Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time/ Labor Day
September 01, 2024 – 10:30 AM
Saint Cecilia Catholic Community
Rev. David Justin Lynch
Deuteronomy 4:1-2;6-8 | Psalm 15:2-5
James 1:17-18;21b-22;27 | Mark 7:1-8;14-15;21-23
+In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
As many of you know, I am a retired attorney. But I still pay attention to legal things. That’s why today’s First Readings and today’s Gospel caught my attention. Both are about how human persons and law interact.
Our first reading discusses the laws God revealed to Moses, who told the people he was addressing, in so many words, that they would have a good life if they followed those laws. From the time of Moses, until Jesus appeared, Judaism developed a detailed system of laws that impacted daily life. The intent, however, was better than the result.
Part of that system was the Purity Code which originated in the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, part of what’s known as the Pentateuch or Torah. Other so-called laws came not from the Torah but developed from oral tradition. That’s the kind of regulation to which the author of Mark was referring when discussing the failure of the disciples of Jesus to wash their hands and utensils before eating.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus empathized with people living under the weight of too much law. First Century Judaism was, therefore, law upon law, some of it written, some of it not. Jesus pointed out the hypocrisy of those who promulgated laws for others but who did not live by the law themselves. Isn’t that very fact a symptom of imposing too much law on people?
Too much law continues to be a problem in today’s world. I recently read a book by United States Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch called “Overruled. The Human Toll of Too Much Law.” I don’t always agree with the legal opinions of Justice Gorsuch, but his views on the law in this book mirror mine. The legal system as we know it no longer renders justice. Instead, it suffocates and debilitates human beings in many areas of everyday life.
Nowhere is this more true than in laws affecting work. As today’s Psalm refrain proclaims, “The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.” Many laws affecting work are inherently unjust. Occupational licensing schemes, the immigration system, and the adversarial nature of the relationships between many workers and those who hire their services do not create just outcomes because they do not focus on the inherent dignity of human work.
The traditional theme for Labor Day is to celebrate the victory of unions over oppressive employers. But I take a broader view of Labor Day. I see it as a celebration of the dignity of all human work, whether you are employed, have your own business, or like me, you work, but not for pay. I work as your priest more than forty hours a week but don’t get dime one for it.
All work, paid or not, is bound up with our dignity as human persons. Human dignity is the cornerstone of Catholicism. The Book of Genesis tells us that all humanity, no matter who or what we are, was created in God’s image. Being the image of God, the human individual possesses the dignity of a person who is not just something, but someone.
Human persons were made for work. God enlisted humanity to assist in creation by designing us to develop our gifts and potentialities. Human work is part of God’s design for the universe. Our work is our continuing participation in God’s creation. Sometimes, however, the law interferes with the dignity of human work.
In his book, Justice Gorsuch tells the story of a woman named Isis Brantley and her hair-braiding business. She learned to braid African hair as a child and worked at it all her life. She opened a salon in 1981. She hired people to work for her and taught them her craft. She operated a thriving business until 1997, when seven armed police officers invaded her business, arrested her, and took her to jail.
Her offense? Practicing cosmetology without a license! Some bureaucrats had arbitrarily decided hair braiders needed to take a course in conventional hairdressing. That would cost Isis three thousand dollars and require three hundred hours of her time. None, I repeat, none of that was relevant to traditional African hair-braiding. As Justice Gorsuch tells us, hair braiding was a lifeline for many women in the community that Isis served and an honorable way to put food on the table. Isis responded to the oppressive actions of the State of Texas in Court and lobbying the legislature and finally prevailed, but at significant financial and emotional cost to herself and her family.
Occupational licensing schemes are pervasive everywhere at all levels of government. Some are necessary to protect the public, like those for healthcare providers. But other licenses exist to protect those already established in business by keeping out newcomers. Reducing the number of providers for a given service increases the cost of services to the consumer, thereby fueling inflation.
We see the same principle in another area where the law is unjust because it oppresses people trying to make a living to survive. I’m talking about immigration law. To be allowed to lawfully work in the United States if one is not a citizen, one needs a Green Card or a work permit. Getting either one sometimes takes months, or even years, and entails a plethora of red tape. All of this nonsense is to supposedly protect American workers and keep wages higher than they would if there was free competition in the labor market. Again, the result is higher prices and inflation.
The conservative mantra that immigrants take jobs from citizens is an utter falsehood. Numerous studies from institutions like the National Academy of Sciences, the Brookings Institution, and others have found that immigration has a net positive effect on the economy and does not lead to significant job losses for native workers.
But more important, immigration presents a serious moral issue for Christians that transcends politics. In today’s Gospel, Jesus called out the Pharisees for disregarding God’s law in favor of human tradition. Immigration law does not reflect God’s law. Protecting the jobs and wages of Americans to the disadvantage of other nationalities is not what God wants. What is so sacred about an American? Nothing. People of all nationalities were created in God’s image and are equal in God’s sight.
In the Epistle to the Galatians, Saint Paul says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” We can see in the Acts of the Apostles that the inclusion of people from different backgrounds marked the early Christian community. Clearly, Jesus does not support favoritism towards one particular ethnicity, no matter who it is.
Instead, the Bible consistently emphasizes the importance of showing hospitality and love to strangers and foreigners. This principle is rooted in the experience of the Israelites, who were once strangers in Egypt. The Book of Exodus tells us, “There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”
The New Testament repeatedly emphasizes the inclusivity of God’s kingdom where all nations and peoples are invited to be part of God’s family. Jesus called us to understand and live by the spirit of the Law, which is rooted in love, mercy, and justice, rather than following the letter of the Law without understanding its purpose.
Unfortunately, America’s workplaces are not places of love, mercy, and justice. They have become adversarial instead of everyone working together to achieve common goals.
In some workplaces, salespeople compete against each other rather than acting as a team to increase company revenue. While this is perfectly legal, it breeds mercilessness and hostility rather than love and mercy. It is also not a just way to operate a business because it breeds favoritism.
In other workplaces, employers treat workers unjustly with neither mercy nor love by using their economic clout to impose substandard pay and working conditions. That often leads workers to unionize. The problem with unions, however, is that they coerce workers who don’t want to be part of them. When unions ostracize or commit crimes against workers who choose not to participate in collective actions, unions are not practicing the commandment of Jesus to love one’s neighbor. Coercive collectivism and Jesus do not mix!
I was in business for myself for thirty years and tried my best to foster a non-adversarial workplace. As today’s Epistle tells us, we are to be a doer of God’s word and not a hearer only. I attribute my success in business to following the way of Jesus by acting with justice, mercy, and love through treating workers as I would want to be treated if I were in their shoes. On a practical level, that means fostering open communication, maintaining transparency and accountability, providing necessary and appropriate resources, fair compensation, and promoting from within. All of that goes a long way toward avoiding an adversarial workplace because it recognizes the dignity of human work.
God calls us not to follow rules hoping for some reward in the afterlife but instead to build up God’s kingdom here and now, in this world. The major problem with the rule of law is that legislators who make laws and those who enforce them act without mercy.
My message to legislators, judges and police officers this Labor Day is simple. Do as today’s Epistle says. Be a doer of that Word and not a hearer only. Consider the practical aspects of what you do in regulating human work. Remember that human dignity comes first in the real world of flesh and blood human persons.
God calls us not to obey the letter of human law but to practice justice, mercy, and love. AMEN.