Today is the memorial of St. Joseph the Worker.
When Our Lord came to His native place and taught in the synagogue, the people were astonished at what He said. They wandered where He got such wisdom and mighty deeds. After all, “Is He not the carpenter’s son?” In another words, it was a put down, as they wandered how the son of a lowly carpenter, who was St. Joseph, could say such things.
For many centuries manual work was looked down on, as no more than a way of earning a living, and was considered to be something basically worthless or degrading. Today, materialistic societies tend to classify people according to ‘how much they make’ and their ability to obtain a higher living standard.
In Saint Pope John PaulII, the great’s work, about St. Joseph called, “Guardian of the Redeemer” he states, “It is time for us Christians to shout from the rooftops that work is a gift from God and that it makes no sense to classify men differently, according to their occupation, as if some jobs were nobler or of less significance than others. Work, all work, bears witness to the dignity of man, to his dominion over creation. It is an opportunity to develop one’s personality. It is a bond of union with others, the way to support one’s family, a means of contributing to the improvement of society in which we live and to the progress of humanity.”
The pope is speaking about the dignity of physical labor. When one unites their work to Jesus, it is sanctifying. Jesus worked as a carpenter. But His greatest work was to bring about the salvation of souls, as can be seen most perfectly in His Suffering, Death, and Resurrection.
Our Lord also said, His work was to do the will of the Father. It is therefore our work to do God’s will. God’s will is first and foremost is our state of life, to be a good parent, grandparent, son or daughter, or brother and sister. We should do it to the best of our ability, first and foremost, for the love of God, and secondly for those around us.
It is our work, likewise, to be a good worker doing our job, with exactness, promptness and with love. These things are our work, which sanctifies our soul, if we do them for God, for others, and to the best of our ability.
God worked six days by creating the earth, the seas, animals, fish and birds. But God’s greatest work was to create man in His own image, so that man would love Him, serve Him, and live with Him forever.
It is our work to love God and worship Him, by coming to Mass as often as we are able. It is our work to pray, to rely on Him, to trust in His providence, to seek His will, and to serve our creator.
One who works, submits to others, and works for others, most importantly for God, and in this way imitates St. Joseph, in his humility, in his obedience, and in his faithfulness. St. Joseph’s manual work was that of a carpenter, which in itself has great dignity. But His greatest work was guardian, protector, and provider of the Holy Family. His work was to be the spouse of the Immaculate Conception, and the foster father of the Son of living God.
Today, his work is protect, the Church, as the patron of the Universal Church. Let us imitate St. Joseph, so that by God’s grace, we may work out our salvation, submitting to God’s will in our life, with a humble, faithful, and obedient heart, as we unite our work, with the work of the Redeemer, which has infinite dignity.