{"id":2505,"date":"2018-05-01T09:06:06","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T13:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2505"},"modified":"2018-05-01T09:06:06","modified_gmt":"2018-05-01T13:06:06","slug":"the-optional-memorial-of-st-joseph-the-worker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/the-optional-memorial-of-st-joseph-the-worker\/","title":{"rendered":"The Optional Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today (May 1st) we celebrate the Optional<\/em> Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker.\u00a0 I stress the word “optional” because in the United States, depending on what resource one uses to look at for the daily readings, you won’t find it listed,\u00a0 The reason for that lies in the basis for this memorial.\u00a0 Pope Pius XII established this optional memorial in 1955 because several countries celebrate May 1st as their “labor day”.\u00a0 Countries that do use this memorial to talk about the meaning of “work.”<\/p>\n

Of course, in the United States we celebrate our Labor Day on the first Monday in September so this memorial on May 1st doesn’t get much attention.<\/p>\n

What is our attitude towards “work”?\u00a0 I know people who describe their work, meaning their paid job, as what they do just to have money to do what they really enjoy.\u00a0 Work is just a necessity of life for them.<\/p>\n

I think the first reading, Genesis 1:26-2:3, for this memorial helps us see “work” in a more positive light.\u00a0 It is the story of the sixth and seventh day of creation.\u00a0 Genesis 2:2 writes, “On the seventh day God completed the work<\/strong> he had been doing; he rested on the seventh day from all the work<\/strong> he had undertaken.<\/em>”\u00a0 Clearly, God does work and all that God does is good.\u00a0 So work is a good thing.<\/p>\n

What good comes from work?\u00a0 If God does it, the good can’t be the money made from work.\u00a0 God doesn’t need money.\u00a0 God has nothing to gain for himself from the work.\u00a0 God created the world for us and gave us dominion over it.\u00a0 God did this work because it was good for us.<\/p>\n

As I was referring to this in the homily at Mass this morning, I was speaking to a congregation of mainly retired people.\u00a0 If “work” is only the job we do, then it ends in retirement.\u00a0 If we see “work” as the good we do to build up God’s Kingdom, it continues.\u00a0 It can be bringing Communion to the homebound.\u00a0 It can be helping open the church and set up for Mass or serving at Mass to help provide a reverent space and time for Mass.\u00a0 Going beyond church, work in retirement can be watching the grandchildren or helping our ailing friend who is alone.<\/p>\n

May the work we do bring God to the world and may the Lord “give success to the work of our hands.<\/em>” (quote from the responsorial verse of this memorial Psalm 90).<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today (May 1st) we celebrate the Optional Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker.\u00a0 I stress the word “optional” because in the United States, depending on what resource one uses to look at for the daily readings, you won’t find it listed,\u00a0 The reason for that lies in the basis for this memorial.\u00a0 Pope Pius XII …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘The Optional Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[442],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-Ep","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2506,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505\/revisions\/2506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}