120 years ago Pope Leo XIII released Rerum Novarum an encyclical on the “Conditions of Labour”. In my previous post I (or rather G. K. Chesterton) discussed the radical shift this Encyclical brought to thoughts on economic justice. To honour this 120th anniversary I am writing on the Encyclical again; however, rather than discussing the ‘big picture’ of this Encyclical I want to focus instead on the implications Rerum Novarum contains for the ordinary life of a faithful Catholic. Most of the lessons I draw from this Encyclical will be familiar to faithful Catholics but are nonetheless useful reminders, for myself at least, to apply and reapply to life.
One of the first things that struck me on reading the encyclical was the common sense with which Pope Leo XIII presented his argument. This was especially apparent in the Pope’s discussion on property and property rights. Far from a puritanical, unreasonable ascetic Pope Leo demonstrates a far greater sympathy and understanding with man than either the socialist or the capitalist. Contrary to denying the value of corporal goods Pope Leo affirms that material processions can be a source of legitimate pleasure and enjoyment. Man as the “full perfection of the animal being” can thus “enjoy at least as much as the rest of the animal kind, the fruition of things material.” This animal side of man is of course tempered by his spiritual nature but that spiritual nature does not prevent the enjoyment of the material realm. This, therefore, is the first lesson which I take from Rerum Novarum; the material part of man is neither unimportant nor insignificant. If this were true there would be no need for the Pope’s Encyclical because material concerns like the living wage would be unimportant. Matter is not evil and can be legitimately enjoyed. Of course there is a real superiority of the concerns of the soul to the concerns of the body. This does not make your body evil or unimportant, however. Enjoy life’s authentic material pleasures; if you don’t there is probably something wrong with you.
The second point that struck me in Rerum Novarum was the importance of work to humanity. Pope Leo notes that even before the fall man worked in the Garden of Eden. Furthermore
“even had man never fallen from the state of innocence, he would not have remained wholly idle; but that which would then have been his free choice and his delight became afterwards compulsory, and the painful expiation for his disobedience. ‘Cursed be the earth in thy work; in thy labour thou shalt eat of it all the days of thy life.’”
Thus work should be embraces as a core element of our being. Pope Leo also attributes the justification of ownership of private property, in part, to the labour through which a man produces goods. Through labour the fruits of man’s work become “indistinguishable and inseparable” from his work and his ownership of goods is justified. As Pope Leo so rightly states;
“Is it just that the fruit of a man's own sweat and labour should be possessed and enjoyed by anyone else? As effects follow their cause, so is it just and right that the results of labour should belong to those who have bestowed their labour.”
In this way we can see how an idle man could potentially forfeit his rights to ownership through his idleness. Humans are hardwired to work. It’s time to recognise this and quite seeking idleness.
The attempt to avoid the hardships of work is also dealt with in the Encyclical and declared to be impossible. No matter how many times you change your career or workplace seeking that ‘perfect job’ the hardship will remain. A Marxist utopia for the workers is in fact a fools dream. And Pope Leo is totally realistic about this.
The “pains and hardships of life will have no end or cessation on earth; for the consequences of sin are bitter and hard to bear, and they must accompany man so long as life lasts. To suffer and to endure, therefore, is the lot of humanity; let them strive as they may, no strength and no artifice will ever succeed in banishing from human life the ills and troubles which beset it. If any there are who pretend differently - who hold out to a hard-pressed people the boon of freedom from pain and trouble, an undisturbed repose, and constant enjoyment - they delude the people and impose upon them, and their lying promises will only one day bring forth evils worse than the present. Nothing is more useful than to look upon the world as it really is, and at the same time to seek elsewhere, as We have said, for the solace to its troubles.”
This then brings me to the second lesson I took from Rerum Novarum; to seek to avoid labour is flatly contrary to our essence as humans and the hardships of labour are inescapable consequences of original sin. This is one lesson I will constantly have to remind myself of. Instead of avoiding the difficult tasks offer it up and get on with it. The pain will not disappear in this life.
A final lesson I took from Rerum Novarum concerns wealth and how material processions should be treated by a faithful Catholic. Pope Leo reaffirms the Church’s stance that material processions are morally neutral. Catholics are allowed to be wealthy and are not to be condemned for being poor.
“As for riches and the other things which men call good and desirable, whether we have them in abundance, or are lacking in them-so far as eternal happiness is concerned - it makes no difference; the only important thing is to use them correctly.”
And what is the correct use of material wealth?
“Whoever has received from the divine bounty a large share of temporal blessings, whether they be external and material, or gifts of the mind, has received them for the purpose of using them for the perfecting of his own nature, and, at the same time, that he may employ them, as the steward of God's providence, for the benefit of others. "He that hath a talent," said St. Gregory the Great, "let him see that he hide it not; he that hath abundance, let him quicken himself to mercy and generosity; he that hath art and skill, let him do his best to share the use and the utility hereof with his neighbour."
Least this statement seems weak and easy to incorporate into your life let me quote again; and this is the final lesson I am sharing that I took from Rerum Novarum. While wealth is not evil…
“When what necessity demands has been supplied, and one's standing fairly taken thought for, it becomes a duty to give to the indigent out of what remains over. "Of that which remaineth, give alms." It is a duty, not of justice (save in extreme cases), but of Christian charity”
The easiest application of this sentence that I can think of is stop wasting money on frivolities. The Church, in her wisdom, allows us to determine for ourselves exactly what “necessity demands has been supplied, and one's standing fairly taken thought for”; but I know for sure that that sentence is not an accurate description of my spending habits.
This leaves me with another three more areas of my life to work on and to constantly remind myself of and I thought I was reading a dated text directed at multimillionaires and socialists… Well that’s the end of my posts on Rerum Novarum
Vive Christus Rex!
No comments:
Post a Comment