Labour Day Classic
Oskee Wee Wee
Oskee Wha Wha
Holy Mackinaw
Tigers ... Eat'em RAW!!
(Cheer by Vince Wirtz 1941 as adapted by Paul Weiler a.k.a. Pigskin Pete)
I write this as a begin my yearly pilgrimage to the Labour Day Classic football game between the Hamilton Tiger Cats and the Toronto Argonauts. Each year I get one CFL football game in with some of my brother priests and friends. It is a great time to sit back and become part of the screaming masses of Tiger Cats fans that come out to support their team. There is a strong sense of fraternity among the Ti-Cat fans as our team goes out to battle the big city corporate types in Toronto. It is expected that we will lose so it is even more of a triumph if we win. Everyone loves the underdog.
This battle between the steel town boys and the big city boatmen reflects a deeper battle of ordinary laborers and corporate business. On this Labour Day the stands were full of ordinary people worrying about the future as they begin to realize that they may not fit into the economic equation anymore. Autoworkers, steelworker and farm workers that were once the strength of Ontario’s economic engine are now seen as a drain on business. This runs so contrary so Catholic Social Teaching. For Catholics, people were not created for work as mere resources but work was created for people to perfect us.
Work is a good thing for man--a good thing for his humanity--because through work man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves fulfillment as a human being and indeed in a sense becomes "more a human being."
(Pope John Paul II, Encyclical on Human Work promulgated 14 September 1981)
As members of the Catholic Women’s League we are well aware of the dignity of human labor. The many activities the League engages in are opportunities for our members to give of themselves. The gift of each member is more important than the task at hand. Christ is present when we are allow to give of ourselves and we are perfected in his image when share our time and talents.
As we begin the work of the League in the coming year, may we echo the refrain of this ancient Eucharistic hymn:
Where the many work together,
They with Christ himself abide,
But the lonely workers also
Find him ever at their side.
Lo, the Prince of common welfare
Dwells within the market strife;
Lo, the bread of heaven is broken
In the sacrament of life.
(Magnificat, Vol. 10, No. 7, Pg. 29)