The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-09-13

TWEEN CAPITALIST AND LA
BoRER.
This country of ours, inspired by
rare wisdom and patriotism, dedicates
one day Of the year to the honor of
the toiler and to the commemoration
of his mighty achievements.
This is most proper and wholesome
and the Catholic Church, that vener-
able mother and guide of nineteen
centuries of toilers, extends her hearty
sanction and congratulation.
The toiler is the chief builder and
mainstay of the nation. The states
man, the scientist and the capitalist
have each his proper sphere of use
fulness, but after all they are but
secondary in Importance to the Ia
borer in the development and main
tenance of a country.
Have you ever paused to consider
the exalted vocation with which the
Creator honors the laborer? God has
elected him to be His co-laborer in
the development and perfection of this
earthly habitation. He has spread
before him those unlimited prairies
and fertile valleys, inviting him
to exercise the thought of his mind
and the magic touch of his hand to
transform them into seas of golden
grain. He has stretched those mighty
mountain ranges across the continent
but half concealing their mineral
treasures; vast forests of stately pines
wave their welcome to the sturdy
woodsman, while their regal ancestors,
buried for centuries in the bosom of
the earth, need but the touch of the
toiler's scepter to radiate warmth and
good cheer on the family hearthstone.
A Noble Vocation.
Truly, the vocation of labor is a
noble one. 1t is a mans normal con-
.dition. He is as truly made for toll
as the sun is for giving light and
heat, or as a violin is for music.
Were the sun to refuse to exert it's
God-given energies, it woufd be a
cold, black, useless blot in the firma-
ment; were violin to refuse to vi
artist it would be but a silent, worth
less failure.
So it is with man. God has estab-
lished him as the source of the worlds S
energies and the instrument of life's
melodies. Like the violin, man is
equipped with four strings, intellect,
will, love and physical power. Were
these faculties to vibrate in perfect
accord with the Masters will earth
would rejoice in the full truth, love
and harmony of the primal Paradise;
but if they fail to respond to the
touch divine this earth must needs
resound with the contentious discord
of hell. In the Garden of Eden labor
was both pleasure and prayer. After
mans rebellion, it became a penance
and curse.
United with his God man was prince
of creation and reigned as dominant
lord of nature; divorced from his God
man became an outlaw and natures
slave.
The history of the toiler during the
subsequent centuries presents a most
pathetic picture of man, ordained by
God to be the ruler of the world,
gradually degenerating to the condi-
tion of the beast of the field, forced
to win the bare necessaries of life
through a sweat of blood under the
sting of need or the lash of his richer
but heartless brother.
Christ, the Model.
But Christ came to redeem man
from the consequences of his trans
gression and restore him to union
with his Creator. He began with the
poor and chose to enter this earth
of His not through palace gates but
through the humble cave Of Bethle-
hem.
Thirty years of His life He spent
in poverty and toll, so poor that HE
had no place to lay His head"
Contact with His Divine Person en-
dowed toll with a new and glorious
dignity. 1t became supernaturalized,
capable of winning not only the sus-
tenance of life but also an eternal
kingdom.
From that hour the shabby garb
of toll became more precious in the
sight of God than the jewelled robe
of wealth; the tool of labor more
noble than royal scepter, and the
sweat of toll that once wreathed the
brow Of Christ radiates, today, sub
liner dignity on the brow of the
lowliest workman than imperial
crown on the brow of kings.
In His first discourse, that wonder
full Sermon on the Mount, Jesus pro-
claimed His prediction for the la
borer, saying: BLESSED are the poor
in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of
heaven" And when He was APP
preached with the question: cart thou
the Messiah?" He gave as one of the
convincing proofs of His divine mis-
sion that ''the poor have the Gospel
preached to them."
How natural then that Christ, when
about to establish His one Church, to
perpetuate His life and mission for
the redemption of the world, would
impress upon her as her distinctive
but most winsome characteristic, His
own toiling poverty.