Work Is Love Made Visible: A Meditation on Grace

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12351
• Date: 01 September 2020
• Published date: 01 September 2020
• Author: Jim Wishloff

Work Is Love Made Visible:

A Meditation on Grace

By Jim Wishloff*

AbstrAct. How work is understood and undertaken is a function of

particular philosophical and theological assumptions. A meditation

on work from the perspective of Catholic social thought must begin

with the key articles of the Christian faith, namely, belief in the Trinity

and belief in the Incarnation. Human dignity is profoundly grounded

in this divine reality. Human persons are made in the image of a

triune God and are given a particular vocation to fulfill. The Christian

life is a summons to perfect love. Christians are called to love God

above all things and to love all others and all of creation for the

sake of God. God’s grace elevates Christian disciples to a new level

of being, providing them with the supernatural help they need to

be co-creators with him. This mandate is specified more finely by

examining the specific commands Jesus gives as to the work that

must be done. Jesus sends his followers to reproduce and take care

of creation, to be holy, to bear fruit that will last, to meet the needs

of the most vulnerable, and to evangelize. In this way, the political

economic order is formed according to God’s plan for the world and

takes a considerably different shape from the structures that arise from

dominant secular premises.

Introduction

The story is told of a community in France whose public statue of

Jesus Christ was vandalized. The vandals had broken off Jesus’ hands.

When the townspeople got together to decide on repairing the statue,

someone suggested that they leave it as it was. “It will help us remem-

ber that Jesus has no hands but ours.” What is the work that Jesus

sends us to do? How does he equip us for the mission? These are the

questions taken up in this study.

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 79, No. 4 (September, 2020).

DOI: 10.1111/ajes.12351

© 2020 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc

*Dhillon School of Business, University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. jim.wishloff@

uleth.ca

1182 The American Journal of Economics and Sociology

Jesus knew, of course, that his followers would have to be his heal-

ing hands in the world. He gave the apostles specific commands of

what they were to be and to do in their earthly existence. Having been

present and active at the beginning of creation (Jn. 1:3; Col. 1:16) and

having taken on human form (Jn. 1:14; Heb. 4:15), Jesus knew what

was in man. Jesus provides the grace (Jn. 1:16) in the form of the

indwelling Spirit (Jn. 14:17) needed by his disciples to carry out his

work of mercy.

This article begins with a review of the ontology of work John Paul

II (1981) presents in his encyclical Laborem Exercens and in his other

writings. It is clear that Jesus sends his disciples on a mission, but the

work he gives them to do has its basis in God’s design of creation

and the in-built structure of the human person. This sets the stage to

examine the specific commands Jesus gives as to the work that must

be done. Christians are called to reproduce and take care of creation

(Gen. 1:28), to be holy (Mt. 5:48), to bear fruit that will last (Jn. 15:16),

to meet the needs of the most vulnerable (Mt. 25:31–46), and to evan-

gelize (Mt. 28:19).

Love is to inform all our work. The apostle Paul tells us that without

love we are nothing and we can gain nothing (1 Cor. 13:1–3). But we

cannot imitate and live out the love of Christ by our strength alone

(Jn. 15:5). The possibility of doing our work with great love is opened

up by God’s grace. This supernatural help raises us to a new level of

being. A meditation on this gift of God is offered. Such a contempla-

tion is needed for work to be understood and approached properly.

Children of God

Pope Benedict XVI (2009: §52) expressed thoughts that truly get to

the heart of the issues that humanity faces two decades into the new

millennium. One of those issues is the matter of building a humane

political economy.

Truth, and the love which it reveals, cannot be produced: they can only be

received as a gift. Their ultimate source is not, and cannot be, mankind,

but only God, who is himself Truth and Love. This principle is extremely

important for society and for development, since neither can be a purely

human product; the vocation to development on the part of individual