The Dignity and Importance of Work
August 28, 2024 - Wednesday, Memorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
2 Thessalonians 3:6-10, 16-18
From its inception, Jesus' movement was marked by the sharing of resources—both material and spiritual. Jesus and His disciples were supported by wealthy women who contributed to that first apostolic community from their own funds (see Luke 8:1-3). The Acts of the Apostles describe a common fund in the Jerusalem community to which wealthy converts contributed and which was distributed according to the needs of its members (see Acts 4:34). As the Church grew, Paul provides testimony of how more affluent communities supported those less fortunate economically. For example, the Thessalonians and the Corinthians sent donations to the community in Jerusalem (see Rom. 15:26).
But like any community, Christians also encountered problems. Some members were dishonest (see Acts 5:1-11), there were unjust practices favoring one group over another (see Acts 6:1), and some abused the generosity of the community by enrolling their relatives on the lists of beneficiaries when they could actually support them themselves (see 1 Timothy 5:3-8). Finally, there were those who did not contribute to the common fund of the community, although they could, but expected the community to meet their needs. Today's excerpt from Paul's letter addresses such a problem.
Each time I read Paul's famous statement, "if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat" (2 Thess. 3:10), I think about how it was changed to "he who does not work, neither shall he eat" and used as a propaganda tool in the Soviet Union. Wikipedia even mentions a Chinese Buddhist monk, Baizhang (720-814 AD), who supposedly said: "a day without work, a day without food" (一日不做一日不食). But Saint Paul did not say, "he who does not work, neither shall he eat." There are many people who do not work — children, the sick, the mentally or physically challenged, the elderly. What about them?
Paul's emphasis is on the unwillingness to work despite being able to, and this unwillingness was caused by a flawed theology. Why work if Jesus is coming soon? Why work if the end of the world is imminent? However, between the present and Jesus' coming, such a person needed to eat, and the food was coming from the dwindling funds of the community. Paul presented himself as a model to emulate. He also believed that Jesus would come soon and hoped it would happen while he was still alive. But he continued to work. Moreover, as a preacher of the Gospel, he could rely on the support of the community, but he gave up that right and supported himself through his work to avoid being a burden to the community.
At the height of the Solidarity movement in Poland, Saint John Paul II issued his encyclical letter on human work—Laborem Exercens (1981). The Pontiff reminded the world of the dignity and value of human work, its difficulties, and its importance. By working, we participate in God's creative activity, and by enduring its hardships, we are united to the Crucified Christ. The passage that captures the essence of Paul's criticism of freeloaders among the Thessalonian Christians is found in paragraph 16:
"Man must work out of regard for others, especially his own family, but also for the society he belongs to, the country of which he is a child, and the whole human family of which he is a member, since he is an heir to the work of generations and at the same time a sharer in building the future of those who will come after him in the succession of history" (John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, 16).