Continuing our
blog series examining the
Core Values of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice
(CESJ), we follow up on yesterday’s
posting on our little explication of “Nothing should stand between God and
the human person,” with a dissertation on the meaning of work. As it says in the CESJ Core Values,
There is a hierarchy of human
work: The highest form of work is perfecting the social order to elevate each
person in his or her relationship to God. The lowest but most urgent form of
work is for sheer personal survival.
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| Yup. Aristotle again. |
This particular
Core Value is an application of the “law of the urgent over the important.” It does, however, take something for granted:
that work is essential for human development.
The question is, What kind of work?
To oversimplify
somewhat, there are two types of work.
There is the work you do to survive, and the work you do to become more
fully human.
The latter
requires a bit of explanation. If (as we’ve
said in a number of previous postings) the meaning and purpose of life is to
become more fully human, then the main goal of every human being is to become
more fully human.
Since human
beings are (as Aristotle said — and we agree with him . . . and if you don’t,
you probably don’t want to read further) “political animals,” we naturally
require a social order suitable for carrying out the task of becoming more
fully human. Thus, we conclude that the
highest form of work is that which creates and maintains a social order suited
to each person carrying out his or her task of becoming more fully human. Within the Aristotelian framework within
which CESJ operates, becoming more fully human means conforming closer to human
nature.
 |
| Missing the point a little. |
Now it gets
complicated. Since human nature is
necessarily a reflection of the Nature of the Ultimate Source that created
human beings — and since “[m]any people call this Source, God” — conforming to human
nature means conforming to the Nature of the Creator. Becoming more fully human can therefore be
understood as becoming more like God. Of
course, rational people know all the while that we will never, ever become
God, just more and more like Him.
Yes, we’re using
the masculine pronoun for the sake of convenience and general cultural heritage;
if you want to substitute He, She, or It, go ahead . . . we’re talking about
the perfect Being that Aristotle called “the God of the Philosophers”, of which
you can draw certain logical conclusions, but nothing else. Thus we say that the highest form of work for
a political animal as a political animal (as we say in the Core Values) “is
perfecting the social order to elevate each person in his or her relationship
to God.”
 |
| Not wrong, but not quite right, either. |
Obviously,
considering each human person solely as an individual, the highest form of work
is to elevate your own relationship to God by conforming yourself to nature,
but we’re talking about the Core Values of the Center for Economic and Social
Justice here, and the concern is for human beings as political animals, not
mere individuals. As political animals,
our task is to take care of the common good, that vast network of institutions
within which we realize our individual goods, so that it is possible for
individuals to become more fully human.
In this way we
fulfill our obligations both as political animals and as individuals. It’s not an either/or. It’s both. Human beings’ individual nature and social
nature complement, they do not contradict each other; they are two halves of a
whole.
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| A good indication something isn't right about work. |
. . . as are the
forms of work, the first of which we have just covered, that of elevating one’s
relationship to God. The lowest but most
urgent form of work — for sheer personal survival — does not contradict the
highest form of work, but (again) complements it. After all, if you’re not alive, it’s not
going to do you much good to be elevating yourself in your relationship to God,
now, is it? You’re in Heaven, Purgatory,
or Hell getting you just deserts, or you’ve ceased to exist, or something, so
it’s a moot point.
Because the
lowest and the highest forms of work are complementary, they must not
contradict one another. No one should
ever be put in the position of going along to get along. For example, in today’s poorly structured
social order, how many people vote for a candidate who they think will get them
what they want, instead of feeling confident they have the power to get it for
themselves?
The question then
becomes, How is it possible to stay alive and elevate one’s relationship to
God? The quick — and, as far as we are
concerned, the right — answer is to be able to exercise your natural rights of
life, liberty, and private property. The
exercise of these rights not only allows people to take care of themselves, it
elevates them in their relationship to God by making it possible for them to
acquire and develop “virtue” — “human-ness.”
And you thought
work was just to earn money to keep you alive to work.
A lot you know.
#30#