“The commandments given at creation are to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ and to ‘till and keep the garden’ . . . {Gen 1:28 ; 2:15}. [So] work, . . . in its original reality, [was] a gift.” [Such participation] in God’s creation of/in the world, was granted to no other creature but man.

“In his encyclical Laborem Exercens (On Human Work), Pope St. John Paul II identified work as one of the things that make us human. . . . Our vocation to work . . . is . . . an indispensable part of our vocation to love[, which] defines our humanity.

“[But] as a result of Original Sin, sexual relations became complicated, and childbirth painful and dangerous ; and work became laborious and often fruitless {cf Gen 3:16-19}

“We have lost [our sense of the dignity of work] for two basic reasons:

Much of the work available work these days [seems] meaningless ; and

We have forgotten that work is an expression of love

“The explosion of ever more sophisticated gadgetry has reinforced our disordered inclination to avoid burdens whenever possible. But . . . to get rid of all inconveniences is to eliminate the very things that make life worth living. . . . To put our hand to real things, to take the time to do work well . . . is to affirm our humanity and to take part in the love that is creation.”

Credit to Knights of Columbus magazine Columbia, April 2022

Notes:

“got to” → “get to”

your vocation is not your job title (per se)

May 1st = feast of St. Joseph the Worker

(Credo Veritas rev 6-2-22)