Saturday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
As we close this Labor Day week I want to offer a thought about work and labor. The Church firmly advocates the dignity of work and the value, even need, for participating in fulfilling labor. However, the Church is not utilitarian. We believe that the dignity of the human person exists regardless of their ability or inability to do work. It is because of the person that the work gains dignity, and not the work that grants a human dignity. This is important for when work collides with pride.
One of the most common questions I hear is, “How are you doing?” or some variation of that. And I commonly find myself saying, “Really good; really busy.” My pride prompts me to share that I’m busy, almost as if I’m proclaiming in some utilitarian way, “I’m good, of course I’m good, I’m valuable, because I’m busy.” Fortunately, Christ shuts me down in one sentence.
Christ declares, “The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath.” Now, I know that Christ was not positing a rebuttal to modern Utilitarianism 1800 years before it existed. But one of the levels that I think exists in this simple sentence, is a call to rest.
Christ is calling us to not make our work our value, and to not make our rest work. He is telling us that He is the Lord of our rest. We need a break sometimes. And that break isn’t a time to get away from our faith, but a time to encounter the Lord of the Sabbath, to encounter Christ in our rest.
A classic example of separating our faith from our rest is vacation. I remember being in high school and petitioning my parents to let us skip Mass because we were on vacation. I saw vacation as a break from school and faith. But I think that is the opposite of what Christ is inviting us to do. He is inviting us, when our smartphones are lost somewhere in the car and work is off our mind and the family’s schedule finally less hectic than the pope’s, to come and encounter. Encounter Christ in your rest, whether it is through others, Scripture, creation, or the Sacraments. Christ wants our rest to not only physically rejuvenate us, but to spiritual invigorate us.
As we approach Sunday, our day of rest. Let’s recall that both our work and our rest are holy because of our dignity as people and the imitation of God’s work and rest.
Lord, we work as your disciples,
striving to live and serve as you have called us,
seeking first your kingdom.
As we walk with you though this field of wheat and weeds,
allow our weary hands to take the wheat you offer us;
the Bread of Life.
So, that in our in rest with you
we may help others rest in your presence as well.
We pray all of this through Our Lord Jesus Christ,
Lord of our Labor, Lord of our rest,
Lord of our lives.
Amen
-Spencer Hargadon