Human Labor: Its Dignity and Sanctity!

Thursday, May 1, 2025

St. Joseph the Worker!

Gn 1:26-2:3; Mt 13:54-58

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph, the Worker. 

In response to the ‘May Day’ celebrations for workers, Pius XII instituted the feast of St. Joseph, the Worker, in 1955. 

Jesus is referred to as the carpenter’s son (Mt 13:55) because his father, Joseph, worked as a carpenter.

The ‘working class’ image of the Holy Family inspires us to reflect on the dignity of human work. 

Oftentimes, work is understood as the result of the Fall. But it is not so. Rather, work is made harder because of the Fall. After all, God put the first parents in the Garden of Eden to till and tend it (Gen 2:15). 

By this, we understand that human work is not a curse but a blessing because it comes from God.

Moreover, we cannot overlook the fact that the Trinitarian God sanctified work by Themselves engaging in it. 

God, the Father, created the world. He worked so hard that He needed rest after the creative activity (Gen 2:1-3). 

Son, the Redeemer, undertook the work of redeeming the world on the cross. As against the sweat of the brow by which God commanded humanity to eat after the Fall (Gen 3:19), Jesus sweated blood to save humanity (Lk 22:44). 

The Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, continues the work of strengthening and nourishing the Church. 

Because God worked, human labor has been dignified and ensures humanity’s survival. 

It is important to note that human labor is a creative expression. 

We understand the fact by reflecting on our creation in Imago Dei. 

A quote attributed to Samuel Butler captures this well: ‘Every man’s work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or anything else, is always a portrait of himself, and the more he tries to conceal himself the more clearly will his character appear in spite of him.’

Against the backdrop of dignity, holiness, and sanctity attached to work or human labor, we think of St. Joseph as the emblematic sign of God, the Worker!

St. Joseph’s work nourished the Holy Family.

Don’t we then need the image of St. Joseph, the Worker, to remind us of the holiness of work? 

Let us pray that we may continue God’s creative activity through our daily labor. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar