The Call to Work

Americans pause this Labor Day holiday to enjoy family time, but also to reflect on the gift of work. First of all, to have the health and skills to work is a blessing.  Yes, we train, we work hard at being able to work, but in the end, it is a blessing, more noticeable when we hear of illness that has taken people from their jobs.  In an economy which is still precarious, it is a blessing to have work.  So many have experienced losing their jobs, watching age-old, rock solid businesses just melt away.
But above all, work is a command from God..."by the sweat of your brow"...(see Genesis 3:19).  Jesus himself came to do the "work" of his father as so often mentioned in the Gospel of John,  And in today's Gospel from Luke (4:16-30), he gives us his "job description":  "to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to he blind, let the oppressed go free and proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord."  (Lk 4: 18-19).  Jesus lifts work to the dignity of service to the Father, a call to all of us to realize that there is a holiness in work, one which can be buried under stress which then makes work a drudgery.  Perhaps our reflections today might help us regain this outlook and help us to approach our jobs with joy, loving them, and finding pleasure, satisfaction and fun in them.
Bro. Rene