Back

Human Work As a Vocation: More Than a Job or a Career

 In Habits of the Heart (1985), Robert N. Bellah and his colleagues have published a landmark study of the relationship of individualism and commitment in the American culture.

Their analysis of the significance of “work” distinguished the concepts of “job” and “career” from that of “call.”

“Job” denotes work ''as a way of making money and making a living.” “Career” means more than monetary success and security. It includes the idea of “progress through life by achievement and advancement.” Success in a career involves more than the economic dimension. The term “career” connotes “social standing and prestige” along with securing personal self-esteem “by a sense of expanding power and competency.”

The third category ---work as “a call” ---stands in contrast to the notions of “job” or “career.” As an ideal, it identifies the work of a person as “morally inseparable from his or her life.” A calling (or vocation) implies a value more expansive than production and profit since men and women are incorporated into a “community of disciplined practice and sound judgment whose activity has meaning and value in itself.”

Moreover, work as a call not only connects persons to their fellow workers but also to a larger whole wherein personal work becomes a contribution to the well-being of society itself.

The authors illustrate this sense of work by quoting from The Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. The oration for Labor Day captures the call-dimension well: “So guide us in the work we do, that we may do it not for the self alone, but for the common good.”

Work as a calling or vocation can never be reduced simply to private activity because it is inextricably linked to participation in the public world. This inherent public nature of work transcends the dominant cultural dynamics of maximizing self -interest. A calling is rooted in another cultural tradition, namely, that of biblical religion.

In the opinion of the authors, the understanding of work as a “job” or a “career” has tended to override and displace the awareness of work as “a calling.”

The theme of work as a calling or vocation has been integrated into contemporary Catholic social teaching. In the theological renewal of the 1950s and the 1960s, that motif was being developed for responding to need for a distinctive lay spirituality. Theologians were discovering a fresh appreciation of the positive meaning of human labor derived from the doctrines of creation and redemption.

Gaudium et Spes (The Pastoral Constitution on the Church and the Modern World, 1965) in affirming of the value of human activity in temporal affairs resounded with this theological development. Human efforts to develop and humanize the world are in accord with God's creative and redemptive intent for his creation. The creation story discloses that the human person, created in the image and likeness of God, received a divine command “to conquer the earth with all it contains and to rule the world in justice and holiness.” Fidelity to this task both recognizes God ''as maker of all things” and establishes men and women and all creation in a proper relationship to God the Creator. (GS n. 34)

In addition to meeting material needs, the everyday work of men and women becomes 'a prolongation of the work of the creator, a service to their fellow men, and their contribution to the fulfillment of history of the divine plan.” The Christian message grounds that responsibility for “building up the world” and thereby seeking “the welfare of their fellows.” (GS n. 34)

The Pastoral Constitution warns against creating a “false opposition between professional and social activities on the one part, and religious life on the other.” On the contrary, neglect of temporal duties would be tantamount to neglecting duties towards the neighbor, and even towards God. A Christian should celebrate the gift of being able “to follow the example of Christ, who worked as an artisan.” (GS n.43)

The Second Vatican Council's Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People (Apostolicam Actuositatem, 1965) repeats the inherent value of activities in the temporal order by stating that they “possess a value of their own placed in them by God.” (AA n. 7)

Immediately prior to the Council, Pope John XXIII issued Mater et Magistra (Christianity and Social Progress,1961). His first social encyclical already constructed a foundation for insights that would emanate from the Council itself. Pope John XXIII heightened the consciousness of the specific Christian contributions to the temporal affairs of life. Hence, Mater et Magistra affirmed the harmony between “the perfection of one's soul and the business of life.” An authentic spirituality does not demand abandoning “the activities of the world to strive for Christian perfection ...” (MM n.255)

Again, Lumen Gentium (The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 1964) confirmed the demand to “recognize the inner nature, the value and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of God.” By their involvement in secular affairs, the laity in particular are enjoined to support one another in “greater holiness of life, so that the world may be filled with the spirit of Christ and may more effectively attain its destiny in justice, in love and in peace.” (LG n. 36)

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the first social encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891), Pope John Paul II published Laborem Exercens (On Human Work, 1981). Laborem Exercens approached the social question within a single overarching vision ---the theology of work as the key to the social question. Economic Justice for All, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' 1986 pastoral letter on the economy, sets forth a summary of the threefold moral significance of work according to Laborem Exercens:

First, it is a principal way that people exercise the distinctive human capacity for self-expression and self-realization. Second, it is the ordinary way for human beings to fulfill their material needs. Finally, work enables people to contribute to the well-being of the larger community. Work is not only for one's self. It is for one's family, for the nation, and indeed for the benefit of the entire human family (EJ n.97)

The encyclical brought together the theological meaning of human work and its implication for a gospel-based spirituality.

Accordingly, Laborem Exercens closes with a treatise entitled “Elements for a Spirituality of Work.” Pope John Paul II observes that the “Christian spirituality of work should be a heritage shared by all.” This vision is especially important for modern times for its power to “show forth the maturity called for by the tensions and restlessness of mind and heart.” Thus, in an age of spiritual hunger and searching for deeper meaning in life, the rediscovery of the spiritual dimension of jobs and careers rooted in a biblical vision can fill a void created by forgetfulness of God and of solidarity with others.

There are other strands of thought on work in the Bible that the creation perspective must take into account. Work can be envisioned as burdensome, dehumanizing, and demeaning. This penitential outlook is found in the story of the Fall in the third chapter of the Book of Genesis. The “original blessing” of work was marred by the reality of human sinfulness. (LE n. 27)

Yet the theology of creation and redemption offers assurance that human work retains a positive meaning apart from the pull of evil and sin. A gospel-based spirituality will be drawn to the Paschal Mystery to grasp the “final word of the Gospel on this matter.”

This work of salvation came about through the suffering and death on a cross. By enduring the toil of work in union with Christ crucified for us, man in a way collaborates with the Son of God for the redemption of humanity. He shows himself a true disciple of Christ by carrying the cross in his turn every day [Lk. 9:23] in the activity that he is called upon to perform. (LE n.27)

In the light of the resurrection of Christ, men and women in their earthly tasks can discover “a glimmer of new life, of the new good, as if it were an announcement of the 'the new heavens and the new earth (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1)...”

Pope John Paul II's encyclical Laborem Exercens (On Human Work, 1981) speaks of the narrative of creation in the first chapter of Genesis as being “in a sense the first ‘gospel of work:’”

For it shows that man ought to imitate God, his creator, in working, because man alone has the unique characteristic of likeness to God. Man ought to imitate God both in working and in resting, since God himself wished to present his own creative activity under the form of work and rest. (LE n.25)

Laborem Exercens quotes Gaudium et Spes (n. 34) to recount the necessity of integrating work and the realization of the divine plan.

Jesus in his life, death, and resurrection will be its fullness in his redemptive “gospel of work.”

Catholic Conference of Kentucky

1042 Burlington Lane

Frankfort, Kentucky 40601

502-875-4345 502-875-2841 Fax cckstaffATccky.org

Last modified: February, 2010