Hotline Asia -- Social Concern Notes

Parish Social Concern Groups - Church's Social Teachings
~ Labor : Purpose ~
Lesson 32

Question || Church Teaching || "Thou Shalt Think" || Facilitators' Notes
 

Introduction

“CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE A MILLIONAIRE!”

You have won the government lottery of US$_______! By prudent investment you and your family will have no financial worries for the rest of your lives. It will be enough money for you to send your two children to the university, buy a car, take a tour of Europe, buy a flat and have a steady income. You have returned from your vacation and are well rested.
 
Question
  1. What will you do with the rest of your life? What would be your routine during the coming years?
    _______________________________________________
  2. List four reasons why most people in your country work?
    1. _________
    2. _________
    3. _________
    4. _________
  3. As a Catholic, can you think of additional reasons for working?
    1. ___________________
    2. ___________________
    3. ___________________
    4. ___________________
 

Social Teachings of the Church

“Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another. … Work can be a means of sanctification and a way of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ… In work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in his nature.” Catechism of the Catholic Church, (Mission Hills: Benziger Publishing Co, 1994), #2427-2428, p. 583.
 

Thou Shalt Think

In the present work in which you are now engaged, what practical changes could be made to meet the Christian ideal.

  1. My present work is:
    _______________________________________________
  2. If I were the “my” employer, I would/would not
    _______________________________________________
  3. If I were the government, I would/would not
    _______________________________________________
  4. Action: In the coming week, I and/or our social concerns group might do the following action:
    _______________________________________________
 
Facilitators' Notes

QUESTION

A. List four reasons why most people in your country work?

Possible answers:

  • Earn a living

  • Security for the future

  • Buy things that would improve my standard of living

  • Get things that I want (but don’t need.)

  • Contingencies and for my old age.

B. As a Catholic, can you think of additional reasons for working?

Possible answers: Same reasons as everyone else

  • Joining God in the work of creation

  • Serve the community and especially the poor

  • Develop my human potential and unique gifts

  • To meet people: fellow workers

  • To create new things: art, beauty, and crafts

  • Deepen solidarity with fellow humans

“THOU SHALT THINK”

In the coming week, I and/or our social concerns group might perform:

Possible actions:

  • Pray for each of our fellow workers on the way to work

  • Attend a workers meeting

  • Study the recently announced government budget statement to see how it affects workers

  • Invite a labor representative to the next meeting of the Social Concerns Group

  • Read “Rerum Novarum” (Papal Encyclical—Leo the XIII—1891)

ADDITIONAL: We have tried to keep this lesson simple but your group could chance upon various basic concepts of the Church’s social teachings on human labor: just wage, living wage, “having” versus “being,” acquisitive drive, transcendent values, homo oeconimicus, common good, human capital, role of government in labor, equality and relative equality, “I am a self-made man and don’t need other people”, market economy, Marxist labor economics etc. Hopefully this discussion will lead Catholics to go to the sources: Scripture, Tradition, Papal encyclicals and statements of Asian Bishops etc.
 

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