Every building in Judah needed the touch of a certain carpenter 2000 years ago. The Lord blessed the Honesty of this humble carpenter by making him the Father of our Savior. The Lord had blessed Joseph abundantly, a carpenter from a small village of Palestine. God gave him a very important responsibility – to bring up the son of God with care and protection like any other child. The only skill Joseph knew was carpentry and he carried out his responsibility splendidly. Joseph the patron of the Holy Family and the Holy Church is truly an inspiration for the current generation.
The current generation who insists on only doing a white collared job has a lot to learn from St Joseph. We must remember that the Lord blessed this humble carpenter a job which had no much respect in the society. He was called ‘Just’ because he accepted his job and did it with all honesty and lived a life pleasing to God and as per His will.
Now is a good time for us to examine our conscience and see how sincere we are in our work. If all of us from our political leaders to even a person who does a menial job do the job with all sincerity and honesty, our country will be in a better place. When we celebrate Labor Day and strike for various work related issue like better pay, working conditions etc. it is good to pause and ask ourselves this question, ‘How sincere are we at our work?’
St Joseph was sincere in his duties. He ensured to use the best wood for his craft and sold only the best of his crafts to his people. That is why he was called ‘Just’ by God. This is the reason God chose Joseph to be the father for Jesus and entrusted Jesus in his care. God knew that Joseph could nurture the young Jesus with all care and divine formation. When people often referred to Jesus as ‘the son of the carpenter’ Jesus could maintain peace and walk away from that place in peace. It was due to the lessons he learnt when he was learning the skill with his father and learned to respect all the jobs. When we pray to St Joseph the patron of all workers we must remember to love and respect the job that we do and respect all those who work for their daily bread. Our creator wanted us eat off our sweat and let us thank the Lord for giving us St Joseph as our patron saint who knew the value of hard work.
Fr Jaison Enchathanath CST