The Solemnity of St. Joseph the Worker, Thursday, May 1, 2025
Matthew 13, 54-58
Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.” And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.
“Is he not the carpenter’s son?” The people of Nazareth, amazed at his teaching and by the reports they have heard of his miracles, look at Jesus, so familiar to them, and shake their heads. Isaiah 53, 2: “There was no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him.” How ordinary he seemed, just another child of the village. And then he grew to manhood and the only thing noticeable about him was that he had not married. He stayed quiet in the synagogue and did not speak up. He seemed a little slow at times.
His parents seemed strange, now that people thought about it. The Mother kept out of the public eye but was always there when someone needed help. She stayed very much in the background, but from choice not from shyness, for she possessed a strong personality. And the father always seemed to be carrying around a secret, like a hidden weight. He was very protective of his family. He was an intelligent man, clever with his powerful hands. He had no time for gossip or laughing at the misfortunes of others. He was a righteous Jew who looked forward to the deliverance of Israel. He was a man who worked with his hands for a living, fashioning or repairing plows or door frames just like his father before him.
And from this man and this woman, oddly detached from the people around them even while tied to them through their relations, came this wonder-worker who now opened his mouth and unexpected wisdom flowed out about God and his kingdom, at whose hands the lame walked and the blind saw, and at whose commands demons fled.
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