The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union.
By 1894, 23 more states had adopted the holiday, and on June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in September a national holiday which we call Labor Day.
We pay tribute to the workers for the contributions they have made and continue to make to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
Work’s spiritual values
Labor Day invites us to reflect upon our work’s spiritual values. This is important because most active adults spend a large part of their weekday hours awake, working, commuting to work, preparing for work, or resting from work.
Many retired persons, including priests, also work part-time or in other ways.
Since the majority of Catholics are laity, Labor Day is especially important to them.
Sometimes laity may think that they only serve God when they worship on Sundays, proclaim God’s Word, serve on the parish council, teach religious education, clean the church or serve in related, giving ways.
I applaud those who serve the Church in such generous ways. I pray that God will multiply them like he multiplied the loaves and fishes.
However, the laity also serve and love God through their work. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 378, it says that God places [Man] in the garden. There he lives “to till it and keep it.”
Work is not yet a burden, but rather the collaboration of man and woman with God in perfecting the visible creation.” Scripture tells us that work became burdensome after the Fall.
Part of the vocation of Catholics and others is to help fellow human persons grow more fully in God’s image and transform raw materials which God created into products that glorify God and benefit humanity.
One of many such products might be crutches, a crucifix, a spiritual book, a freshly baked loaf of bread, or a furnace that warms us in winter, and other examples too numerous to mention here.
In Colossians 3:17, it says, “Whatever you do, in word or work, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
We can offer our work to God by praying the traditional morning offering, “O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, sufferings in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world.”
St. Benedict taught, “To work is to pray!” Brother Lawrence, who washed dishes and worked in the kitchen, made his work a prayer that brought him closer to God.
Working with others
Research shows that success at work often depends upon how well we work with and relate to co-workers.
In Holiness in the Workplace, Elizabeth Dreyer states, “We help to bring God’s peace and love to the workplace when we pray for, support, and offer encouraging words to fellow workers especially when they are hurting.
A friend who works in a bakery told me that she enjoys working with her co-workers!
According to Stewardship, A Disciples Response, another woman who works at a supermarket check-out counter stated “I feel that my job consists of more than just taking orders, taking people’s money and bagging their groceries. I try to make my customers feel special while I serve them. They become the most important people in my life.” (I enjoy it when receptionists, checkout persons, and others treat me not as an object, but as a person.)
Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’”
Dignity and work
In 1891, in his groundbreaking encyclical Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII outlined the rights of workers to a fair wage, safe working conditions, and the formation of labor unions, while affirming the rights of property and free enterprise.
The jobless, who want work and can’t find a job, often feel a loss of self-respect. When I was younger and jobless, I often felt this way. (As a priest, I usually have work.)
Let us pray that Labor Day inspires us to praise and thank God through our work and Christ-like relationships with co-workers, employers, employees, and those we serve.
May we enjoy a sacred, restful Labor Day that helps us all to enjoy each day of work in the same way that Jesus and Joseph enjoyed working in the Nazareth carpenter shop.
Fr. Donald Lange is a pastor emeritus in the Diocese of Madison.