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Homily stories

03 Jul 2011 - Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

The average work week for most Americans is 46 hours, although 38 percent of respondents in a National Sleep Foundation study admitted they work more than 50 hours per week. North Americans work nearly nine full weeks more than their Western European counterparts, and working Americans average about two weeks of vacation per year, while the European worker average is five to six weeks. Many working Americans receive no paid vacation at all. Any way you look at it, laborers in the U.S. and Canada are suffering from time poverty and rest deprivation, which in turn is affecting their physical and spiritual health and contributing to a decrease in family socializing, community involvement, and care for the environment. People are just too tied to their jobs to do much of anything else. Several initiatives, including Take Your Time Back, are underway to encourage local and federal agencies to require employers to guarantee more time to employees in leaves and vacations and reduce the amount of compulsory overtime an employer can impose. Long before any of these guarantees are in place, all those who labor and are burdened can find the rest they so desperately need in Jesus—a rest that cannot be revoked or rescinded by political and economic forces, a rest that will protect against ever living out of balance again.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

laborers working americans take your time back balance

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Who's listening?

05 Sep 2010 - Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

This is Labor Day weekend. Everyone in the assembly works in some way and benefits from their own or others’ work. Remind them of Catholic teaching on the rights of people to decent and productive work, fair wages, private property, economic initiative, and the freedom to organize. As Pope John Paul II wrote in his 1981 encyclical Laborem Exercens, “The church considers it her task always to call attention to the dignity and rights of those who work, to condemn situations in which that dignity and those rights are violated, and to help to guide the above-mentioned changes so as to ensure authentic progress by man and society.”

Labor Day laborers workers work

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Homily stories

05 Sep 2010 - Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

I watched in amazement and admiration as five men worked one scorching summer day putting a new roof on the apartment building next to mine. The black tar and rubber made it 20 degrees hotter for them than the rest of us sweltering in 90-degree heat. They were in long pants and thick boots--protective gear most of us wouldn't choose to don on a hot, humid day. They started at 7 a.m., broke one half hour for lunch, and worked until 5. One guy must have run up and down the three flights of stairs to the ground level 20 times on various errands; another hung over the side of the building repairing the coping strapped in a belt tethered to the chimney. It was dangerous, grueling labor, but they were back the next day for another 10 hours of work that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I hope, at least, they're making good money, I thought to myself. I found out later that these men--all war refugees placed at a disadvantage by language barriers--were risking life and limb and their families' security for little more than minimum wage, and their employer offered them no medical benefits, workers compensation or disability insurance, paid vacations, or pensions. The employer, on the other hand, was building a $4 million house with bathrooms off all six bedrooms, so no one in his family would have to share.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

work laborers Justice

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Homily stories

08 Sep 2019 - Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

I watched in amazement and admiration as five men worked one scorching summer day putting a new roof on the apartment building next to mine. The black tar and rubber made it 20 degrees hotter for them than the rest of us sweltering in 90-degree heat. They were in long pants and thick boots—protective gear most of us wouldn’t choose to don on a hot, humid day. They started at 7 a.m., broke one half hour for lunch, and worked until 5 p.m. One guy must have run up and down the three flights of stairs to the ground level 20 times on various errands; another hung over the side of the building repairing the coping strapped in a belt tethered to the chimney. It was dangerous, grueling labor, but they were back the next day for another 10 hours of work that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. I hope, at least, they’re making good money, I thought to myself. I found out later that these men—all war refugees placed at a disadvantage by language barriers—were risking life and limb and their families’ security for little more than minimum wage, and their employer offered them no medical benefits, workers compensation, disability insurance, paid vacation, or pensions. The employer, on the other hand, was building a $4 million house with bathrooms off all six bedrooms, so no one in his family would have to share.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

laborers greed

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The inner word

24 Sep 2023 - Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Today’s gospel story of the laborers in the vineyard is a brilliant exposition of the all-too-human tendency to envy and even resent another’s good fortune. Who among us hasn’t experienced the feeling at some time or another? Have you ever been in a situation where another person “got” something you felt entitled to, such as a promotion, an inheritance, a gift? How have you managed your feelings of resentment? Do you feel rewarded for your own efforts and labors? If not, what is missing and what can you do to increase your personal satisfaction and sense of well-being?

laborers in the vineyard resentment

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