Happy Feast of Saint
Joseph the Worker!
As you may recall, we
celebrated the feast of St. Joseph,
husband of Mary, on March 19th.
But he is so important, the
Church wanted to honor him more, and they found a way. I share with you some
thoughts I read:
For decades, May Day was
the occasion for Communist countries to parade their military power. On this
day in 1955, Pope Pius XII inaugurated the celebration of Saint
Joseph the Worker.
It seemed comical, even absurd, to raise up Joseph to challenge the
Communist military machine on its May Day march, but look at what
happened! The disintegration of Communism
is often attributed to the Lord working through the prayers of His people, and
especially in response to the apparitions of Mother Mary at Fatima in 1917,
urging all to pray and do penance for the conversion of Russia.
That being said, it is also
true that the Lord has transformed the world through Joseph and through simple,
common, obscure workers like him--like us!
As Saint
Paul exhorts us, "Whatever you do, work at it with
your whole being. Do it for the Lord rather than for men. ... Be slaves of
Christ the Lord". (Colossians 3:23-24).
Our obscure lives and
routine work can change the world if we have faith as did Saint
Joseph. The Lord is speaking to us today: "Take
courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord, and work! For I am with you, says the Lord of
hosts". (Haggai 2:4)
"We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also
the prophets,Jesus, son of Joseph,
from Nazareth."
John 1:45