This past year was the Year of Saint Jospeh. This was an important year in the life of the Church for it reminded us of the importance of this great saint who so often goes forgotten. Today is the feast day of Saint Joseph the Worker and in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite we observe this feast and commemorate the 2nd Sunday after Easter.
Saint Joseph is the only saint to be known as the worker. From Matthew’s Gospel we hear reference to his line of work, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son.” Spiritual writers throughout time have noted that Saint Jospeh shared two titles with his Heavenly Father. Both are known as being “fathers” and “builders.”
Saint Joseph reminds our society of the importance of being a father and a worker.
Our world is in need of men who are willing to be fathers as well as husbands. Saint Joseph shows the importance of these rolls as he acts as foster father to Jesus and husband to Mary. Our world needs to reclaim this proper understanding of fatherhood as is displayed by Saint Joseph. The father is the one who stands in the place of the Heavenly Father within the confines of the home. Instead of this important understanding the modern world thinks of the father as something so much less.
Our world is also in need of a proper understanding when it pertains to the importance of work. As Saint Clement of Alexandria would write to early Christians around the year 190, “Tend to your farming if you’re a farmer; but know God while you labor in the fields. Sail if navigation is your profession, but invoke always the celestial pilot.”
Work is important for our human society. It is even redemptive and can lead us towards the celestial point of Heaven. The Rule of Saint Benedict states, “Ora et Labora” “Pray and Work.” Saint Joseph reminds us of this important reality for he was a man of prayer. As he went about the toils of the work of his everyday life he never pushed prayer and his relationship with God off to the side.
The Christian understanding of work transcends that of the pagan mind. Ordinary labor holds dignity and is something that can lead us towards divinity. Christ is God made flesh and He too was found at work with Joseph as His guide. Let our own labor be a means which leads us towards prayer and thus lifting up our hearts to the Lord our God.
May Saint Joseph continue to be our guide. May we always come to foster proper devotion to him in order that we may draw closer to Christ.
Saint Joseph the Worker, pray for us.
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