A Worker's Revolution

Gospel: Matthew 13: 54-58

In today's Gospel we learn the one detail about Joseph that has come to define this feast: he is a carpenter, a simple worker.   He utters not a single word in the entire Gospels.  Joseph simply goes about his daily work each day, earning a living and providing for his family, doing his work well and perfecting it each day little by little.  It is not a glamorous life, but it is a noble and virtuous one to be sure.

We are constantly in search of saintly examples in our our daily life.  We think they might reside in religious media empires or chanceries or other places of public faith.  A brief time in these places will leave us sorely disappointed in our search.  But then we visit the sick in the hospital, or an elderly person in a nursing home, or a troubled person in prison or psychiatric unit - and it is there where we find saintly people caring for others.

We will also find them in the plumber who fixes your broken toilet, the landscaper who cuts your lawn, and in countless other places where ordinary people perform ordinary work in extraordinary ways.  This is the worker revolution - the movement of simply doing our professions well, providing for our families, and living a simple, quiet life of service to others.  We will not find sanctity in the halls of power or the noisy world of media self-promotion.  We will find holy people, and holiness for ourselves, in the ordinary work of each day.