While Labour Day evolved into a celebration of work, employers and life, May Day was
a protest against the status quo, government, corporations and other institutions that refused to give working people their deserved share of the economic pie.
In the call of Abraham to leave the home of his ancestors, in Moses» leading his people away from acquiescence in Egyptian slavery, in the prophetic
protests against any localizing or naturalizing domestication of Yahweh's presence, in the apocalyptic rebellions
against the
status quo, in Jesus» idealizing of homelessness, in the Evangelists» turning our attention toward the Risen Lord and in St. Paul's relentless call to freedom from the slavery of legalism, we have a constant chorus of discontent at the idea that we can find our fulfillment in what nature apart from history has given us.