22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Leo's Labor Day
Pastor’s Notes for 31 August 2025 –
Twenty-Second Sunday Ordinary Time
Leo’s Labor Day
It is no secret that Pope Leo XIV took his name “Leo” in part as a nod to Pope Leo XIII. Our current pope sees his as a carrying forward of the sacred duty upheld by his name-sake predecessor to defend workers in this time of economic & global upheaval, especially in the area of human labor & employment.
In a particular way, Leo XIII addressed the value of human labor in the unfolding aftermath of the Industrial Revolution. While the Industrial Revolution allowed for the great increase in goods for purchase, it also replaced cottage industry & personal labor with that of machines. In the process, it belittled the human input into production. Leo XIII issued the encyclical Rerum Novarum (‘On New Things’) to address the connection between capital & labor from a Catholic Christian perspective. While capital & labor are not strictly matters of faith & morals, the application of capital & the utilization of labor can certainly be done by either moral or immoral means. Since humanity has been entrusted with care & stewardship of God’s creation, how we do so – personally & communally – has faith implications. Additionally, Leo XIII made his case in an age where socialism was on the rise, which desired to nationalize all capital & labor as a means to provide for all. While there is certainly a Christian moral imperative to care for the poor, sick, elderly, weak, and marginalized, Leo XIII affirmed this should primarily be done from a human heart of free charity not state mandate. Leo XIII affirmed the role of private property, personal initiative, and benefiting from the fruits of one’s own efforts/labors. Yet, he balanced this acknowledgment with the fact that all first & foremost comes from God. He upheld the need & usefulness of associations & unions, while calling both employers & workers to mutual justice in work & pay. Leo XIII outlined a list of these mutual duties & responsibilities:
“Of these duties, the following bind the proletarian and the worker: fully and faithfully to perform the work which has been freely and equitably agreed upon; never to injure the property, nor to outrage the person, of an employer; never to resort to violence in defending their own cause, nor to engage in riot or disorder; and to have nothing to do with men of evil principles, who work upon the people with artful promises of great results, and excite foolish hopes which usually end in useless regrets and grievous loss. The following duties bind the wealthy owner and the employer: not to look upon their work people as their bondsmen, but to respect in every man his dignity as a person ennobled by Christian character. They are reminded that, according to natural reason and Christian philosophy, working for gain is creditable, not shameful, to a man, since it enables him to earn an honorable livelihood; but to misuse men as though they were things in the pursuit of gain, or to value them solely for their physical powers - that is truly shameful and inhuman. Again justice demands that, in dealing with the working man, religion and the good of his soul must be kept in mind.” (Rerum Novarum, 20).
Further, Leo XIII highlights two characters of true human labor: “First of all, it is personal, inasmuch as the force which acts is bound up with the personality and is the exclusive property of him who acts, and, further, was given to him for his advantage. Secondly, man's labor is necessary; for without the result of labor a man cannot live, and self-preservation is a law of nature, which it is wrong to disobey” (Rerum Novarum, 44). True human labor acknowledges the true human contribution and true human good of labor itself for humanity. Work makes us more human and benefits our very being.
Leo XIII made efforts throughout his Papacy to advocate for the human person at the heart of human labor. In his day, much of that labor was manual hands & back work. Manual labor was being supplanted & replaced by machines & factories. Today, Leo XIV takes up the same call of the innate goodness of human work in the face of modern threats to intellectual labor being unleashed in the world of the digital economy, especially Artificial Intelligence - AI. Neither Leo was or is against the utilization of human intellect to promote the prosperity of ALL humanity (not just the capital & materially rich). Yet, both want to see the economic revolution of their day do so in a manner that morally, ethically, & equitably attends to the innate contribution of the human person to capital & labor while upholding the Human Person – you & me – male & female – made in the Image & Likeness of God. So we can all truly worship God, not just with hearts & minds, but through our application of capital & labor – God’s Tremendous Gift of Creation.
Happy Labor Day – may it benefit you, assist your neighbor, & glorify God!
Nothing Less than saints for the Holy Family of God.
Holy Family, Laborers in Love, Pray for us.
~ Fr Jeremy M. Gries
