Since the late 1800’s, May 1 has been celebrated around the world as “International Workers’ Day.” Though it began as a day to honor workers and to advocate for an eight-hour workday, it quickly became a day to promote a socialist and communist agenda. By the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War, it also became a day to celebrate military power in communist countries. But in 1955 Pope Pius XII gave this day a religious meaning by instituting the feast of St. Joseph the Worker.
Because God told Adam after the Original Sin, “By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat” (Genesis 3: 19), people have thought of work as a punishment for sin. It isn’t. In his “Spiritual Exercises” St. Ignatius Loyola invites us “to consider how God works and labors for me in all creatures upon the face of the earth, that is, He conducts Himself as one who labors” (#236). Indeed, Jesus Himself said: “My Father is at work until now; so I am at work” (John 5: 17).
We imitate God and grow in holiness through our work. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we read: “Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another…. Work honors the Creator’s gifts and the talents received from Him. It can also be redemptive. By enduring the hardship of work in union with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man collaborates in a certain fashion with the Son of God in his redemptive work. He shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in the work he is called to accomplish. Work can be a means of sanctification and a way of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ” (#2427).
Where did the Christ Child learn about work? From His foster father, Joseph the carpenter.
90% of Jesus’ life on earth is called “the hidden life.” During those 30 years, before He began His ministry of teaching and healing and then suffering, dying, and rising, He was already saving the world. Now He invites us to imitate Him as He imitated St. Joseph. Every task of our daily life, when lived in obedience to the will of the Father and offered as an act of love to God, plays a part in the ongoing work of the salvation of souls.
Socialism and communism thought that people could work together for one another’s good, but this is impossible. Why? Because of sin. Only grace and work done in love can bring about a better world. As St. Teresa of Kolkata said: “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”