Sanctify Your Work on this Feast of St. Joseph the Worker

St. Joseph working for the Holy Family
is a great model for our own families.

In honor of St. Joseph I'm reading Pope Saint John Paul II's Apostolic Exhortation, Guardian of the Redeemer. In Chapter IV, the saint reminds us that work is "an expression of love:"

Human work, and especially manual labor, receive special prominence in the Gospel. Along with the humanity of the Son of God, work too has been taken up in the mystery of the Incarnation, and has also been redeemed in a special way. At the workbench where he plied his trade together with Jesus, Joseph brought human work closer to the mystery of the Redemption....What is crucially important here is the sanctification of daily life, a sanctification which each person must acquire according to his or her own state, and one which can be promoted according to a model accessible to all people: "St. Joseph is the model of those humble ones that Christianity raises up to great destinies;...he is the proof that in order to be a good and genuine follower of Christ, there is no need of great things -- it is enough to have the common, simple and human virtues, but they need to be true and authentic."

Celebrate St. Joseph the Worker Today

Pope Pius XII established the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker in 1955 in opposition to the Communist "May Day," although the tradition of honoring St. Joseph as a carpenter is ancient.

Interestingly, in the U.S. in the late 1800s, there was a movement to make May 1st the labor holiday which it is in many other countries of the world. The Knights of Labor, a fraternal organization that included women and blacks, resisted and September was selected instead to separate respect for labor from the views of the radical left. In 1958 President Eisenhower declared May 1st Loyalty and Law Day.

As you go about your work today thank God for the grace of living in a country where you can keep the fruits of your labor and share them with others. A big thank you to small businesses that are the backbone of our workforce. A particular thanks to local family farmers who are among the hardest workers in the nation and an endangered species.

Encourage your children in their entrepreneurial pursuits whether they are setting up a lemonade stand, opening a backyard rock museum, raising a goat to show at the County Fair, or building park benches for an Eagle Scout project. Reflect on the dignity of work which began in the Garden of Eden when God made Adam its overseer.

I expect to have a garden to work on in Purgatory and Heaven. The one in Heaven will have no thorns or gnats, the temperature will always be mild, the ground soft, and every flower and vegetable worthy of the King.