Homily for Labor Day Mass – Bishop Evelio Menjivar
Genesis 2:4b-9; Matthew 25:14-30
Monday, September 1, 2025
Brothers and sisters,
First, I would like to thank the Catholic Labor Network and Fr. Sinclair Oubre for organizing this Mass, in which we come together to pray for and honor the dignity of work, the sacred vocation of labor, and the many sacrifices of every worker. I am also grateful to Fr. Gladstone Stevens, P.S.S., rector of the Theological College, for welcoming us and opening this house of formation so that we may celebrate this Mass today.
I am grateful and humbled by the invitation to celebrate and preach at this Mass, even though I am not an expert on this subject. My first real exposure to labor issues and to the labor movement came in 2012, when I attended a training organized by Fr. Clete Kiley in Chicago. Since then, I have supported several worker-organizing initiatives—meeting with workers, praying with them, and encouraging them to persevere in their efforts. For many Hispanic Catholics in particular, knowing that the Church stands with them is profoundly important, since at times they are uncertain whether their organizing efforts are in conflict with the Church’s teaching. They are always happy when they learn that what they are doing is good and desirable by God.
Our readings, taken from Genesis and the Gospel of Matthew, remind us that labor is not merely about survival or productivity. It is not simply a way to earn money, or a form of punishment. Work is participation in God’s creative action and a stewardship of the gifts He has entrusted to us.
In Genesis, we hear that after God formed (men) that is human beings, God placed them in the garden “to till it and to keep it.” Work, therefore, is not punishment but a vocation. By working, by using God’s given talents, we are co-creators with God, entrusted with cultivating the earth, caring for creation, and contributing to the common good.
The garden, the land, is not ours to exploit; it is entrusted to us to protect and cultivate for the good of all. When labor is reduced to a commodity, when workers are treated as merchandise, God’s plan is distorted, and work becomes oppressive.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the talents. Some interpret this parable narrowly as a celebration of profit: “Show me the money,” as the master demands. But its deeper truth is about stewardship and responsibility. Each servant is entrusted with resources not for selfish gain but for the good of the household.
The question is whether we use our gifts, our collective voice boldly to advance justice and dignity, or whether, out of fear, apathy, or selfishness, we bury them in the ground, remain silence allowing systems of injustice and exploitation to go unchallenged.
The Catholic Church has long defended the dignity of workers. Over 130 years ago, Pope Leo XIII issued Rerum Novarum, the foundational encyclical on workers’ rights. He taught that labor is not a mere economic transaction but a matter of justice. Workers are not tools or machines that produce things and that can be replaced by other more efficient machines; they are human beings created in God’s image. Pope Leo XIII insisted on the rights to fair wages, rest, safe conditions, and the freedom to form unions.
It is refreshing and promising to know that Pope Leo XIV took his name after the apostle of labor. It is our hope that he will put workers right as one of his priorities especially as we face new pressing challenges: workers being displaced by artificial intelligence and robots, families struggling with precarious jobs, and increasing inequalities that degrade human dignity.
Our beloved Pope Francis, in Fratelli Tutti, continued Pope Leo XIII vision: “Work is a profound expression of our dignity. It is a path to growth, human development, and personal fulfillment.” He reminds us that solidarity must always come before profit. An economy that discards workers, especially migrants, the poor, women, and the vulnerable, is an economy that kills and betrays God’s plan for humanity. (FT 162)
This teaching is urgent in our time. Many immigrant workers, our brothers and sisters, continue to suffer grave violations of their dignity. They harvest our food, clean our buildings, care for the elderly, build our homes, and prepare and serve our meals. Yet too often they remain invisible, exploited, underpaid, and fearful. Many live under constant threat of deportation.
Increasingly, they are detained and treated as criminals. But Christ himself identifies with them: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matthew 25:35). When we fail to protect immigrant workers, we fail to recognize the face of Christ in them.
On this Labor Day, we as a faith community must recommit ourselves to defending the dignity of every worker, union and non-union, citizen and immigrant. Justice in the workplace and in our communities is not optional; it is a demand of faith and a matter of justice.
We are called to be like the faithful servants in today’s Gospel: using our talents courageously to build communities where workers are respected, families are secure and united, and labor is honored as a participation in God’s creative love.
Brothers and sisters, as we celebrate this Eucharist on Labor Day, let us bring to the altar together with the bread and wine, fruits of our labor, the struggles, fears, hopes, and sacrifices of all workers and every person. May the God who formed us from the dust, who gave us a common destiny, and who entrusted us with talents and opportunities, grant us the courage to work for justice, to defend the dignity of every worker, and to recognize in each person we come across the image of God.
Amen.