LABOREM EXERCENS: SPIRITUALITY OF WORK: FOR AFRICA

By MARGARET FAGBAMIGBE

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as though you were working for the Lord and not for human beings.” Work is a mandate from the Creator. When human beings work, they are replicating the divine toil; fulfilling the obligation of maintaining humanity, and renewing the face of the earth in cooperation with the Holy Spirit.
The aim of this research is to demonstrate the meaning and spirituality of work so that when we work, we do so with shoulders high, happy, and intent on fulfilling our vocation, doing what we do in connection with God whom we serve and thus making a gradual progress towards our destiny in God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781446628218

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TITLE:

LABOREM EXERCENS:  SPIRITUALITY OF WORK FOR AFRICA

AUTHOR:

MARGARET A. FAGBAMIGBE

COPYRIGHT:

COPYRIGHT © 2021

MARGARET A. FAGBAMIGBE

LABOREM EXERCENS:  SPIRITUALITY OF WORK FOR AFRICA

978-1-4466-2821-8

LABOREM EXERCENS: SPIRITUALITY OF WORK FOR AFRICA

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

The Encyclical of John Paul II: Laborem Exercens ¹ is a reflection on the meaning of human work, where he focuses on the concept of work in relation to the universe and humanity. The whole enterprise is cast within the biblical imperative rooted in the Old and New Testaments that human beings have the commandment to work and have the obligation to do so in the right perspectives. The aim of this research is to demonstrate the meaning and spirituality of work so that when we work, we do so with shoulders high, happy, and intent on fulfilling our vocation, doing what we do in connection with God whom we serve and thus making a gradual progress towards our destiny in God.

The concept of labour is evident in the opening verse of the book of Genesis: בָּרָא (bara). This is a Hebrew word which means to create. God worked in order to create the world.² Accordingly, in order to achieve any meaningful development, there is an element of exertion of energy. Work is associated with God’s creation of the universe and is also related with what human beings are. This is evident also in the book of Genesis³ where we get some insight into human’s nature and the purpose of its existence.⁴ Human beings were fashioned, shaped from the soil; they are to till the soil in order to make their living until they return to their Creator.⁵

John Paul II predicates his call on human beings to work on the biblical texts revolving on Genesis chapter 3 where God gave the mandate to Adam and Eve to work, and so human beings must work and subdue the earth but the Lord God grants blessings on their works in order to be fruitful and multiply.⁶ Thus, John Paul II insists on human work as a sharing in the activity of God, the Creator and it is to God that human beings are orientated. It is in doing the work well here on earth that human beings can rest and attain eternal life, a sharing in the life of God hereafter. ⁷

RATIONALE

The understanding of the Spirituality of work is germane in the contemporary time because it serves as an instrument that could stymie suicide which is born out of nihilism. Nihilism is the concept that nothing is important in life, nothing matters. According to World Health Organization,⁸ suicide data is close to 800,000 people every year, and this means one person every 40 seconds. Thus, this research is presented as an intervention to prevent suicide and suicide attempts. Secondly, the study is presented as an epistemic value (value that helps in discovering transforming knowledge of facts) to be imbibed by every worker in order to achieve self- actualization and self-development, and inclines the workers towards success in the pursuit of life goals. 

METHODOLOGY

The specific methodology under this investigation is speculative in nature; this is a particular technique in dogmatic theology, a function of theological explication method. In this approach, we shall systematically and theologically reflect on the Christian spirituality of work in the light of the scripture and patristic tradition, the two sources which are strongly entrenched in Laborem Exercens, with a view to make it relevant to Africa in the 21st century. 

This procedure is dialectical and dialogical in nature in the sense that it attempts to establish the truth of spirituality of work by means of contextualization so as to make the content of revelation relevant to the people of Africa.  Contextualization is the translation of the unchanging content of the Gospel of the Kingdom into verbal form in order to make it meaningful to the people in their separate cultures and within their particular existential situations.⁹

Contextuality is the need, the urgency, to make the message of Christ relevant through the use of language, symbols, culture, history, hermeneutic and epistemology. Contextual theology is by its nature dialogical, opens to the truth irrespective of the source of that truth. It is a theology done within the ambiance of the Church and for the Church, in agreement with the Church’s doctrine of which the theological embellishments is continuously addressing problems of certain cultural contexts, ¹⁰ at this point in time, the spirituality of work in Africa. Doing a contextual theology becomes imperative if the Church’s mission is to bear fruit or if theologies are to be meaningful to the people. Theologians are under the obligation to construct theologies using contextual philosophy as the hinge for the