Development of the Christian idea of work

Christianity has contributed greatly to the understanding of work. For example, Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski relates in his excellent book entitled Work, that ``the pagans despised every kind of work, even artistic work. They regarded physical work as unworthy of man. It was the duty of slaves. It could not be reconciled with the sublimity of the free mind, for it limited it too much.(...) Christianity did away with this error as well. It brought about the real liberation and elevation of human work. The first Christians, even the rich ones, sometimes showed their membership of the Church by doing physical work.(...) What is more, the Christian world emphasized the importance of uniting spiritual and physical work. We see this especially in monastic life (...).'' [Wys60, Ch. II]

However, after the stabilization of the structure of the Church, a certain mentality developed that tended to alienate common faithful from this subtle understanding. Only work directly related to religious duties, or to the service of neighbor, was considered ``holy''. This mentality persists to this day, when people think that only social service or clerical jobs within the Church are properly ``Christian.''

The social teaching of the Church, particularly through the Vatican II Council, and the teaching of the modern Popes (since Leo XIII, and particularly our present Pope, John Paul II), has clarified these matters greatly, and recovered the understanding of the first Christians, which was never lost, but that remained unknown to most faithful.

A modern spiritual writer summarizes this teaching as follows:

Professional work--and the work of a housewife is one of the greatest of professions--is a witness to the worth of the human creature. It provides a chance to develop one's own personality; it creates a bond of union with others; it constitutes a fund of resources; it is a way of helping in the improvement of the society in which we live in, and of promoting the progress of the whole human race... For a Christian, these grand views become even deeper and wider. For work, which Christ took up as something both redeemed and redeeming, becomes a means, a way of holiness, a specific task which sanctifies and can be sanctified. (emphasis added, [Esc87a, No. 702])

Let us examine briefly each one of these points: