St. Joseph the Worker
Acts 13:44-52  +  John 14:7-14
May 1, 2021

“The Father who dwells in Me is doing His works.”

On this feast of Saint Joseph the Worker in this year dedicated to him, the readings from Sacred Scripture help us reflect upon the covenant between the Lord and His People.

It’s fitting that today’s feast falls during the Easter Season, when the First Reading day after day reveals the life and mission of the early Church in the Acts of the Apostles.

This Church is the fruit of the tree of Calvary.  Whereas Adam in the Garden cast man down into the pit of sin by his Original Sin, Christ has raised man up on Calvary.  Yet Christ has done even more than restored fallen man to his original state.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God the Son—by incorporating us into His own Mystical Body—has made each of us a child of God the Father.

In this context of the Church, whose mission began on the day of Pentecost, and upon which mission we are reflecting throughout Eastertide, we honor today the patron of the universal Church:  St. Joseph.  Specifically, we honor him according to the title “St. Joseph the Worker”.  We don’t speak of him as a “Wonder-worker”, as some saints are described.  Joseph didn’t work wonders.  He simply worked, and his simple work reminds us who are God’s adopted children of a basic lesson of the spiritual life.

In this basic lesson, St. Joseph reminds us of the Little Flower.  St. Joseph does little things with great love.  But more importantly, St. Joseph does little things for a great love, and in that, shares in the life of that great love.