Spirituality of work is a phrase that sometimes elicits a bemused reaction. After all, putting together words with such divergent meanings might seem nonsensical, unless we take a closer look:

Work an activity, mental or physical, paid or unpaid, and done in any number of locales, including a formal workplace or at home.

Spirituality in a Christian sense refers to our relationship with God and the ways that we seek to deepen that connection.

Put the two meanings together for a definition of spirituality of work an understanding that all human activity presents us with an opportunity to grow in our relationship with God.

St. John Paul II expressed it similarly in his encyclical Laborem Exercens (On Human Work): It follows that the whole person, body and spirit, participates in [work]. An understanding of the spiritual aspects of work will help all people to come closer, through work, to God and deepen their friendship with Christ in their lives.

We find the entirety of St. John Paul IIs theology of work in this 1981 encyclical. It was written to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Pope Leo XIIIs encyclical Rerum Novarum (On Capital and Labor), considered to be the first of the Catholic Churchs social teaching documents.

St. John Paul II wrote Laborem Exercens at a time he expressed to be the eve of new developments in technological, economic and political conditions [that] will influence the world of work and production no less than the Industrial Revolution of the last century. We can only stand in awe at the truth of his prediction.

In this document, St. John Paul II addressed many issues that have come to the forefront in our present day: increasing technological advances; the rights and dignity of workers; issues of work, society and family; and conflict between labor and capital. To help us find the right path through this minefield of modern work, he offered us wisdom from the Churchs teaching.

St. John Paul IIs discourse on work begins at the beginning, in the Garden of Eden: The Church finds in the very first pages of the Book of Genesis the source of her conviction that work is a fundamental dimension of human existence on earth.

Created in Gods image and likeness, man receives a mandate to subdue, to dominate, the earth and shares by his work in the activity of the Creator. This awareness that mans work is a participation in Gods activity ought to permeate even the most ordinary everyday activities, said the pope.

We know that we are created in Gods image, but have we thought, really deeply, of the consequences and responsibilities of that truth? It is a truth that implies a partnership with God. This partnership is not just a Sunday thing.

We are to live out our faith everywhere we find ourselves, and that includes the workplace.

The Second Vatican Councils pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes decried the split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives [that] deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age. This strong statement should make us pause to consider if we live with such a split in our own lives.

St. John Paul IIs theology elsewhere presented work as a blessing, not a hardship: Work corresponds to Gods design and will. Work is a primordial blessing from the Creator, an activity permitting people to realize themselves and to offer service to society.

Again, in Laborem Exercens, he helped us realize that work has both an intrinsic and extrinsic value: Through work man must earn his daily bread and contribute to the continual advance of science and technology and, above all, to elevating unceasingly the cultural and moral level of the society.

Burkey is adjunct professor of pastoral theology at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey.

Tags: Gaudium et Spes, Laborem Exercens, Spirituality of work

Category: Leading With Faith

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Understanding a spirituality of work - The Catholic Spirit