Finding Fulfillment through Work
May 4, 2025
“The LORD God took [Adam] and put him in the garden to till it and keep it.” —Genesis 2:15
As we continue the Jubilee Year of Hope, this weekend we celebrate the Jubilee of Workers. This past Thursday, May 1, we celebrated liturgically the memorial of St. Joseph the Worker, the carpenter of Nazareth who taught Jesus how to work as he was growing up. Work is a major part of a fully human life. Through it, we take the good gifts of God’s creation and through human logic, imagination, and labor develop those gifts for the benefit of ourselves, our families and loved ones, and the entirety of humanity. We earn the things that we need to survive and flourish through our work. We all have a duty to work, to the extent that we are able according to age and ability. Not all work is paid work, and paid work (or the kind of paid work engaged in or the amount of money/property the work earns) does not give work any more dignity than unpaid work. The very fact that a human being, created in the image of God, does the work— paid or unpaid, primarily intellectual or primarily manual—gives human labor its inherent dignity. Work is not always easy or pleasant (Genesis 3:17-19), but it can be one of the main ways that we find fulfillment as human beings.
This weekend, we also celebrate the Jubilee of Business and Entrepreneurship. To start and maintain a business is one of the most challenging and rewarding human endeavors. It takes the ability to manage money and materials, to plan prudently and manage risk, and to relate well with people (employees and customers). Businesspeople and entrepreneurs create jobs and opportunities for workers to develop their skills and earn a living. Businesses efficiently provide goods and services that improve the lives of their customers. Business, at its best, brings people into deeper solidarity, seeking the common good, while simultaneously helping each person to flourish.
“A business’ objective must be met in economic terms . . . but the authentic values that bring about the concrete development of the person and society must not be neglected.” —Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 338
Profits are important to a healthy business, but they are not the sole or main reason for the business. I’ve heard it described that profits are like “food” to a business. Without profits, the business will starve. At the same time, the quest for “unlimited” profits or “unhealthy” profits (when a business does not provide a true human good but panders to the most base or sinful human passions, or seeks to profit from the desperation of the vulnerable, or engages in corrupt or unlawful business practices), the business itself is on the road to ruin no matter what the balance sheet states. In the end, business, labor, and economics are meant to work together to steward and develop the gifts of God’s creation: the material gifts of creation as well as cultivating the gifts and talents of human beings and strengthening our bonds of solidarity. Employers, employees, and customers all become better as a result of their business relationships. Surely, tensions will arise between labor or customers and management in business. A good, healthy tension that is negotiated using honest dialogue, compromise, and encouragement to grow, develop, and retain integrity helps all human relationships and communities (marriages, sports teams, businesses, churches, etc.) to become the best versions of themselves, as long as all parties remember that we are all “on the same team” working together toward the common good. We begin and end with the principle of solidarity.
“Simon Peter said in reply, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus said to him in reply, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, by my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.’” —Matthew 16:16-18
This Sunday at sundown, we conclude our official time of mourning for Pope Francis. Of course, we will continue to pray for the repose of his soul and continue to put his insights into living a life of Christian disciple ship into practice in our lives. The Conclave of Cardinals is scheduled to begin meeting this Wednesday in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican to choose a successor to Pope Francis as the Bishop of Rome, successor of St. Peter, and Vicar of Christ. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 882) While Catholics do not believe that God dictates who is chosen as the “Servant of the Servants of God,” we do believe that the Holy Spirit is always guiding the Church. Let us pray to the Holy Spirit in a particular way this week to grant wisdom to the Cardinal electors in their discernment of a new Pope. May the Holy Spirit strengthen him for the duties of his new office and may the entire People of God and all people of good will be blessed by his Petrine ministry.