St Joseph the worker

Today the Church celebrates Saint Joseph

Paul VI has expressed himself in this regard: "You children of work, who for centuries have been slaves to labor, seek the one who declares that life is sacred, that the worker is free from the chains that the primacy of materialism and economic selfishness has welded not only around the fists of the workers, but around their hearts and their spirits ... Seek a principle, a reason that makes men equal, in solidarity with each other, and that I will give them back brotherhood. And not in hatred against other men ... Since they all live in a natural community, they try to form a human society and feel the greatness of being a people. "

The human world is the world of work, made by intelligence, through the hands that in the midst of nature pointed the way of progress and culture. God gave other species hands, but only the hand of man gave him the character of a tool. All the technique on which civilization is based is an extension of that hand that God gave to man.

Today we celebrate the nurturing father of Jesus, just and humble carpenter from Nazareth, who spends his life not only in meditation and prayer, but also in the fatigue of his craftsmanship. José is the symbol of prudence, silence, generosity, dignity and application at work; it is also one of the rights and duties regarding work.

Saint Joseph was a true worker in the full sense of the word, and the only man who shared with the Son of God the task of every day.

Today we remember all the workers of our country and of the world, asking heaven to be an instrument of peace, of evangelization, of serene intelligence, of courage and self-confidence, of hopes for good and of fervent will, worthy and no stumbling blocks in the brotherhood of men. Today the Church remembers, on the day of the workers, Saint Joseph, worker.

John Paul II teaches that men soon discover the cross in their work; Precisely for this reason human effort is redemptive, since Christ has united him to his passion: he too was a worker and preached his gospel of work, knowing intimately this reality that has as protagonists all the men and women of the world.