Cardijn Community Inquiry
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WORK CREEP
The Cardijn movements have a history of organizing analysis into the areas of work, family and leisure. We would agree that all three are important and need to be balanced. Is work ‘creeping’ into the other areas of life and, if so, what impact is that having?
SEE
Can you share experiences where work is creeping into your private time?
Why is this happening?
What impact is it having on your life?
JUDGE
What do you think about this?
Who is winning and who is losing in these situations?
How are we part of the very problem?
“…that work is a key, probably the essential key, to the whole social question, if we try to see that question really from the point of view of man’s (sic) good. And if the solution ... must be sought in the direction of ‘making life more human’, then the key, namely human work, acquires fundamental and decisive importance.”
Pope John Paul II Encyclical Laborem Exercens, §3
The apex of biblical teaching on work is the commandment of the Sabbath rest. For man, bound as he is to the necessity of work, this rest opens to the prospect of a fuller freedom, that of the eternal Sabbath (cf. Heb 4:9-10). Rest gives men and women the possibility to remember and experience anew God's work, from Creation to Redemption, to recognize themselves as his work (cf. Eph 2:10), and to give thanks for their lives and for their subsistence to him who is their author.
The memory and the experience of the Sabbath constitute a barrier against becoming slaves to work, whether voluntarily or by force, and against every kind of exploitation, hidden or evident. In fact, the Sabbath rest, besides making it possible for people to participate in the worship of God, was instituted in defence of the poor. Its function is also that of freeing people from the antisocial degeneration of human work.
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, §258
Can you relate Catholic Social Teaching above to the judge section?
ACT
Do you have any steps you will take now to prevent work creep in your life?
Who can you involve in your action?
What needs to happen in the wider community?