St. Joseph the Worker—May 1

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the Entrance Antiphon of today's Mass, we're told from the Psalms, “By the labor of your hands you shall eat” (Ps.128:2).

Today is the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. It's been celebrated liturgically since 1955.

On this day, the Church, inspired by St. Joseph's example, commemorates in a special way the human and supernatural value of work, “the hinge of our sanctification” (Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God, Point 62).

We're reminded that all work is a cooperation in God's own work of Creation, and, through Christ, in accordance with our love of God and of others, it can be converted into a true prayer and into an apostolate.

Venerable Fulton Sheen talks about how on one occasion he was on his way to the Second Vatican Council, standing at a bus stop in Rome.

There was a man there who was sweeping the street. He engaged him in conversation, asked him, What time did he get up this morning? Four o'clock. What time would he finish tonight? Nine. How many hours would he work today? Fifteen.

And he asked him, what is your philosophy of life?

This street cleaner said, “Father, if I push this brush with more love of God than the love of God with which you're going to the Second Vatican Council, then God loves me more.” Fulton Sheen said he was right.

The value of our work comes not from the type of work that we do, but from the love with which we do it. Today is a day we look at that human and supernatural value of work, our vocation to work, the world of work.

Pope Francis, in his recent apostolic letter, Patris Corde (With the Heart of a Father), likes to emphasize how St. Joseph was a working father.

He says, “An aspect of the life of St. Joseph that has been emphasized from the time of the first social encyclical, that of Rerum Novarum of Pope Leo XIII, is the relation of St. Joseph to work.

“He was a carpenter who earned an honest living to provide for his family. From him, Jesus learned the value, the dignity, and the joy of what it means to eat bread that is fruit of one's own work.”

Our Lord was the son of a carpenter. He wanted to be known as a son of a carpenter for all time.

He lifted up the dignity of work as an extension of the human person.

Pope Francis says, “In our own day, when employment has once more become a burning subject, and unemployment at times reaches record levels even in nations that for decades have enjoyed a certain degree of prosperity, there is a renewed need to appreciate the importance of dignified work, of which St. Joseph is an exemplary patron.”

In this year of St. Joseph, as we turn to him frequently and ask him for things and offer things to him, we could also ask him that we might sanctify our work a little better, so that it might truly be an instrument of our own sanctification through human and supernatural virtue put into practice, and that it might become a means of apostolate, of reaching out to other souls.

“Work,” he says, “is a means of participating in the work of salvation, an opportunity to hasten the coming of the Kingdom, to develop our talents and abilities, and to put them at the service of society and fraternal communion.”

All professional work is a service: service of our fellow man, service in the family. We have to try and put a service orientation in our work, and love our work, and our vocation to work, and the place where we've been placed, and see how we can do it better, so as to give better service, so as to always be improving in our work; to love our work so that we have a desire to work, and to work better.

Even if we reach what in the world is called a retirement age, it's good to think of other projects that we can get involved in, other things we can do, ways we can serve, ways that we can contribute to the common good and to the benefit of humanity, so that we're always busy using our talents, our abilities, our acumen, and helping other people to do the same thing, to have the same orientation, so that our work never ends, this “hinge of our sanctification.”

Pope Francis says, “It becomes an opportunity for the fulfillment not only of oneself, but also of that primary cell of society, which is the family.”

Our work in the family is particularly important to build up those great future citizens of society, so that they also learn to be people who work, to value their study, or other ways in which they learn to work well and better, sometimes using their minds, sometimes using their hands, because they see that all forms of work are important.

He says, “A family without work is particularly vulnerable to difficulties, tensions, estrangement, and even breakup. How can we speak of human dignity without working to ensure that everyone is able to earn a decent living?”

In the area of work, we have to help other people to work, to be properly rewarded for their work, to respect the work that they do, while at the same time demanding certain standards of work, leading people up onto a new level, not tolerating shoddy workmanship, sometimes demanding a little more from people because we know they're capable of giving it, and so, are capable of giving a better service.

“Working persons,” says Pope Francis, “whatever their job may be, are cooperating with God himself, and in some way becoming creators of the world around us.”

Through that job that God has given us to do, we participate in the work of Creation. There is no job that is of little import. Everyone has a role to play.

“The crisis of our time,” he says, “which is economic, social, cultural, and spiritual, can serve as a summons for all of us to rediscover the value, the importance, and necessity of work for bringing about a new ‘normal’ from which no one is excluded. St. Joseph's work reminds us that God himself, in becoming man, did not disdain work.”

We can ask St. Joseph “to help us to find ways to express our firm conviction that no young person, no person at all, no family should be without work!”

Our work is a gift from God. When the Church presents St. Joseph to us today as a model, the Church is not just endorsing just one form of work, manual labor, but is rather testifying to the dignity and value of all human occupations.

In the First Reading of the Mass from Genesis, we read the account of man's participation in the work of Creation (Gen. 1:26–2:3).

Scripture tells us that God placed man in the garden of Eden “to till it and to keep it” (Gen. 2:15). Man was created in order that he might work.

I knew a philosopher in the Philippines who used to say that as soon as children learn to speak, the first words they should be taught are the words of St. Paul: “He who does not work, neither shall he eat” (2 Thess. 3:10).

Man is created to work. It's like a command of nature, a feature of his condition as being a created being, an expression of his dignity, a means whereby he cooperates in the great overall task of Providence.

In Genesis, we also read, “Cursed is the ground because of you.” This is after original sin. “In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. … In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread” (Gen. 3:17-19).

Work becomes difficult, an uphill climb, after original sin, but work was not meant to be a punishment.

It's a means of our fulfillment, of the development of our talents, our personality. It's not meant to be an instrument of oppression. God did not punish man with work.

We have to try and see this lofty dignity of work; see how we lift the world up onto a new level.

Fulton Sheen tells a story of how a ray of sunlight leapt from out of the azure sky, and it came down, down, down, to a little drop of muddy water in a puddle, and took a hold of this little droplet of muddy water and lifted it up, high, high, high, way above the clouds, and filled it full of its radiant sunbeams, and then deposited it as an immaculate snowflake on a mountain top, so that as it melts it might make the valleys fertile.

When we sanctify our work, we lift up those ordinary little tasks of every day up onto a whole new level, where those things can do great good.

The Book of Proverbs says, “Show me a man who does a good job, and I will show you a man who is better than most, and worthy of the company of kings” (Prov. 22:29).

On this first day of May, we could ask St. Joseph that we might be that person who does a good job.

St. Josemaría used to say we should try and make each day a Mass.

A man told me once how he had spent eight hours that day at a very intense meeting, came out after that meeting, felt totally exhausted, and felt that that day had been a Mass. He'd been with Christ on the cross.

Each day is meant to be an invitation to be with Christ on the cross, to accept the ups and downs, and realities of work, the stresses, the tensions, the contradictions, the things that don't work out.

Part of our vocation is to be there. This is part of the will of God for us.

The Book of Job says, “Man is born to work, and the bird to fly” (Job 5:7). God placed man in the world so that he should work and perfect the work of Creation.

In an encyclical called Laborem Exercens (The Exercise of Work), Pope John Paul says, “But work continues being good.”

“Work is a good thing for man—a good thing for his humanity—because through work man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves fulfillment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes ‘more a human being.’”

Every human person should want to work, to form people so that they have a desire to work—look forward to it, love it, want to improve it all the time.

When Our Lord came on earth, he wanted to spend many years engaged in manual work, transforming that professional work into a redeeming reality.

A lady asked me once, “Father, when I turn on my computer, can that be redemptive?”

Very interesting question. And the answer is yes.

We believe that the little actions of each day, like flicking on our computer switch, when united to the Mass, offered by Christ to His heavenly Father, participates in the work of Redemption. It becomes redemptive.

Our Lord called His apostles in the midst of their ordinary occupations. We're told in Christ Is Passing By, by St. Josemaría, “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,” he says, “bears witness to the dignity of man and 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 the society in which we live and in the progress of all humanity” (J. Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By, Point 47).

Pope St. John Paul says that we look to St. Joseph, who worked for his living, that his feast proposes him to us as a model and a patron of our work. We can ask him to ensure that our work never loses its value or its dignity.

One of the documents of the Church, an early document on human work, talked about how often, from a factory, matter goes out improved, whereas “the men there are corrupted and degraded” (Pius XII, Encyclical, Quadragesimo Anno–On the Fortieth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum), May 15, 1931).

Our work, like St. Joseph's, should leave our hands as a prayerful and pleasing offering to God. It should be the best job that we can do.

Just like you sign a contract, or you sign a form, to say that you're in agreement with everything that's stated there, we should be able to sign after each hour of work: ‘This is the best I can do. I put my whole heart and soul and my mind into this particular thing.’

The people asked, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?” (Mark 6:3). Our Lord wanted to be known as the son of the carpenter. He practiced the same profession as Joseph.

Man's work is taken up by the Son of God to be sanctified, united to Christ the Redeemer.

All the negative qualities that attach themselves to work as a consequence of original sin—weariness, toil, hardship and difficulties—become, in Christ, something of immense value for every individual and for all mankind.

Man is now associated with the work of Redemption wrought by Christ, “whose labor with His hands at Nazareth greatly ennobled the dignity of work” (Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, Point 67).

The honest occupation that I'm involved in can lead to my perfection as an individual and can contribute to the whole of society.

I ask St. Joseph, that we might care a little more for our work, use the opportunities well, and also speak to those around us, so that they can also lift up their work; maybe, have a different outlook or orientation in the things they do each day.

Sometimes we may have to help other people to seek work, or to seek it ourselves, or to have a to-do list for each period of work that we're in. We organize ourselves better.

We put human virtues into practice: order, punctuality, integrity, perseverance, fortitude, ambition, humility; when things go wrong, to accept the ups and downs.

We see how perhaps we can create more employment in order to employ other people, and to offer all this to Our Lord: the perfection we put into that work, which is often in the details—double-checking, looking back, communicating well.

We could ask ourselves, How hard do I try to do things perfectly and punctually? As a result, what is my professional prestige? Am I well-regarded among my colleagues? It can be an indication of how well we're working, how they value our service.

It can be a very good thing to ask for feedback so that we get objective advice and criteria about how to do better the next time, somebody who asks for feedback—feedback is a very good sign that they want to do better, they want to improve—a sign of professionalism.

We can ask St. Joseph to help us to have a methodical approach to things; also to have a sense of urgency. Often, work well done is work done in the shortest possible time, carried out with attention to every little detail as carefully and as considerately as we can, fulfilling things conscientiously.

In the Prayer Over the Gifts of today's Mass, it says, “Lord God, fountain of all mercy, look upon our gifts on this feast of St. Joseph. Let our sacrifice become the protection of all who call on you.”

There may be many moments in our working day when we try to lift up our heart and soul to God, living a presence of God in our work, bringing God into things so that we don't live at the margin of these great realities.

We thank God for the fact that we have work; that we have our talents and abilities; that we have the strength and the health to do the things that we try to do, so that we have great ambition in our work.

We want to try and change the world. We've come to change the way the world does business, to help people to lift up their heart and soul to God.

St. Josemaría liked to say that we have come to turn the world inside out, like you turn a sock inside out.

“This is the secret,” he says, “of the holiness which I have now been preaching for so many years. God has called us to imitate him. He has called you and me so that, living as we do in the middle of the world—and continuing to be ordinary everyday people!—we may put Christ at the top of all human activities” (J. Escrivá, Friends of God, Point 58).

The vocation of the lay person in the middle of the world is to order all temporary realities to God. We have to try and love our place in the middle of the world. Love the world, because that's where God wants us to be, trying to lift up our profession.

St. Josemaría liked the phrase, “Regnare Christum volumus!—we want Christ to reign” (J. Escrivá, The Forge, Point 639).

We want to put Him on top of everything. We’re told to sanctify one's profession, any profession. Any honest human task can be sanctified directly to God. It's enough that it should be honest.

We're told in the Furrow: “Before God, no occupation is in itself great or small. Everything gains the value of the love with which it is done” (J. Escrivá, Furrow, Point 487).

One concrete conclusion from this could be a resolution to pay a lot of attention to the work your children do. Their homework is their work. The work they do in school is their work.

If you're a parent and you check it frequently, it communicates a sense of importance to their work. You check the standards with which they do it. They come to see this is important. ‘I need to work in a certain way. I need to convert it into a prayer.’

To appear as a good job is not enough. It must truly be so, with care for small things, and avoiding botched-up jobs and unfinished corners.

We’re told in The Forge, “If we really want to sanctify our work, we have inescapably to fulfill the first condition: that of working—and working well!—with human and supernatural seriousness” (J. Escrivá, The Forge, Point 698).

When St. Joseph was working, he would have had the child Jesus beside him. Occasionally he might have asked him to hold a piece of wood while he sawed it. In another moment he might have shown him how to use a chisel or a plane.

Whenever he got tired he would have been able to look at his son, who was the Son of God. His work would thereby acquire a new value because he would realize that he was cooperating mysteriously in the entire work of salvation.

We can ask St. Joseph to help us to live a deeper presence of God while we may be very engrossed in our work.

St. Josemaría used to say that if we offer our work at the beginning and at the end, and also in the middle of our work, if we get distracted for a moment, we can lift up that work with our heart and soul and mind to God.

God doesn't want us to be turning to Him at every moment. He wants us to be immersed, fully taken up in the job that we are doing, which itself becomes a prayer if we do it well, and also to use our work as a means to reach out to others.

We are told in Christ Is Passing By, “Professional work is also an apostolate, an opportunity to give ourselves to others, to reveal Christ to them and to lead them to God the Father—all of which is the overflow of the charity which the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts (J. Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By, Point 49).

This particular feast day in the Year of St. Joseph is a special day, a day to remind ourselves of this Year of St. Joseph.

We have so many things to place before him, so many opportunities in our work to imitate him, or to grow to be a better apostle in and through our work.

On this first day of May, we look forward to this month of Our Lady, which invites us to be closer to the spouse of St. Joseph, to ask her for the apostolic fruitfulness of this month, to possibly plan some visits to her shrines as a Marian custom in this particular month, to be a little closer to her and ask her for the intentions of the Holy Father and of the Church, and place before Our Mother all the intentions that we have in our mind and heart.

We know that St. Joseph will place those things before Our Lady also when we go to him with greater devotion each time.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

GD