Today is the
day Americans celebrate the many talents and gifts of those who labor, who
toil, who use their physical skills and strengths to make our economy work and
our society prosper. These are people
that our society many times doesn’t fully appreciate. We too often overlook the importance of how
they make life more comfortable, and loud pundits denigrate the value of their
organized efforts to insure good lives for themselves and their families. It’s good as a society to stop and reflect on
how our lives are better because of them, and to thank them.
My
grandfathers were these types of workers.
One of them had a high school education, and the other dropped out of
school before high school to work. One
of my grandfathers was an elder in the Mormon faith. My mom’s dad was a convert to Catholicism
(after he married my grandmother). Both
were hard working laborers, men who played by the rules as they understood
them, who were raised with strong family values and work ethics. Sure, they sometimes disagreed with bosses,
politicians, and elected officials, but once decisions were made or elections
were held, they obeyed those for whom they worked, or who led their country.
Because one
of my grandfathers died when I was just sixteen years old and my other
grandfather lived far away, I never talked with them about a lot of things,
topics that in hindsight would have been interesting to pursue. One comes to mind today from reading the gospel
of Luke (Luke 6:6-11).
How would my
grandfathers have reacted to a religious radical that upset the order that they
found in their religion? How would these
steady elders have responded when someone violated the norms of behavior that
they had been taught should be followed without question? Would they have been sympathetic to the
message of the upstart, or suspicious because the new preacher challenged
longstanding traditions? Would they have understood the argument that
He was making, that it was better to address a real human need than to blindly
adhere to a tradition? Would they have been able to comprehend that
in doing good on the sabbath this new prophet was actually giving greater glory
to God than by “keeping the Sabbath holy” through ritual?
Saint Paul
encourages us to celebrate the feast with sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians
5:1-8). Isn’t Jesus saying the same
thing when He asks whether it’s better to save life on the Sabbath rather than
to destroy it? Isn’t the life He’s
talking about saving our authentic spiritual life, and not some shadow that
comes from disengaged obedience? It
seems that the full message of Jesus is to be sincere, to follow the truth, and
to save the lives of others, and by doing so save our own. To cite a psalm (Psalm 5:5-12), the path of
Jesus will “lead us to the justice of the Lord”.
I loved my
grandfathers. They were good men who tried
to build good lives for themselves and their families. While I knew them when they were in their 60’s
(my age now), I didn’t know them then knowing what I know now. How much we could have learned from each
other if my 66-year old person could have talked to their 66-year old reality! It really is something to think about!
My prayer
today is in gratitude for the efforts of the workers among us who too often go
unappreciated, especially in these unprecedented times, for the grace to be
sincere and true, and for the desire to save life rather than destroy it.
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