By Fr. Glenn Jones:

Well, our young people go back to school this week.

Just remember, young ones, what it says in the book of Sirach … verbalizing the sentiment of all who love and care for you … wisdom gained from many years of life’s experience which you as of yet lack but will come through the bumps and bruises you’ll inevitably experience:

“My [child], from your youth choose instruction, and until you are old you will keep finding wisdom… For in her service you will toil a little while, and soon you will eat of her produce. She seems very harsh to the uninstructed; a weakling will not remain with her… [but] she will be changed into joy for you…You will wear her like a glorious robe, and put her on like a crown of gladness.” (Sirach 6:18-31)

Yes, secular education is very important, but remember that, in the end, it lasts only for this lifetime … to aid you in life, in the raising of your families and in facilitating your ability to provide charity toward those in need. It’s the knowledge and practice of our faith that is what concerns eternity, and it is that which facilitates our journey toward eternal life.

One of the things you’ll find, young ones, is that your education shouldn’t be—mustn’t be—limited to your formal schooling alone; the wisest take the initiative to learn beyond what is taught in your classes. After all, classes are governed for the median level, or even below that, in the hopes that the fewest possible will fail to keep up. But everyone is different, and therefore capacities and curiosities—and inclinations—for learning and striving are different from one to another. To “play at an Olympic level” takes all the more effort.

Unfortunately, you’ll inevitably find that some are content to do the minimum acceptable … or even less. Society itself in well-meaning but misplaced charity, may excuse, and sometimes even facilitate, lack of effort. For example, the standards of schools are often lowered in efforts to artificially bolster matriculation rates, but this seems to worsen, not benefit, those young people, leading to many “graduates” who either cannot read or who read at an extremely basic level. Lower expectations produce lower results.

Coddling and enabling poor practices never help, but rather harm. They can give us a false feeling of being “nice”, but we have to be practical enough to see down the road at probable consequences. Such analysis may seem unfeeling, but nonetheless is critical yet often disregarded in the emotion of the moment.

One might examine the forced giving of socialism—confiscation from producers and distribution to those who produce less or not at all. While it sounds charitable and “fair” on its face—equal outcomes for everyone, or the Marxist “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” (Critique of the Gotha Pogram, 1875)—it does no lasting good either to provider or recipient; rather it destroys hope and motivation in both. “Why work harder”, says the provider; “Why work, or at least why work hard, at all” says the recipient. We need only witness the downward spirals in countless historically Marxist regimes throughout the world.

Socialism pits classes against one another with promises of false utopianism, not on the understanding of the human psyche and motivations. It’s not unlike the hackneyed example of feeding the bears: when they become dependent, and then either won’t or can’t find food on their own. Are they grateful? No, and they become angry and violent when the then expected largesse ends.

“But socialism is in the Bible! Haven’t you read: ‘…the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common … There was not a needy person among them… [goods were] distributed to each as any had need’”?!! (Acts 4:32-35)

Ah, yes, but the key phrases in that passage are “those who believed [in Jesus]” and “were of one heart and soul”. Unfortunately, our limping humanity is the ever-present obstacle. Even in the strictest  monasteries and convents founded to live this early Christian way, human weakness is never eradicated. So the Church … the faith … remains not a museum of the perfect, but a hospital for the wounded—the spiritually weak and the sinner.

Pope Leo XXIII wrote an entire encyclical on capital and labor, condemning Marxism even without the advantage of the historical precedents that we have: “True, if a family finds itself in exceeding distress … without any prospect of extricating itself, it is right that extreme necessity be met by public aid … [but] it is clear that the main tenet of socialism, community of goods, must be utterly rejected, since it only injures those whom it would seem meant to benefit, is directly contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and would introduce confusion and disorder.” (Rerum Novarum 14, 15) This is important on a religious level because it affects charity and human life.

So let us not be content to be “couch potatoes”, but rather work to the best of our ability, “… as serving the Lord and not men …” (Colossians 3:23), for Paul writes elsewhere: “If anyone will not work, let him not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness … not doing any work.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10-11) We are given our minds and our bodies to work in this brief earthly life to bear fruit for eternal life—for the Lord of the harvest, and for the aid of those truly in need.

So remember, young ones, in your striving for personal and spiritual heights: “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” (Proverbs 16:3) For “Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation … both with and for one another. Hence work is a duty…Work honors the Creator’s gifts and the talents received from him … In work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in his nature. The primordial value of labor stems from man himself, its author and its beneficiary.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2427-2428)

Editor’s note: Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.