Blessed work...

Fr. Livio Tonello, director

There is a lot of talk about it, especially because many people cannot find it or because it is badly distributed. The future does not look rosy and young people are increasingly disheartened. Ecclesial circles have also given their attention to this problem. Because work has a spiritual as well as material nature. It has to do with God’s creative work. It is indeed a human work, but it finds its roots of meaning in God the Creator. From the beginning God is at work, creates and then rests satisfied for what he has done (Gen 1-2). The fact that man has been “condemned” to toil and to “the sweat of the brow” to draw nourishment from the ground (Gen 3:17-19) is the natural consequence of having separated the meaning of his action from his participation in God’s creative work. When the source and the horizon of meaning are lost, the value and strength to live it are lost. The Church has always explained the meaning of human work by grasping its intimate spirituality. The social encyclicals starting with Pope Leo XIII with Rerum novarum, the Social Weeks of Catholics, and the commitment to workers are well known. «By their…