That Christianity has brought about an awareness of the value of work is beyond any doubt. Perhaps the clearest reference to this topic in Scripture is found in the traditional Vulgate version of the Bible – the one compiled by Saint Jerome, and which was used in the Catholic Church until 1981 – when it states – I quote first in Latin, and then I translate since this version is written in the original in that language – “Homo nascitur ad laborem, et avis ad volatum”. “Man is born to work and the bird is born to fly” (Job 5, 7. Vg).
This is so by the original design of God, already in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, before man committed the original sin, it is recorded: “Yahweh God took the man and left him in the Garden of Eden. , so that he could work on it and take care of it” (Genesis 2, 15). In the New Testament, for its part, there are also substantial references to the value of work, the most important, and somewhat mysterious, it must be said, appears in the gospel of Saint John, chapter 5, verse 17: “My Father He always works, and I work too.” Why is this reference important? Because it points us to work as a means to identify with God. Jesus clearly states that He and the Father always work. The years of Jesus’ hidden life (tradition tells us that they were 30) are more than eloquent: Jesus Christ dedicated most of his life to working, to performing a simple manual trade, so that he was known as “the son of the Carpenter”, which denotes how Saint Joseph had professional prestige in his town. Jesus was saving and redeeming us as he worked, not “despite his work,” but precisely “with his work.”
For the Christian, thinking about the work of Jesus is a rich spiritual vein; in fact there is an entire “spirituality of work,” according to which work is a means through which man can achieve union with God, while perfecting himself and the world around him. That is, it is not just a kind of “occupational therapy” or a means to transform the world; Not even, only, the way to honestly raise a family. It is that, but it is much more, it is configured as the way to fulfill the mission that God has given us to transform the world and direct it to its fullness. That is why work acquires a “vocational dimension.” Perhaps the person who has most deeply developed this spirituality of work in the contemporary world is Saint Josemaría Escrivá. Which has truly inspired and inspiring words about it, like the following:
“Work is born from love, manifests love, is ordered to love. We recognize God not only in the spectacle of nature, but also in the experience of our own work, our effort” (It is Christ Passing By, no. 48).
It is revolutionary for two reasons: firstly, for linking work to love, that is, to the most sublime activity of man. Discover how, deep down, love is the driving force of work. In this way we can say, without fear of being wrong, that someone who loves his work has one of the most important ingredients to be happy in life. Secondly, and in this he is a pioneer in the spirituality of the Church, because he offers in the spectacle of our own work, our effort and our fatigue in carrying it out, a privileged way of “contemplating God”, of discovering him. We can no longer only see God in the spectacle of a sunset, the sea or the mountains, we can also discover Him in our daily work.
Along the same lines, Pope Francis weaves his spiritual proposal, available to everyone. Thus, on May 1, 2020, he said in the homily at the mass of Saint Joseph the Worker:
“And work is what makes man similar to God, because with work man is a creator, he is capable of creating, creating many things, even creating a family to move forward. Man is a creator and he creates with work. This is the vocation… That is, work has a goodness in itself and creates the harmony of things – beauty, goodness – and involves man in everything: in his thinking, in his acting, in everything. The man is involved in work. It is man’s first vocation: to work. And this gives dignity to man. The dignity that makes him look like God. The dignity of work.
Francis frequently links the notion of “work” with that of “dignity.” In other words and abruptly: people don’t just need money, they need to know they are useful, contribute to society, develop their creativity, grow as a person; and he achieves this through his work. That is why the Christian valuation of work is profoundly humanistic, since it decisively contributes to the human person’s foundation and development of his dignity; it is an indispensable ingredient of his own happiness.
Sometimes we are presented with ideal paradises in which we do not work. It is the dystopia of the future where everything will be done by machines, artificial intelligence. We would dedicate ourselves exclusively too leisure to rest. There are some elements of truth in these proposals: leisure allows one to think, to dedicate oneself to contemplation; We all need a well-deserved rest. But a life without work, at the end of the day, would be boring, abominable, empty of meaning. Therefore, today more than ever, in the face of the challenges of artificial intelligence and robotics, which threaten to make us superfluous or dispensable, it is necessary to reclaim work as a primary element of human dignity. What does that mean? That we must “dynamite” the dystopia, to build, to the extent possible, the “utopia”, that is, the best possible world, one of whose primary elements is the ability to contribute to the world and intervene in society, to create through our work.
Society then faces a double challenge. On the one hand, in the highly industrialized world, do not suppress human work, do not declare human creativity superfluous and outdated, due to artificial intelligence, robotics and the automation of processes. In the underdeveloped world, on the other hand, the panorama presents several pressing difficulties: creating sources of employment for everyone, remunerating them sufficiently, providing just the right amount of rest. In fact, there is still a lot of child labor, many inhumane working conditions, many hidden forms of slavery, and a great lack of jobs, both for young people and for mature people. All of this offers a hopeless panorama and exacerbates the existing division in the world.
Therefore, to help consolidate human dignity and ensure that it is not a dead letter, a dead letter, an unrealizable ideal, it is essential to carry out a deep reflection on the role of work in life and in human society, on the one hand. On the other hand, embrace the challenge of creating sources of work in line with said dignity, in which each person can contribute something of their personal creativity and ideals. Technology must then converge in that sense, to facilitate the development of work, not to suppress it because, again, if it is suppressed, an important human dimension is cut off, attacking authentic humanism.
For this reason, philosophical and theological reflection on work must steadily accompany its evolution thanks to science and technology. An interdisciplinary dialogue between science, technology, philosophy and theology is then needed to build a future with work, which allows human beings to develop all their capacities and achieve their human plenitude, their happiness in a word. We are currently immersed in this non-extendable challenge.
