph as husband of Mary and human father of Jesus on March 19th but in 1955 another feast honoring Joseph, tekton (woodworker or carpenter), was proclaimed on this date by Pope Pius XII to inspire devotion among Catholics and as response to the Communist “May Day” celebration for workers.

In our day, the social justice teaching of the Church emphasizes the dignity of labor in any environment and calls for recognition of workers who provide necessary services to the community by assuring just wages and working conditions for all. Today, then, let us pray in thanksgiving for all workers: those who stand on assembly lines in factories and those in shops who repair all manner of tools and clocks and cars. Let us be grateful for bakers and bank tellers and those who bring food to our tables. (Add your own list here.) Let us always be grateful and rejoice in those who teach us the blessings of honest labor.

 

 

 

 

 

Of Work and Workers

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acceptance, attitude, character, dignity, fulfillment, Good Shepherd, happiness, John, love, pay, rich inner life, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, work, workers

There’s a passage in the “Good Shepherd” gospel from today’s lectionary (JN 10: 12-13) that has me thinking about the power of intention. It says the following: “A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.”

I have always been blessed with fulfilling work that I have, therefore, done motivated by love – of the people I encounter and the work itself. In that way, I understand the shepherd who “knows” his sheep, able to tell one from another and willing to do whatever it takes to keep them safe. But I am thinking this morning about people who work in jobs that are onerous, yet necessary to allow even a subsistence lifestyle. I presume it would take a very strong will to be able to be happy in such a situation. It would necessitate digging deep to find a purpose for getting up in the morning. It has been said that “Happiness is an inside job.” Thus, there must be something deeper than the work itself to motivate the worker.

As I write, I recognize that this truth is universal and is definitely an aspect of one’s character and attitude. Think about the clerks in a store that you frequent. Two people who are paid the same salary may be quite different in the way they greet you or work the checkout counter. It’s the same for heads of large corporations. So while I would like to see a more equitable pay scale and better conditions for workers, I come to the conclusion that if one has a rich inner life anything can be a blessing if it moves us toward acceptance and even love.

Let us pray today for an appreciation of the dignity of work and all workers as we examine our own attitudes toward what is our own work in the world. Let our intention be the building up of community in whatever we do and what we achieve, not for our own glory but for the good of all and the praise of God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s Fair?

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fairness, generosity, generous, Jesus, Matthew, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, vineyard, workers

I’ve often heard the sentence, “All’s fair in love and war.” I can’t say that I ever thought about it much but this morning I wonder how that could be true in war. There are so many atrocities happening now in the world in places where “war” is being played out while not even declared as such. Is even “the rule of law” in conflict even fair? And what about love? People bandy that term around and often use it as a reason to take advantage or manipulate someone as if s/he were property. Real love, the example of which Jesus came to give us, is never like that. Real love is poured out in generosity spilling over the loved one in waves that never ebb. It’s manifested in all sorts of ways, mundane and heroic.

This morning Jesus is talking about generosity (MT 20:1-16) in a story that “hits us where it hurts” – in the pocketbook. It’s the parable about the workers in the vineyard who’ve been working all day and who, upon seeing those who only worked an hour because no one had hired them for the day, are expecting more than the agreed upon wage that they saw was paid to the latecomers. Imagine (or just read about) their reactions when they received just what they had agreed upon in the morning – the same amount that the latecomers had received. Jesus is trying to teach lessons about both justice and love here. He gave the early birds the fair wage that they had agreed upon and had there not been those others who showed up (were invited) at the last hour everyone would have gone home happy. The question that Jesus asks them as they grumbled is one we might ask when we are faced with what sometimes seems unfair:

Are you envious because I am generous?

I think we’re invited this morning to think about God’s preference for generosity over fairness in the way we treat others. Fairness is definitely better than stinginess but sometimes giving just a little bit more is good for the giver as well as the receiver. Going out of ourselves (not just with money, of course) can be a letting go of ego that opens our hearts and minds, changing our world just a little bit more each time.