XXIII Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

Article for Blog of Dcn. Thomas Tortorella 9/4/22 XXIII Sun. of Ord. Time

© All rights reserved by Fr. Arthur F. Rojas 9/3/22 ©

 Today we have a recurring guest blogger:  Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, administrator of PRESENTATION OF THE B.V.M CHURCH, PORT EWEN AND SACRED HEART CHURCH, ESOPUS. For more information on this parish, check out their website at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary & Sacred Heart Churches - Port Ewen - Esopus, NY (presentationsacredheart.org) 

            Although science teaches us that the season of summer expires with the autumnal equinox, which according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac will take place this year at 8:04 p.m. on September 22^nd, culturally many Americans associate the end of summer with Labor Day weekend, which is this weekend.  After a season of vacations, day trips, barbeques, picnics, and perhaps, boredom, we Americans prepare to resume a busier calendar with school, Religious Education, organizational commitments, etc.  The time is ripe to consider work and the dignity of working people in the light of the readings of today.

 

            Let us recall that Adam, the first man, had two jobs in Eden, namely to tend the garden and to name the animals that God brought before him (cf. Book of Genesis, chapter 2). Thus, we human beings have the use of our caring, helping, and protecting hands and the use of our reason and intelligence as means to cooperate with God in the wise use, care, and right order of creation.  The readings today remind us, however, that the wisdom, knowledge, and designs of God are infinitely superior to our own, even with the talents, ingenuity, and prayerful inspiration that God Himself has endowed us with.  We are called to revere God as the source of wisdom (cf. Wisdom 9, our first reading), to acknowledge and honor our dependence on God’s power, teachings, and blessings (cf. Psalm 90), to respect and love our fellow Christians even with class differences among us (cf. Philemon, source of our second reading), to understand that God has first place in our loyalties, plans, and priorities (cf. Luke 14:25-33, our Gospel reading).  Although God is almighty and completely self-sufficient, out of love for us He chooses to involve you and me in His “work” of building the Kingdom of God, to sanctify the world, and to prepare the world for the second coming of Christ. 

 

            Starting with Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891) and subsequent teachings and pronouncements, the Catholic Church has sought to distinguish between work and mere toil as she applies Biblical values to avoid the dehumanization of people and their efforts to support themselves and their families.  The “social doctrine” of the Church, which is one of the least appreciated treasures of our Catholic faith, acknowledges the right to private property while reminding us that the economy should be at the service of people instead of persons and families being subordinated to an exaggerated importance of efficiency, profits, and technology.  Catholic social doctrine defends the dignity of working people as beings of body and soul whose efforts to earn a living and get ahead in life should never discount our need to rest in God and with God because He is supreme and because human dignity is founded firstly from us being made in His image and likeness (Genesis 1-2), an image that we are called to respect from conception until natural death.  Finally, Catholic social doctrine proposes a Christian alternative for persons and peoples to defining ourselves and human relations primarily as consumers or primarily in terms of class warfare, in other words neither a selfish, amoral capitalism nor the errors of atheistic, materialistic philosophies such as socialism and communism (or their “woke” variations today). 

In sum, by the two principles of solidarity (i.e., we are all our brother’s keeper, we are all in this together) and subsidiarity (i.e., as much as possible, individual and social needs should be met by individuals, families, and then entities closest to the matter at hand),  Catholic social doctrine presents the value and meaning of human labor in terms of the work of God and His call for us to participate in His work and then, to the dignity and the responsibility of each and every worker, whether unionized or not, whether the person is a small businessman or a freelancer, as well as of managers, investors, owners, and public and private authorities.  “Let your face shine upon your servant, and teach me Your laws.” Psalm 119:135.