The Protestant Work Ethic vs the Catholic Siesta

'It is ironic that Protestantism is largely based on a rejection of the need for works in the spiritual life in the economy of grace but has given us a societal framework where we are all worked to the bone for mammon and material prosperity.'

From Crisis

By Kennedy Hall

A society based on the Protestant Work Ethic, a society with no siestas, is an anti-human society that treats human beings like machines.

“For the desire of money is the root of all evils; which some coveting have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:10)

At a recent Holy Name Society meeting, our pastor gave a conference on the goodness of priests living in a common way of life filled with fraternal charity and time for communal prayer. He used the example of the French Jesuits in New France, who had experienced little success during their first years in Canada; after they adopted a new strategy, that all changed.

When the Jesuits arrived, they figured the best way to evangelize the natives was to live among them and build bonds of trust and friendship, which would also help with language acquisition and understanding their spiritual beliefs. Of course, there was much truth in this mentality, although there was a deficiency realized after much toil and trouble.

Those early years of missionary work in what became Canada were harrowing years of great sacrifice, as Catholic priests essentially lived alone in remote villages with natives. They would huddle up beside the fire in a smokey longhouse, dogs and naked children running around, while they tried to pray their office beside the firelight. The natives did come to love the missionaries in most cases, and great friendships were made. However, conversions were infrequent, and it seemed as if the efforts being put in by the heroic missionaries weren’t yielding the fruit of effective evangelization.

St. Jean de Brébeuf and his comrades had sent letters back to France over the years describing their experiences. A young French priest, who would be the new superior of the Huronia mission when he arrived in North America, devised a plan that he would enact. He dreamed of a priory system where priests would live in common in close vicinity to the natives but not with them. The village Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons was born.

From there, they would venture out together in spurts to say Mass, hear confessions, and catechize. After, they would return to the priory where they could rest, recreate, and spend time in study and prayer. This was very different from how the missionary priests had been living; and it was a welcome change to Brébeuf and others. 

Astonishingly, as the priests spent less time among the natives in their natural dwellings, conversions became more frequent and began to occur in droves. How could this be?

Well, it was not that the heroic missionaries who had forged a path for the new system were completely ineffective or that their work had been in vain. But the stresses of living a solitary existence without the fraternal charity and common prayer life with brother priests had stunted their growth in the spiritual life. I say this in a relative sense because I dare not accuse those great saints of any spiritual aridity as if I am in a place to judge their interior life. However, priests are human beings, just like you and me, and they need recreation, friendship, study, quiet, and they must spend time adoring the Blessed Sacrament, all of which was virtually impossible when they lived alone among the natives.

The priory gave the priests a place to recharge and grow in holiness, and that growth in holiness was more effective for the evangelization of a savage culture than any physical or intellectual activity. 

Our pastor relayed this to us to explain to our group of laymen that families, too, must adopt this mentality, which is so hard in a world where everyone is always “on the go” with somewhere to be and something to do. For parents, for example, all the activities and even Church events in the world could be fruitless if the family does not spend time in quiet prayer and away from the noise of our pagan world.

As I listened to Father, I was reminded of the fact that Catholic civilization had for centuries imbibed this very mentality, and this mentality was expressed with the siesta.

Now, when we Moderns who live in our industrialized world think of a siesta we likely think of stereotypes about Italians and Mexicans who clock out from work after a heavy lunch so they can have a smoke and a nap, as compared to the fervent work ethic of North Americans, who don’t indulge in such silly activities as we are hell-bent on being more “productive.”

But are we truly more productive than those happy-go-lucky Latins who take time in the afternoon to close their shops and visit dreamland? Are we healthier? Are we happier?

The production mentality of North American life is often attributed to the Protestant Work Ethic, which many view as a positive characteristic but I think should be viewed as a slur. It is ironic that Protestantism is largely based on a rejection of the need for works in the spiritual life in the economy of grace but has given us a societal framework where we are all worked to the bone for mammon and material prosperity.

A society based on the Protestant Work Ethic, a society with no siestas, is an anti-human society that treats human beings like machines. In fact, it treats humans worse than it treats animals. Even cattle need rest between ploughs and sojourns in the pastures, but humans are given thirty minutes to eat a sandwich and have to scrape together ten days a year to rest. 

The Protestant mentality that has enwrapped our economic perception for centuries in North America has made us very wealthy, but it has also made us very sick. We are sick physically because we cannot take time to cook; we are sick mentally because we cannot take time to rest; and we are sick spiritually because we are given no time to spend with God. Even our imaginations have become diseased because we have been deprived of that sacred time in the afternoon when the sun is highest in the sky where we close our eyes and dream of castles made of clouds. 

The family home must be like the priory at Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons, and we must find time to leave the savage chaos of the fallen world and spend time around the table, time in the sunroom with a book, and time on our knees with Rosary in hand. If we do not do this with our loved ones, we will find ourselves in a situation where our great efforts that have yielded many material fruits will be fruitless in our souls and the souls of our children.

Of course, we are, in a sense, victims of this world that we did not create, and I imagine your boss will not keep you around long if you appeal to your religious beliefs as an excuse to head home at noon and return at 2:30. Likewise, the principal will likely call the truancy officer if your child disappears for three hours every day to go home and take a nap after a hearty lunch. 

The Latin who takes a long break in the afternoon is not lazy, he is human. He does not store up treasures on earth because he understands he will not be attending his funeral pulling a bank vault behind the hearse that transports his mortal remains. So, if we cannot expect our bosses and our governments to afford us the sacred right to relax and recharge, then we will have to get creative and find ways to make mini siestas wherever we can.

This will be different for everyone, but it is desirable that we take stock of our daily grind and assess where those opportune moments may arise where we can be as sane and as healthy as the old man with calloused hands napping under a tree.