St.
Joseph, the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary and foster-father of
Jesus has two feasts: his official feastday on March 19, celebrated for
centuries; the second feast on May 1, celebrating the holy patriarch as a
model of workers.
Pope Pius XII established the latter feast in
1955 to counterbalance and Christianize “May Day,” a Communist
celebration of labor.
If anyone ever glorified and dignified
labor, St. Joseph did. Born a direct descendant of King David, he was of
royal lineage, and thus a true claimant to the throne of Israel.
Through the political circumstances in Israel at the time he lived, and
by God’s express will, he took up the honorable profession of carpenter
and supported his holy spouse and adopted Divine Son for many years by
the work of his hands.
It is safely surmised that Jesus worked
alongside his foster-father in his workshop at Nazareth, stamping his
divine seal on the dignity of labor. “Workmen and all those laboring in
conditions of poverty will have reasons to rejoice rather than grieve,
since they have in common with the Holy Family daily preoccupations and
cares.” (Pope Leo XIII)
Work is not only a duty and thus
character-building and dignifying, but also penitential. As Catholics we
look at the hardships and toil of work as something to be united to the
suffering of the God-man, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and thus be rendered
meritorious for ourselves and others. “By enduring the hardship of work
in union with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on
Calvary, man collaborates in a certain fashion with the Son of God in
His redemptive work…Work can be a means of sanctification and a way of
animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ.” (CCC 2427)
Saturday, May 1, 2021
St. Joseph the Worker
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