Thursday of 7^th week in ordinary time, Yr. II: reflection

Theme: A message to employers.

Readings: 5:1-6; Mk 9:41-50

Many employers of our time, both in the public and private sectors, have advanced from the capitalist mentality of paying meagre salaries to workers on whose labour industries and businesses ride to greatness, to non-payment of workers' wages. They are no longer satisfied with paying peanuts to workers; what appears to give them joy presently is seeing their workers go unpaid.

Every day comes with news of workers complaining about non-payment of salaries and other benefits for months. If these workers dare to protest or strike, as we have seen, they are threatened with contract termination or other harsher measures, such as forfeiture of salaries for the months they are on strike. Workers in some Nigerian states, who have been owed many months of salaries, for example, are forced to sign off more than half of what they are owed in order to be paid, while others are subjected to endless verification processes by each new government.

In today's first reading, St James tells you, rich men/women, government officials, industry owners, and labour hirers, who subject your workers to untold sufferings, unnecessary salary reduction and denial of rights/wages to weep and howl for the miseries that await you. He says all the treasures you acquired with the money belonging to your poor workers will rot before your eyes and their rot will serve as evidence against you. He says the wages you stole from your workers will continue to cry against you from wherever you have hidden them, just as Abel’s blood cried against Cain when he was murdered. He says you will not know true peace and happiness, because if justice is not observed, true happiness in society will never be achieved.

In addition to the alarm raised by St James, in today’s gospel, Jesus warns everyone to detach themselves from whatever will deprive them of eternal bliss. If it is your riches, your beauty, your friends, your job or any other thing that will deprive you of eternal life, Jesus wants you to know that it will be better for you to live your life without it and gain eternal life at the end, than to enjoy it to the full and miss out on heaven because of it.

May God’s grace be abundant in your life as you carry out the activities of this Thursday. Amen

Fr Isaac Chima

 

May 1: Memorial of St Joseph the Worker (Workers’ Day)

MAY GOD BLESS ALL WORKERS

Dear friends in Christ, on this first day of May and the day the world honours workers, the Church presents us St Joseph as a model that should inspire all workers. St Joseph was a humble worker, a carpenter, who was chosen by God to be the foster father and guardian of His Beloved Son Jesus.

God’s choice to enter into human history through the house of a simple, poor and humble worker demonstrates how God values everyone in their little works and it challenges us to recognize the dignity of work, even the poorest of all works, as well as the dignity of all workers, even those who do seemingly unimportant tasks. Let us remember that God can also choose to reveal himself to others from our humble homes and through the little work of our hands. Thus, we must do our works conscientiously, using them to serve both God and humanity. We should approach every work we do reverence and commitment, even if it is not seen or appreciated.

Work is not merely a means of earning a living, it is also a vocation, a means through which we collaborate or cooperate with God in the work of creation and of caring for the creatures of God. Contemplating Joseph as a model of workers is meant to enable all workers to grasp the meaning of human labour as a way of sharing in the creative power of God and cooperating in the building of a more just and Christian society. So, the church challenges us to use every work we do to assist in making the world a better place for everyone.

On this day also, the Church remembers all workers who work in inhuman conditions, workers whose rights, welfare and dignity are denied or not recognized by those who employed them. We pray that God will come to their aid and also touch the hearts of their employers to pay attention to their rights and welfare.

May God bless all workers and the work of their hands. Amen

Fr Isaac Chima