The Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, May 1, 2021

Colossians 3:14-15, 17, 23-24

Brothers and sisters: Over all these things put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one Body. And be thankful. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Whatever you do, do from the heart, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that you will receive from the Lord the due payment of the inheritance; be slaves of the Lord Christ.

In 1955, Pope Pius XII appointed the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker to be celebrated on the First of May, a day on which annual communist-inspired worker demonstrations had taken place since the late nineteenth century.  The Pope’s purpose was to celebrate the good of human labor by showing how it relates to the mysteries of God’s creation and of our salvation.  As John Paul II wrote in his apostolic letter, “Guardian of the Redeemer”: “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.”  By imitating Jesus, who followed in the work of his foster-father, we do this as well.

In his letters to the Gentile Christians, as in his Letter to the Colossians, St. Paul teaches a new way of looking at life.  This is hard work because while the Jews spent their lives in carrying out their Law, the Gentiles had nothing like this and spent their lives searching for pleasure, when they were not striving merely to survive.  Here we find Paul urging the believers among the Colossians: “Over all these things put on love”, that is, to guide one’s words and actions with the love of neighbor for the sake of the love of God.  The motivation for life’s activities, then, is love, not pleasure, ambition, or any other worldly thing.  With love of God firmly in place, Paul tells them that they can “let the peace of Christ control your hearts.”  The desire for worldly goods will always leave us unsatisfied.  Their pursuit is like continually drinking salt water in order to quench our thirst.  This peace, in turn, allows us to “be thankful” since we can see clearly the true good that we have.

“Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.”  The Lord Jesus is the source of the love we have and we return it to him by doing all things in his name: for him, and by the power of his grace.  And, “whatever you do, do from the heart, as for the Lord and not for men.”  We do all for the Lord, but not in servile fear or out of dire necessity, but as an expression of our love for him.  We can express our love for him Even the most unpleasant job.  Father Walter Ciszek, condemned to the Siberian labor camps of the Soviet Union, encouraged his fellow prisoners to do the best work that they could because in this way they could glorify God.  In doing this, Paul tells us, “you will receive from the Lord the due payment of the inheritance.”  If we work for the world, we will receive only the crumbly, rotting things the world has to give, but if we work for the Lord, we receive eternal life in heaven.  It is not too much, then, for Paul to urge, “Be slaves of the Lord Christ.” 

St. Joseph, patron of workers, pray for us!