Thought for the Day – 15 June – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
The Divine Worker
“Work is both a right and an obligation, which belongs to all men.
In the beginning of creation, however, work was a pleasure for the human race and the earth yielded its fruits easily and readily.
“The Lord God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to till it and to keep it” (Gen 2:15).
But after Adam’s sin of rebellion, nature, in its turn, rebelled against man.
Work was no longer merely a pleasure but, a chastisement and a dire necessity too.
“Cursed be the ground because of you,” God said to Adam.
“In toil shall you eat of it, all the days of your life; thorn and thistles shall it bring forth to you and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your brow, you shall eat bread.” (Gen 3:17-19).
This commandment of God is binding upon everyone.
Idleness is condemned as the source of evil.
“Idleness is an apt teacher of mischief ” (Ecclus 33:29).
Everyone must engage, in either mental or manual labour.
These two kinds of work, complement one another and are equally dignified and necessary.
A man who works with his hands should not envy the man who works with his intellect.
The mental worker should not despise nor consider himself superior to the manual labourer.
We are all brothers and have been placed wherever we are by the designs of Providence.
For this reason, we should love and help one another.”
Antonio Cardinal Bacci
PART ONE:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/06/15/thought-for-the-day-14-june-the-divine-worker/
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