Human kind, right from its birth, always tries hard to survive doing all sorts of work. Essentially, there is no divide between the poor and the rich in doing hard work. The rich works hard to become richer whereas the poor works hard to earn his day’s bread. Every individual has to work, to feed himself / herself. ‘No work, no pay’ signifies the fact that work has no alternative. St. Paul warns us, “He who does no work, has no right to eat”. This teaching beautifully highlights the dignity and importance of labour.

May Day or Labour Day is celebrated in India as well as many other countries on the first day of the month of May. This day we honour the contribution of working men and women. The labour Day is a special occasion when people worldwide celebrate the true spirit of the working class. It’s the day when workers get together and showcase their strength which indicates how effectively they can struggle to bring in positive reforms for the working man and woman. Every act of labour, whether in business, offices, household chores has its own dignity. Also, many of our brothers & sisters do selfless service for the cause of humanity, without expecting anything in return. They firmly believe in the term, “Service of mankind is service to God”. We do know that this service is as important as worshipping God. A person who devotes his life and time for the betterment of the human race is loved by God. God would rather want us to live not only for ourselves but for our fellowmen too.

The dignity of labour is one of the major themes in the Christian ethics. It is the philosophy that all types of jobs are treated equally and no occupation is considered superior or inferior.

You must have heard the phrase “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. A person’s mind cannot really be idle, it is always busy. But an idle person uses his mind to think up evil things while a busy person has no time to dwell on anything but his / her work.

A person who has no work, becomes lazy and starts to think of easy, quick way of making a living without doing hard and honest work. Indeed it’s a curse to remain idle. Let us all make every effort to keep ourselves occupied. The more a person works, the more he progresses. Let’s do our best.

Until we meet again.

Felix Dias