Lesson 8: Work
The classic definition of economy was the management of the family or community that makes sure everyone is treated with dignity and has enough.
We find ourselves in trouble because the model of the economy, that served us well in the past, no longer works in a technological society. That model believed work bestowed dignity when people competed with others in amassing private property. It assumed the supply-demand characteristics of a free market provided an invisible hand that made this work for the common good. This model has failed as modern technology provided power for some to amass more and more private property by controlling the risks in the market to their own advantage. We have also found that the model is unable to heal the resulting deep separation of rich and poor, because this technology increasingly eliminates the need for human labor. Indeed, those most able to amass private property today manipulate finances rather than provide work for people.
When she wrote over 25 years ago, Sister Joan thought the Benedictine Rule offered some guidance for coming up with a new model. This would begin by consciously seeing your work as directly benefiting the common good. You do not only work to make money for yourself, but also to care for the creation and the community. She felt placing work in this context would enable us to establish humane priorities.
My first response is that this presents a tremendous challenge. The Rule assumes a Christian community in which nobody has any personal possessions. In fact, private property is pictured as a great vice. All have enough, because the community takes care of everyone. However, work is a duty. An authoritarian abbot makes sure every last person does their share, but he also takes care that the infirmed are given tasks according to their ability. How can this be helpful when we have so much personal property and so little authority to control its use?
My second take is that the Rule still offers us some much-needed perspective. When I have spent time at monasteries, I have always been impressed that work is valued in balance with other activities. Some monks appear for worship in work clothes rather than monastic robes during the day. At times, some are visibly absent, excused because they are needed when animals give birth. Work is a natural part of the day, but it does not consume the worker. I have never met a workaholic monk. None seems to think that they are defined by what they do rather than who they are. It is worth examining what has contributed to this way of life.
Studying the Rule might help in two ways. First, it could go a long way in making clear how much the common good has disappeared in our present situation. Then it could offer some foundation for building a new economic model. If the common good can no longer be presumed, then we must directly concentrate on its development. Sister Joan repeatedly emphasizes that this should include seeing work as co-creation. Work is not primarily about making money but rather about contributing to the creation and the community. Our work develops, rather than destroys, God’s creation. It produces care for people rather than exploitation of them for personal profit.
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I see the problem being with us and not with our system. Our modern society has financial ‘wants’ never contemplated in previous generations. A monastic life has nearly none of these ‘wants’. The economic system we enjoy today may have disparities, but you cannot ignore that a higher percentage of our society has benefited financially from this system than can be said of any other previous economic system in history. It is wrong to point to our economic system as the problem. How we use the economic system in our personal lives is the true issue. I believe we are a society more narcissistic than any other before it. To create more common good that will benefit our brothers and sisters, we must first look to our own hearts. We must change our own priorities and become a people who truly want to give rather than receive, one who wants to make rather than take, one who values a life of service, and one who wants to leave this world better than they found it. You cannot do this by a change in government personnel, or a change in laws, or economic system, or even a monastic life. This will only be changed by those who proclaim the faith boldly to others and set examples with their lives to bring the Light of the world to those in darkness.
Understood John however we make up the system and in
turn our system shapes us. ciao paul
Fritz thx heaps for this as it concisely, in my view, summarises the dignity of work.
In German work can be translated two ways – arbiet – grunt labour (now as you say being done by technology) and Handwerker – craft. For me here you refer through the first to the second.
I am delighted that my actio divina jpg was wroth including. Ciao paul
I found the NPR article interesting (mentioned in the email he sent out, but the picture above also links to it). However the first thing I noticed, even in the picture at the beginning was the lack of children, of families. The article goes on to describe how these are a bunch of childless young professionals living together for a while. As I was about it dismiss it as them having found a way to keep the fraternity lifestyle going, it occurred to me that the same issue seems to be present in the other communities we’ve been studying here.
Certainly the monastic organizations Fritz has been covering haven’t included having and raising children.
I also wonder how much of a complication they presented to the early Christian communities. Perhaps that’s why Paul took up some of his precious time and parchment to speak against having children and families?
I do feel the difference it makes for me if I’m honest. A family requires much more resources, so having “enough” is much harder, and they certainly take up a great deal of time. It’s also much easier to not worry about the future when it’s just oneself, perhaps you could simply accept whatever outcome occurs. But you really don’t want to see depravity descend on your little children.