Today is the feast day of St. Joseph the worker. He and St. John the Baptist are the only non-Mary saints to have two feast days. He is special to me because I grew up in St.Joseph county, Indiana, was born in St. Joseph hospital, made all my sacraments in St. Joseph parish and graduated from St. Joseph elementary school. I took the confirmation name of Joseph to honor my grandfather who was a carpenter !
This feast day was instituted in 1955 by Pope Pius XII to offset the communist May Day celebrations touting the communist worker. St. Joseph worked like a normal person worked. He did his duty and quietly worked to provide food and shelter for his family. He didn’t march in any protest or see injustice lurking behind every corner. He was a simple hard working man.
Work from a Catholic perspective is a source of dignity. God is found in the work we do. We teach that God for us cannot be found outside of what we spend most of our time doing. So if we do it we’ll, we give him glory, and if we do it poorly, we offer him a shoddy sacrifice. The earth becomes our altar when our daily work is our daily offering. Work is the pathway to holiness. It was good enough for Joseph and it was good enough for his son Jesus. Work is the pathway holiness !!
And so I say to all of you, we need to get everyone back to work ASAP and back to the Eucharist. St. Joseph the Worker, pray for us !!
DeColores, Deacon Doug