The Cross The Weekly : What is the role of work in the Bible?
Caroline Bauer : The work appears very early in the Bible, from the first chapters of Genesis. At the same time as the act of creation, man is placed there as a worker. With two contradictory aspects. Work is first of all a mission entrusted to him: to collaborate in the work of creation. It can be interpreted as “taking care”, a place where a mission to do good can be accomplished.
But just after, this work is also presented in a negative light, where the man will have to overcome a test with a strong arduousness announced: “It is with difficulty that you will get your food”said God to Adam after he had consumed the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
Is it still valid?
C. B. : I think so. It is a difficulty of all existence to succeed in assuming the ambiguity between effort and accomplishment. The young generation arriving on the labor market and having justified aspirations for a “good life” may be disappointed with what they find, not always seeing the point of what is being done. She discovers a hardship which, if it is no longer necessarily that of working the land, exists, with sometimes intense cadences.
The cultivator has this uncertainty about the fruits of the work, but his proximity to nature allows him to better understand the phenomena. However, there is a form of abstraction in this machinery that the world of work has become. Finding the concrete meaning of what you are doing is no longer obvious and can lead to disengagement.
Is perceived exhaustion a rhythm problem?
C. B. : Because the world would go too fast? No. Young people, for example, like to go fast. It suits them up to a point. The challenge is to measure this tipping point and see what limits can be set to preserve the sense of justice and everyone’s ability to say no. What is reprehensible is when you put pressure on people to the point that they crack.
A first ethical requirement of work for me is the possibility of adjusting to each other so that everyone can live with dignity. Slowing everything down would not be the solution. We then come to the question of speech: is the speech of the person who finds himself in difficulty listened to? And how does the company respond? For example, are there well-identified speaking places to avoid conflict? Because once it’s triggered, it’s already too late.
Is the central place of work in our lives questioned?
C. B. : No, provided we agree on the meaning of the portmanteau word that is work. We generally speak of the production of goods or services in the commercial context. But work has a broader and primary meaning of activity that contributes to the construction of a social life. Here it remains absolutely necessary. I do not believe in the vision of absolutely free labor. We must continue to take into account the question of the arduous nature of the work, which we cannot escape.
What is questioned?
C. B. : The story around our economic system: the myth of getting richer, of improving one’s social position, associated with collective progress, which has long been a driver of commitment to work. This story is very attacked, and it is happy. The ecological challenge shows us that we have built a system on the acquisition and accumulation of goods intended for destruction. A system illustrated, for example, by the practice of planned obsolescence.
However, in the end, we no longer know why we produce such wealth. We have allowed ourselves to be dominated by goods that human beings supposedly produce for themselves but which ultimately contribute to the destruction of their own living conditions. This questioning of the sacralization of the possession of property, I see it as a sign of hope.
What are the conditions of fair work?
C. B. : Let’s propose that a fair job is one that allows the emergence of a “recognition”: recognition of oneself, of others, of the common good… The salary contributes to this, but is not enough. A fair job is both a job paid at a fair wage and inserted in a “good sociality”, and oriented towards the good, independently of the question of effort. All work has its specific arduousness. It is part of a working condition that recognition invites us to overcome in solidarity.
Since the Covid, burnout and resignations have multiplied. How not to despair of work?
C. B. : There is a primary battle to be waged in this matter, it is that for fraternity. Find other modes of social relations that compensate for digital isolation and the relative impoverishment of exchanges through screens. It’s great to see each other and chat from a distance, but it’s not the same thing as a physical meeting and we need to see people, to be with them, to become flesh, to become a body. The Covid was a time of isolation, of profound change in working methods which tested brotherly relationships.
But what is a relationship of true brotherhood? It’s not emotional love, where we have very strong feelings for each other. It’s a deep attention to everyone, respect for everyone’s itinerary and a “fair weight” given to everyone. A biblical term suggests this requirement: it is agape. (divine or unconditional love, editor’s note). This is the basis of a true recognition of the person. It is necessary to be able, as a Christian and beyond, to find the words and gestures which express this ethics of care, not in the sense of a medicalized relationship between caregivers and patients, but an ethics of deep attention to the value of each.
How, on a personal level, can the perception of the meaning of our work evolve?
C. B. : In Genesis, it is God, after the failure of the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, who himself covers the naked bodies of Adam and Eve with clothes that he makes. I find this gesture very beautiful. To return to this source which gives us life, but also the means of this life, is in my opinion the first point of truth of the work for a Christian. If I can pass on to others after having received (goods, a professional position), then I am in a breath of giving which offers its ultimate justice to my work.
It is also a call for society to be built from this gift, beyond me. Of course there is misery, which demonstrates the lack of solidarity in our society. It sounds like a call to conversion… and therefore to re-engagement!