In the secular world, May 1 is known as “May Day”, the international worker’s day. It is a consequential phenomenon of the Haymarket Riot Massacre on May 4, 1886, in Chicago, escalating crash between the communist labor movement demonstrators, demanding for the8-hour-a-day work condition, and the Chicago Police. Like many other communist and atheist movements, “May Day” has its own bloody background.
For the Catholics, on the other hand, May 1 is not the
feast of St. Joseph the Worker, honoring St. Joseph, who is the beloved stepfather
of Jesus, and the husband of Mary the Blessed Virgin, the Theotokos. This
feast was officially implemented in 1955 by Pope Pius XII, to counter the widespread
threat of atheism-communist to the Church, with the motto: “Ite ad Ioseph!”(God
to Joseph!). It is because the Church sees St. Joseph as a model for workers in
the context of her teaching on meaning of Christian workers in relation to God’s
mandate on us to serve as the stewards of His Creation works, with the dignity of
labor, which is addressed extensively by St. John Paul II in Laborem
Exercens.
The feast of St. Joseph the Worker calls us we are not
only created in the image of God but in the image of God as the Worker.
As the First Reading (Genesis 1:26b-2:3) recalls, it
was God, who worked first, to create everything. We exist because God created
us in His own image in the Trinitarian context (Genesis 1:26-27). And He calls
us to make sure the orderliness of His Creation works is maintained, giving us
everything we need for this work (Genesis 1:28-30).
God’s work did not end with the creation of the humans
in His image (Genesis 1:27) on the sixth day of the Creation. Though God rested
on the seventh day, known as holy day of sabbath, His work continues on. For
this, not only He created us in His image to work on His works of the Creation
but also He sent His only begotten Son (John 3:16) to carry out on with His
works (John 5:17; cf. 10:25), being among us (John 1:14), as we do the work of
the stewardship (Genesis 1:28-30). And
the Son has done the Father’s “pastoral carpentry work” to have laid the
foundation for the Church, upon which we work to further build the Church (1
Corinthians 3:10-11), finding St. Joseph the carpenter, as our model. So, “Ite
ad Santo Ioseph!”(Go to St. Joseph!) to learn from, because he showed young
Jesus how to do the work on earth, reflecting how the Father showed him in
heaven, before being sent (John 5:19; 6:38; 8:28; 10:32;12:50; 14:10).
The carpentry works of Joseph supported the Holy Family, in which Jesus grew up in wisdom and strengths. His work was his way of stewardship, as the guardian of the Holy Family. And he is our model in our stewardship works for God’s Creation (Genesis 1:28-30) and our apostolic works (John 14:12; Matthew 28:19), as well.
In his Laborem Exercens, St. John Paul II
connects our works, in response to Jesus’ command to carry our crosses (e.g.
Matthew 16:24), unites us with Christ, who was crucified to death and raised
from the dead (V-27). As St. Joseph had to let go off all his “own” will in
order to let God’s will on him be manifested in all his works, we need to let
Christ’s will on us to carry our crosses in our stewardship works and apostolic
works to carry out the works of Christ in building the Church.
As the Gospel Reading (Matthew 13:54-58) admonishingly
reminds us, we must have steadfast faith in God, who has commanded to do the
stewardship works and in Christ the Son, who has commanded to carry out his “pastoral
carpenter work” to further build the Church through our apostolic commitment.
Yes, St. Joseph was faithful to God, as Abraham was.
So, all his works were done according to God’s will.
For our works, no need for Karl Marx. We have St. Joseph
the Worker, who fostered Jesus the Worker of God.
“Ite ad Santo Ioseph!”
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