Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

the doing, separates work from play, sport, and pastime. The relatedness of work to a workpiece
produced is expressed in Greek by érgon and in Latin by opus, whereas pónos, kóros,
and labor - similarly to the French travailler, the Russian robotat, and the German arbeiten -
have something of the toilsome, onerous, and burdensome about them. Nevertheless, the toilsome
and burdensome do not belong to the concept of work per se, since even for fallen man
not all work has to be hard and burdensome, although most work does stand under the law of
the toilsome. The common distinction between intellectual and physical work should not be
carried to extremes, since as a body-soul being, man is active intellectually and physically in
everything he does. A predominantly intellectual or physical work is thus what is meant. Pope
John Paul II understands work in a comprehensive way: as work in agriculture, in mines, in
blast furnaces, in the building trade, but also as being active „at an intellectual workbench,“ as
the work of doctors and nurses, as the service of wives and mothers, as well as the work of
scientists and management. 84
2. An activity that more or less fills the life of a person is a lifework or lifetime position,
which we usually call a profession, and with which the earning of a living is usually connected
(a paid profession). According to its original meaning, a profession is not a private
affair, but a social service, which, of course, must be seen by man as a personal lifework.
§ 2 The Meaning of Work and Profession
1. Work as Necessity.
Through his body man belongs to the household of nature. His unique insertion into the surrounding
world of things, plants, and animals forces man to work. „With underdeveloped
senses, defenseless, naked, embryonic in his entire character, unsure of his instincts, he is a
being existentially dependent on action.“ 85 Without work, self-preservation, the preservation
of the species, and the development of cultural life are not possible. Scripture says: „Make it a
point of honor to. ..work with your hands as we directed you to do, so that you will give good
example to outsiders and want for nothing“ (I Thes 4: II).
2. Work as the Way to the Self-Development of Man.
Although work is object- oriented, it nevertheless appears as an expression of human life. He
becomes „more a human being.“ 86 God is the fullness of life, infinite activity. As God's likeness,
man is also destined to be active. God does not create everything alone; he also leaves
space for secondary causes, especially humans, on whom he has bestowed the faculties of
knowing, willing, and creative production. Thomas Aquinas rejects the view that the powers
bestowed upon creatures are not able to effect anything, „for instance, that it is not fire, that
gives heat, but God in the fire“, as „impossible,“ for then, not only the operative powers of
creatures, but the creatures themselves would be „purposeless“ (I, 105,5). Thomas counts the
idle sloth that abhors doing anything among the seven capital sins (11-11, 35,1). Man
„weaves his history“ (Paul VI). „You have made him little less than the angles, and crowned
him with glory and honor. You have given him rule over the works of your hands, putting all
things under his feet“ (Ps 8:6-7).
3. Work as Shaping and Mastering the Earth.
God has not only bestowed manifold faculties for being active on man. but has also left him
space in the cosmos for operation. „Fill the earth and subdue it“ (Gen 1 :28). By imposing
84 John Paul II, the encyclical Laborem exercens on human work of September 14, 1982, nn. 9, 14, 19.
85 A Gehlen, Die Seele im technischen Zeitalter (Hamburg, 1957),8.
86 Laborem exercens, n 9.
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