Daily Reflections May 1, 2012

St. Joseph and our Daily Work

 

Since May 1, 1886, this day has become a day of political demonstrations and celebrations organized by labor unions and other groups. It became a celebration of the international labor movement and left-wing movements that organized street demonstrations and marches by the working class. Red flags during these demonstrations indicated a strong Communist influence.

In response to the growing number of “May Day” celebrations for workers sponsored by Communists, Pope Pius XII instituted the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker in 1955. As today’s Gospel indicates, Jesus was known as “the carpenter’s son.” In another passage the people wonder, “Isn’t he the carpenter?”

The translation of the word “carpenter” is actually misleading. The Greek word used by the evangelists, “tekton,” means a craftsman who works on hard materials, wood, stone and iron. Since Nazareth then was a very small place of not more than 300 people, Joseph would not have earned enough to sustain his family. Seemingly he, and later the growing up Jesus, might have worked in nearby Sepphoris, a city which Herod Antipas rebuilt just during that time and where he needed many craftsmen. It was a hard life for Joseph and his family. When he died, seemingly Jesus took over his work to support His mother Mary.

Labor, the Church teaches, is not punishment for the sin of the first parents, but cooperation with God’s ongoing creative activity in the world. Pius XII once said, “Sin has made it very painful to work upon the land, but it was not sin which brought labor into the world.”

Work, therefore, belongs to the dignity of man because it makes him a collaborator with God. We find dignity in our work, in raising a family, in participating in God’s creative activity. If we would see our work as such, it would become less boring and more fulfilling. Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: How do you regard your work? Do you do it gladly or do you feel forced and burdened by it?

 

Lord, I am glad to realize that You, too, worked hard when You were growing up. Make me realize more the dignity of my work and so find fulfillment in it.