Work

“You will eat the fruit of your labour.” (Psalm 128)

I’ve always had a strong work ethic; if someone was willing to pay me to perform work then I always felt compelled to do the best I could. They trusted me, and would reward me, so I took the responsibility to fulfill my end of the bargain. This work ethic though is not universal. I’ve worked with many people who reluctantly participate in the workforce, doing as little as possible, or performing substandard work. So where does this strong work ethic come from? It’s almost as though it’s intrinsically built into my constitution, something that phycologists might defined as conscientiousness (one of 5 personality traits):

“Conscientiousness is a fundamental personality trait … that reflects the tendency to be responsible, organized, hard-working, goal-directed, and to adhere to norms and rules. Like the other core personality factors, it has multiple facets; conscientiousness comprises self-control, industriousness, responsibility, and reliability.”¹

True as this may be i.e. that some people are higher in conscientiousness than others, there is still a fundamental question on the notion of work itself, as work is only a vehicle to display conscientiousness. So, what is work? Why is it necessary? Because many people will say that they find purpose and meaning in their work, they are career driven, and striving for success (whatever that might look like), however what if you’re not in a working occupation, or one that enables you to strive and be career driven – can you still find purpose and meaning in work? As we will see outlined here, the very notion of work is built into all of us, that is, work is something that makes us human.

Further to work being intrinsically human, Christianity calls us to ask, where does our work fit into our lives? How do you reconcile it against your life-purpose of knowing God? And what if the work you do has no connection to the praise, reverence, and service God requires of us? Worse, what if it encourages anti-good behaviour and rewards it; focused only on money, power, and status? These things are important to consider when trying to live a Christian life in a secular world; we all need to eat, have shelter, and clothe ourselves and families, and yet the work we perform provides the opportunity to serve a much bigger function, that of providing meaning and purpose and enabling us to act out virtuously, motioning towards perfected Goodness (God) in the process.   

In the Beginning

God is a creator, and creation is work. The cosmos is saturated in motion, set in place by God, for God, who is continually at work within His creation. We are created in His image - we were created to work. He placed us here to:

“Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:28)

Even before the Fall we were called to work, to take care of God’s creation, to subdue the chaos around us and rule over all things found here. Pope John Paul II states in his Encyclical on Work that:

“Work is one of the characteristics that distinguish man from the rest of the creatures…. Other creatures work to survive, for man there is a deeper layer to work… [work] provides advancements in technology and sciences, impacts moral and cultural ideals, and it operates in a community. Only man is capable of work and only man works.”

This divine call to work is one element that separates us from God’s other creatures, resulting in work which has purpose and meaning, to act as servants to God in tending to His creation. An important point here before we go on, “subdue” and “rule over” and not meant in the tyrannical sense, all of God’s creation was Good, including man and woman, and therefore the call to “subdue” and “rule over” creation was to be done in a framework of Good. Every act of subduing and ruling over was to be directed only towards the ultimate Good i.e. God. However, the Fall changed this perfected divine work to one where we now experience work in a different materialistic framework:

“We are told in Genesis that “by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food” – this is just not physical effort but tensions, conflicts and crisis, which, in relationship with the reality of work, disturb the life of the individual, societies, and also of all humanity” (Pope John Paul II)

Suddenly (after the Fall) the work we perform now derives two outcomes completely opposed to one another, one of purpose and dignity (directed to the ultimate divine Good), and the other of human toil and suffering (materialism):

“This leads immediately to a very important conclusion of the ethical nature [of work]: however true it may be that man is destined for work and called to it, in the first place work is “for man” and not man “for work” … without this lens the danger exists through different ideologies that man will be treated as a tool of production or as an impersonal “force” needed for production … It is always man who is the purpose of the work” (Pope John Paul II)

This is a critical idea to hold onto, that work is for man, and not man for work, because the moment we view work through the later lens work suddenly takes on a different form, one of anti-good, where it is used as a tool to punish man, oppress, exploit, degrade, and enslave. The Christian notion of work is to maintain the dignity of the individual:

“…the value of work is not primarily the kind of work being done but the fact that the one doing it is a person – the primary basis of the value of work is man himself” (Pope John Paul II)

The individual is truly unique – every human being is created in God’s image – we are all embedded with God’s Goodness (Being), without this spiritual aspect of work taken into consideration man is easily manipulated into being merely a tool for work, a slave to the State or Dollar.  

The Devil’s Manifesto

Walter J Ciszek volunteered to enter into Russia during WW2 via the Ukraine, Ciszek was an undercover Catholic priest whose aim was to administer and proclaim the Christian faith in Communist Russia. In short, he ended up in a Siberian Gulag, the slave labour camps there to fulfil Lenin’s edict that “who does not work does not eat”, though the work performed in those inhumane conditions would only result in a meagre portion of bread or broth, enough to survive the next days work. Ciszek spent 20 years:

 “…doing the dirtiest work, digging foundations by hand, carving out with pick and shovel through the frozen ground long sewer trenches, loading and unloading with my bare hands and brute strength and heavy construction materials, crawling in the damp, dark holes of new mines, where death was always one step or accident away.” (Walter J Ciszek “He Leadeth Me”).

20 years of hell, 20 years of slavish toil that murdered millions upon millions of men and women crushed to death by the weight of inhuman conditions and work - and this was all for the industrialisation of Russia, embracing the Communist ideology that flew in the face of Christianity – here work was not for the individual, work was for mother Russia. Ciszek noted that all the Gulag slaves, including those who helped usher in the Communist regime, were against the murderous Communist ideolog, even though there was a constant bombardment of:

“… propaganda about the value of work, about the responsibility to share in the building up the socialistic society they had damaged by their transgressions, about the need for even greater sacrifice, greater efforts, higher goals, and more work. Constant as they were, such exhortations made no impression at all on the prisoners”. (Walter J Ciszek)

Criszek would go on to say:

“… to survive in this situation, a man needed more than food or intellectual sustenance; he needed spiritual strength”.

In other words, He needed to be aligned to his Being, to his divine purpose in life to find purpose in the work he performed as an act of Good towards the Divine Good, not some man-made materialistic / intellectual ideology, that reduced man to a tool for work. Ciszek reconciled himself to the brutal work he was forced to do by flipping it on its head and performed the brutal toil at his utmost best, every day, no matter how cold, tired, beaten, the best he could physically do because:

“I saw this work as the will of God for me … because God wanted it … work was not a curse, even the brutish grunt work I was doing, but a way to God – and perhaps even a way to help others to God.”   

Work is for man, and not man for work, because work helps motion us towards our perfected Good. When we find Good in our work, we are aligned to our Being and on the correct path to righteousness, something the Socialists and Communists collectivist ideologies can never offer.  

Aristotle’s Lower and Higher Goods

Aristotle viewed the engagement of the intellect the highest Good available to man (his true happiness), which meant other things that man engaged in could be categorised as lower Goods (if directed towards the Supra Good / Highest Good) such as food and shelter. Aristotle insisted that man must obtain enough lower Goods in order to relieve himself of the burdens of life, so he has enough time to contemplate and engage his intellect. In other words, if a man was rich enough to have time to contemplate his life and the world around him, he would be truly happy, because this enables him the best opportunity to enact on virtuous living, one of prudence, courage, justice, and temperance. If this time for contemplation was not available, man would be at an endless struggle just to maintain his lower Goods. Aristotle would acknowledge, based on his hierarchical structure of Good, that true intellectual happiness was not available to all men. It certainly would not be available to those who did not work and fulfil the required basic lower Goods of providing food and shelter for himself and family. This philosophy rings true in the sense that man must work to provide his basic needs for survival – unlike all the other created animals who’s very Being is incorporated into merely survival, their natural instinct – Man is not an animal, he is vastly different, as GK. Chesterton points out, if the world was viewed from a far, man would be the odd creature out as though he did not belong here:

“He has an unfair advantage and an unfair disadvantage. He cannot sleep in his own skin; he cannot trust his own instincts. He is at once creator moving miraculous hands and fingers and a kind of cripple. He is wrapped in artificial bandages called clothes; he is propped on artificial crutches called furniture. His mind has the same doubtful liberties and the same wild limitations. Alone among the animals, he is shaken with the beautiful madness called laughter; as if he had caught sight of some secret in the very shape of the universe hidden from the universe itself. Alone among the animals he feels the need of averting his thought from the root realities of his own bodily being; of hiding them as in the presence of some higher possibility which creates the mystery of shame.”

Man is unique – he might be scientifically related to the animals, but there is a giant unbreachable chasm between the mind of the animal and the mind of man, the very Being of the animal and the very Being of man. Chesterton would go onto highlight that “art is the signature of man” as no other animal is capable of it, likewise, our need for work elevates us above the animal as no other animal is required to engage in the type of Human work that motions them towards their perfected Being. This is because:

“Man must work out of regard for others, especially his own family, but also for the society he belongs to”(Pope John Paul II)

Work, for man, is embedded in his Being, it provides him food and shelter like the animals, however unlike the animals it provides a level of dignity established through individual effort and toil, it has a highly communal aspect helping shape societies and culture, and it motions not only the individual forward but society with advancements in technology, science and medicine. It is these last elements – dignity, communal, advancements, that place us in Aristotle’s realm of Higher Good’s, or at least the opportunity to enact on them through virtuous living, and importantly adding the additional Christian virtues of Hope, Faith, and Love. In fact, if we were to remove work from man altogether, the opportunity to engage in virtuous living would be non-existent as there is no opportunity to obtain individual dignity, we would be virtually living as an island of self-absorption, and there would be no advancement past the cave.

With all that said, there is one aspect of work that brings all of purpose and meaning together, and places one type of work at the pinnacle of mankind.

The Pinnacle of Work

For over a century now the attack on the family unit has been relentless. Marx’s Communist Manifesto called for the abolishment of the family, because for Marx the family was the fuel that feed the Capitalist system, though the family unit also has an added religious value that was equally required to be destroyed by Marx – if you can destroy the family unit then (hopefully) Christianity can be destroyed – or a least weakened, which is exactly what has happened in our secular societies, giving way to a demigod of material / scientific consumerism where the family is of little value (ironically for Marx and his followers, the destruction of the Western family has not culled it’s need for consumerism, in fact it’s flamed it to an all-consuming desire. Christianity might be on its knees, but cash is now king, and utopia couldn’t be further away).

Human babies are completely dependent on their mother at the time of birth because our brains are underdeveloped compared to other baby animals; our brains continue to develop after birth, with the brain size nearly doubling in the first year². Further, the development of children to adulthood is an extensively long time compared to the rest of the animal kingdom, making our relationship with our Parents paramount to not only our survival, but in order to acquire the necessary skills to achieve a life that fully flourishes – in this sense the responsibility of education, be it formal, or life skills, is front and centre to the role Parents play in a child’s development. This educational responsibility brings into focus the need for work, and the importance work plays in providing these educational opportunities for our children – and more broadly, the societies we live in:

“Work and industriousness also influence the whole process of education in the family, for the very reason that everyone “becomes a human being” through, among other things, work, and becoming a human being is precisely the main purpose of the whole process of education” (Pope John Paul II)

In other words, the education of our children is designed to equip them for a life of work which provides purpose. That said, the education structure that is currently in place in Western schools – the class room, the rows of children, delegated learning, separate lessons, the grading system, and progression into further education, was designed at the onset of the industrial revolution – where man was seen as a “tool” to the production line – similarly the classroom / education system was industrialised to seamlessly move kids through the education system into the structured (measured) workforce. Suffice to say that, our children should not be subjected to a crooked education ideology and a return to the notion that “work / education is for man” is desperately needed (note: there are number of independent schools who have been recently established who have woken up to this fact and are providing a much more rounded approach to education with dramatic results – schools that embrace the Socratic method, and a return to classic “Liberal Arts” education of rhetoric, grammar, logic, astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, and music.)

All that said, the role of the mother cannot be emphasised enough in regards to the work she performs to produce healthy, spiritual, flourishing, educated children. The role of motherhood (supported by an income producing working father) is without doubt the most important work performed within society as it has rippling effects in the present, and future:

 “… of the toil connected with it, and of the need that children have for care, love and affection in order that they may develop into responsible, morally and religiously mature and psychologically stable persons … having to abandon these tasks in order to take paid work outside of the home is wrong from the point of view of the good of society and of the family when it contradicts or hinders these primary goals of the mission of a mother” (Pope John Paul II)

Indeed. And further:

“Society, and the employment structure in which it functions, should be organised to support the goal / purpose of motherhood.” (Pope John Paul II)

The role in which mothers play in raising children should be supported by economic considerations to assist motherhood and families as much as possible, such as lower taxes for families, reduced cost of living to allow for one income producing families, and social benefits structed accordingly to support family mothers. Further, broader societal considerations such as the legal removal of no-fault divorce and the ban on same-sex families should be brought into focus to safe-guard the family unit that is designed to place the raising of children as a priority for flourishing societies. Motherhood, and the raising of children in a family environment, is the pinnacle of work. If this work is neglected then it has detrimental effects on not only the children but also society, because without the loving guidance of mother and father, our children are ill equipped to face the evils of this world, and we know that:

“… sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you” (Genesis 4:6-7)

Technology

There is an interpretation of the Old Testament that technology was given to man from evil spirits. Cain slew Able – a heinous crime, with the pathology of Cain based on the oppressor / oppressed mindset (which also underpins Communist / Socialist ideologies) – banished by God, Cain was cast-out to wander the earth; he would then go onto build cities and have offspring who produced:

• Jabal: "the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock."

• Jubal: "the father of those who play the harp and flute." and;

• Tubal-Cain: "who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron."

We can see that the bloodline of Cain was responsible for developing technology, though from this, because of the evil within Cain, there is the claim that technology is given to man before he is ready to use it, or more importantly, before he can understand its true purpose. In other words, without fully understanding technology, the technology can turn against man. Tubal-Cain developed tools out of bronze and iron, and these tools can be used for Good, to motion towards God, however bronze and iron can also be crafted for war and violence which brings death and destruction and motions us towards anti-good (evil) – these tools help bring individual power, which seduces individuals into acting like gods in their own head. Technology also runs the risk of depriving man of his natural state to work, removing his dignity, his place in the community, his ability to act out virtuously, and to provide / support and educate his family:

“Technology is undoubtedly man’s ally. It facilitates his work, perfects, accelerates and augments it … It can also cease to be man’s ally and become almost his enemy as when the mechanization of work “supplants” him, taking away all personal satisfaction and the incentive to creativity and responsibility, when it deprives many workers of their previous employment, or when, through exalting the machine, it reduces man to the state of its slave” (Pope John Paul II)

With the onset of Artificial Intelligence, we stand on the cusp of a bleak and horrific future. One that threatens our freedoms, threatens our safety and existence, and worst of all contributes to the annihilation of man’s spiritual nature, and without a spiritual nature, man is no longer human. On the flip side, AI also brings immense possibilities that will propel mankind into a future state where advancements in medicine, science, travel, and education, will lift all of us into a better economic and culturally rich society, however this flip side is only possible if we keep technology as our ally by adopting the perfect template for work.        

Servitude

For Christians there has been give to us a template of what Good works looks like – that template is Jesus, the Nazarene Carpenter, teacher, miracle worker, saviour, God incarnate. Christ brings to work two important elements that come not from the manual or intellectual aspects of work, but from the very character of the individual, one is Servitude, and the other is Humility.

The dictionary defines Servitude as:

“The condition of being enslaved or of being completely under the control of someone else.” (Collins Dictionary)

Jesus’ whole life was directed towards God, every action, thought, saying was for the Father. He was completely under control of the love of God; His servitude could not be questioned. As Peter Calvin wrote in his book “The Truth and Beauty”:

“Jesus lives life and everything he does has meaning.”

His meaning was found in his work, in his servitude towards God, as this servitude is an integral part in the on-going act of creation. Jesus performed mundane tasks: he was a poor carpenter for over 20 years, performing hard manual tasks of toil so that by the sweat of His brow he could provide shelter and food for Himself, and His widowed mother:

“There was the realisation that work of itself is not a curse but a sharing in God’s own work of creation, a redemptive and redeeming act, noble of itself and worthy of the best in man – even as it was worthy of God himself. There is a tremendous truth contained in the realisation that when God became man, he became a working man … If anything, he restored to man’s work its original dignity, its essential function as a share in God’s creative act” (Walter J Ciszek)

However, this act of participating in creation, through the service of work to a higher Being (God), is radically transformed in the person of Christ, for Jesus not only willing participates in total servitude to God, He also completely humbles himself and proclaims that:

 “ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28)

Jesus then goes on to wash the feet of the disciples – who, knowing now that Jesus is God, are astonished at this act, with Peter refusing and rightly (from a materialistic view of the world), demands instead to wash the feet of Jesus, who refuses and insists to Peter:

 “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” (John 13:8)

 Jesus then sets out the template for future Christian work:

“Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Our true work, one that is embedded in our very Being, that motions us towards perfected Goodness, is one of humble servitude towards God, and importantly, others. It is only through this lens of work can we truly grow spiritually, truly act out virtuous living, and truly understand God, who through His Son, lived a life of humble servitude, and with His death and resurrection, continues to perform the act of creation in our very Beings, motioning us towards the eternal kingdom with our whole Being / Goodness aligned to His.

One of the most beautiful scenes in the whole bible is set on shores of Gallie at early morning with the resurrected Jesus comforting Peter who had betrayed Him, and in doing so, calling on Peter to humbly work for Him (calling Peter three times to offset his previous three betrayals):

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” (John 21:15)

We are all Peter, continually betraying our Lord and Creator for our own individualistic wants, and yet He offers Himself to us over and over, and all that is asked in exchange is an active love, a dual love – one that is directed towards both God and man - that is only found in “feeding His sheep”, be it by physical or intellectual labour. This is when work has reached its true purpose by bringing others and ourselves closer to the full knowledge and love of God. This is work created for man, and engaging in this work is when our lives truly flourish.