Recovering the true
value of work

WE began the month of May with the celebration Labor Day. In the Catholic Church, it was celebrated with the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker. No doubt, both celebrations, civil and ecclesiastical, focus on the human phenomenon of work.

The point is obvious. Work occupies a strategic, crucial and even indispensable role in a man's life. Play around with it, and trouble will surely erupt sooner or later, not only in one's personal life, but also in the whole society.

Without work, man would not be truly man. Without it, man stagnates and fails to develop himself, to actualize his potentials and use his endowments, and to reach his goal and perfection.

This is because work is part of man's nature. "Man has been made to work just as birds have been made to fly," the Bible says.

Even in the most basic level, without work, man can fail to provide for himself and for his family. How tragic that would be! That's why we always have to be on the lookout for any manifestation of laziness and idleness on our part.

But more than these, without work, man would fail to attain his constant and ultimate goal -- to give glory to God, and to sanctify himself, others and the world. This is the final dimension and purpose of work!

Work, in fact, does not only mean doing some service to others. It first of all means prayer, an intimate relationship with God, and is a way to make one a better person -- not just one with more accomplishments, success and money.

Everyone has to understand that work makes man's belief and love for God and the others concrete and real, not just something desired or professed. "Love is deeds and not sweet words," one saint said.

So it's essential that every one of us gets to understand the nature, meaning and purpose of work -- in fact, not only to understand it, but more importantly to appreciate it in such a way that the correct understanding of work becomes the very principle of all our actions.

This is a task incumbent on everyone, although of course done in different ways, according to the varying conditions of men. But we all have the duty to make the value of work understood, appreciated and lived by all.

Our culture would be badly handicapped if it fails to give due attention to this basic aspect of our lives. Right now, there is a need not only to enrich our culture with the proper value of work, but also to purify it of some erroneous elements creeping into our culture's attitude toward work.

It cannot be denied that there are many who consider work as a burden, if not a punishment, something to be avoided as much as possible. They have mistaken the burden of work for a punishment.

Others consider work in purely economic terms, with hardly any reference to its objective intrinsic relation to a person's growth and development, let alone its relation to God.

Work then becomes a purely human affair, an activity at the exclusive behest of one's designs and plans. It hardly has any relation with God and with others. If there were any, it would be purely accidental.

In this case, work loses its power to go beyond the merely human and natural. It would fail to activate its potential for the supernatural, the eternal, the sacred. It detaches itself from the requirements of morality and the common good.

In effect, it becomes a source of alienation from God and from others. With this attitude, the seeds of prostitution and other forms of immorality are sown.

With this frame of mind, many people cultivate the so-called "Trabaho lamang" [It's just work] attitude. This is a common plague of our times. One time, a kidnapper justified his crime by saying was only a job given to him, "Trabaho lamang."

Others, for example many of those in entertainment, also justify their questionable actuations, like engaging in pornography, irreverence and violence, because for them what they are doing are "trabaho lamang."

Although there is something valid and legitimate in that attitude, very often what it reflects is the wrong value of considering work as purely human, personal, professional, and should not be bothered by considerations of common good, charity, morality, etc.

Because of this erroneous attitude toward work, many easily lose their motivation to work, unless their personal -- that is, selfish -- interests are served.

This is one of the roots of the crisis of our times. Many of us do not have the right understanding of the nature, meaning and purpose of our work. The challenge then is how to correct this erroneous attitude. And it involves all of us, of course, in different ways.