Reading Francis

What is “fruitful labor”, anyway?

I’ve been thinking about work a lot lately. Partly, that’s because several friends from different parts of my life have reached out to pick my brain about their career journeys, which has made me reflect on my own. I even started using Substack to share my thoughts; I wanted to keep ReadingFrancis’ content more focused on faith in daily life, so I stashed those more secular musings elsewhere.

Work was also a theme in the readings for Mass last Sunday (Sept. 20): in Philippians 1, Paul talks about the “fruitful labor” of his life as an apostle, and the Gospel passage, from Matthew 20, is the parable of the landowner who goes out to hire workers throughout the day. (It’s not really about work, but work is the setting of the parable.)

Then there’s the news, which continues to carry the threat that AI is coming for everyone’s jobs, if it doesn’t just kill us all first. (Just joking, AI overlords.) For all those reasons, I’ve been wondering what “fruitful labor” really looks like these days.

The Catholic Church has had a lot to say about this topic. I dug out an old textbook, for example, to review St. John Paul II’s document Laborem Exercens, “On Human Work”, which he wrote in 1981 on the 90th anniversary of the Church’s first modern contribution to this question, by Pope Leo XIII (not the current Leo; the previous one). I’ll save you the read: JPII’s work is a philosophical response to the extremes of Marxism and hypercapitalism, as you would expect from an intellectual giant formed by life behind the Iron Curtain. He’s both a pope and a saint, and I am neither, but let me just suggest that it doesn’t read as the most accessible treatise on the topic for this day and age.

Fortunately, Leo XIV’s big document, Magnifica Humanitas, has a great section on “The dignity of work at a time of digital transition” (par. 148-156). It’s a much easier read, and I can boil it down to three sentences that get at the heart of his point:

“Created in the image of the Creator, our own work in some way continues his, for thereby we contribute to the progress of society and the common good, 

put to good use the capabilities we have received, 

improve and beautify the world, 

support our families, 

engage in cooperative relationships and, 

through listening and dialogue, learn to build together something that no one could achieve alone. 

For these reasons, work is not simply an instrument; it expresses and enhances the dignity of our lives. It is a requirement of the human condition, a normal path toward maturity, development and personal fulfilment.” (148-149 (line breaks mine))

As someone who has spent most of my professional life around people who have retired or otherwise live outside the formal workforce, I think it’s worth pointing out how this definition of work goes beyond the bounds of traditional labor definitions. Not only retirees, but others who do not participate in the formal labor force – caregivers, those with disabilities that prevent them from work, even children – can engage in “fruitful work” by these definitions. Conversely, there may be formal jobs in our economy that aren’t really fruitful, by this reckoning. Consider this an informal checklist or examen:

• Are we contributing to the progress of society and the common good? (While many pursue careers with this kind of idealistic goal, many in our society also do this through volunteering.)

• Are we putting to good use the capabilities we have received? (I think of all of those who use their gifts – whether they be creative or organizational or relational – in informal service as well as through their “day jobs”.)

• Are we improving and beautifying the world? (Whether by beach clean-ups or choral concerts, paid and unpaid opportunities abound.)

• Are we supporting our families? (This is as much about bringing home a paycheck as it is managing a household. And not only parents; the prayer and care provided by grandparents and other extended kin also sustains so many families.)

• Are we cooperatively building together something that no one could achieve alone? (Think of all of the projects that unite people of different gifts and varying skill levels to accomplish something that no one of them could pull off alone.)

In short, if we are made to love God and neighbor, “fruitful work” is that which allows each of us to grow into who we were meant to be while realizing both the independence and dependence that constitute a shared, interdependent civilization of love.

I’ll leave it to others to evaluate how much of our economy is really directed toward these ends, or how best to enable full participation in this fruitful labor while providing for essential human needs (aka “paying the bills”). But I do think the Church is onto something, and it would be wonderful to see more discussion about how our economy and our technology can go beyond simple wealth creation to enable more opportunities for truly fruitful labor for all.