The irony of Labor Day just past has
been gnawing at me. As I understand it, Labor Day was achieved by the labor
movement to celebrate the achievements of the American worker. Part of the motivation was
to make the American worker appreciated in order to push for higher wages and
better working conditions.
However, we recall that at that time,
(early 20th century) the target for this holiday were some of the
lowest paid workers who were pushing the industrial machine.
Now many of our manufacturing jobs
have been shipped overseas.
Today the lowest paid American
workers are in service and retail jobs … and they don’t get a holiday on Labor
Day.
In the drive to make more and
more money, we have lost the meaning of holidays.
Holidays have become
opportunities for business to make more money, not to relax and enjoy our family,
not to appreciate our country and our heritage, and most definitely not to
worship our God.
Especially as Catholics, how many
of our Holy Days have been moved to Sundays so we can celebrate with the Holy
Sacrifice?
I listened to a talk the other day about how St. John Paul II viewed keeping Sunday holy as a key component of "the new evangelization" - a sign to the culture. But to be a sign, we need to actually practice this gift from God.
Oremus pro invicem!
2 comments:
I burn vacation time for Holy Week and All Saints/All Souls Day. Days of Holy Obligation are especially hard for me. But I refuse to work a job that requires me to labor on Sunday. God bless Chick-fil-A that closes on Sunday. More Christian and Catholic businesses should do this.
Well I hate to keep beating a dead horse but this one is still alive here in Chile.
ALL, ALL Catholic HOLY days are national holidays here in Chile. Always have been always will be.
Now is that to say that everyone celebrates these days with the HOLY part in mind? NO, but at least there it is.... the name of the HOLY DAY and it is free of work for the whole country. No fuss, no muss or demonstrations about separation of Church and State here. We have HOLY HOLIDAYS that have the Catholic name and all the trappings that go with it. The interesting part is that what little hubub there is almost always points to how much better it is in the former USA since the USA is now scrubbed of all things Holy day'ish.
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