In the run-up to May 1st, the Feast of St Joseph the Worker, in his weekly letter the archbishop of Madrid, cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra, points out that “work is God’s gift that makes us stand out for its dignity” and reminds people that Christians are called to give the “warmth of the Lord Resurrected, our most valuable treasure”, to those who suffer “the dark, terrible night of extended unemployment” or have an “uncertain job that makes them social outcasts” and likewise “to the many people who fight to have their professional and social rights acknowledged”. Work, card. Osoro reflects, “is not a gift that is merely granted to human beings by a business or by the State, it is made of the same human nature, it is made of the same essence as the one they are made of. Work is a key factor in people’s dignity. It makes us human, it makes us involved in life; it builds families and the raising of children, and it is the embodiment of our call to transcendence”. However, the archbishop of Madrid points out, “work, as it has come out of God’s hands, contradicts the current employment scene: all over the world, millions of people cannot have access to this God’s gift. In Spain, now that we are leaving behind the inhuman abyss of inacceptable levels of unemployment, we are falling into widespread professional uncertainty: a situation in which young people, many women with family responsibilities, and even pensioners can hardly live decorously”. So, the Day of May 1st is “God’s grace, not only to claim justice for work but to discover the reasons of such change in the social model, which does not do justice to what is human and does not respond to its transcendent call”.