St Joseph the Worker
"Mt 13:54-58"
Coming to his own country Jesus taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brethren James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?" And they took offense at him.
A powerful person is the one who has been entrusted with great responsibilities. A king is powerful, not because he can rule over millions, but because millions of people depend on him. The same applies to a Prime Minister, a President or the CEO of a company. Think about the talents and skills that a person has to have in order to be entrusted with such responsibilities.
In the history of mankind God has given great responsibilities to many people. But no one has ever been entrusted with more than St Joseph. God could commend His most precious treasures (His Only Begotten Son and His Mother) only to one man. What was it that Joseph could do better than any other man in history? For Joseph didn't appear to be a great speaker, a popular rabbi, a famous politician or a gifted writer or philosopher. God didn't want to entrust His Only Begotten Son to Alexander the Great, Socrates, Dante or Michelangelo but to an artisan in Nazareth. This is a mystery for many but not for a Christian. Because Jesus Christ, the Son of God Himself was... an artisan in Nazareth!
How much God loved Joseph! How much He loved everything that Joseph did! Because it was done with love, for love and to love. How much time Jesus spent looking in silence at His father Joseph, working, sweating, his muscles tense, the veins of his forehead pulsating. How much God loved those tables, those boards, those doors his father made under his watchful gaze. How proudly Jesus would walk through the streets, reminding His young friends, 'My dad made that door', 'my dad made that fence...' Now God is contemplating my work with the same look. Does it please Him? St Joseph, my father and lord, teach me to work like you so that God can be proud of my work. Mary, my Mother, help me to work like your husband.
