St Joseph the Worker
Readings:
Genesis 1:26-2:3
Matthew 13:54-58
Today we celebrate St. Joseph, the patron saint of workers and in today’s gospel, we hear the story of Jesus being rejected in his hometown. Jesus performs miracles and teaches, yet instead of being amazed, the hometown folk ask undermining questions, minimizing Jesus to ‘just’ the Carpenter’s son. The very messiah in their midst is overlooked and missed because to them he is ordinary and familiar. Just before this verse, Jesus had told a multitude of parables using ordinary day-to-day scenarios as a metaphor for the kingdom of God. Just like the simple lost coin, mustard seeds, and fish, our day-to-day work can often feel ordinary, plain, and undervalued. Jesus’s small town doesn’t expect much to come out of the Carpenter’s son, and yet it is not only the Carpenter’s son who saves the world, but he who is God revealed. God tends to be in the work of making the ordinary extraordinary. Where in your life do you overlook the ordinary day-to-day moments? Where can you start to create more awe and amazement in the everyday moments of our lives as God revealed to us? Including that of our Jobs and chores.
St Joseph the Worker, pray for us.
Claire O’Donohue is a current Oxley Passionist Youth Retreat Team member. While also in her final year of university, she is completing her bachelor’s degree with a major in visual art and theology.