St Joseph the Worker on May Day

Today is May Day. I am old enough to remember celebrating May Day with May Poles and a field day at school. In the two places I lived when I was young, nobody was rich and everyone worked. Having a college degree was practically unheard of. I had many friends who, once they were old enough to get a job, went to school, worked their job, and did nothing else. The transition from school to a life of work was pretty seamless for them.

I was considered to be a bit of an idler, even by my parents. I have always loved the quote from Ian Curtis, lead singer of the band Joy Division: "I used to work in a factory and I was really happy because I could daydream all day." Well, I suppose that is one way to overcome alienation. To this day I will stick with the Bible in insisting that work is a curse, not a blessing. I do know what it means to put in a day of hard, physical work, however.

Going back at least a few centuries, May Day is (was- past tense is probably more accurate these days) a big day for workers and unions. May Day was a huge festival in communist countries. Even if not much observed today, it was and remains the Day of International Solidarity Among Workers. The fading of May Day is a loss. Fearing communism, Pope Pius XII established the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker in 1955.

On the liturgical calendar, 1 May is an optional memorial and not a feast. This is truly sad. St. Joseph the Worker should be universal feast of the Church. Rather than eschew the Day of International Solidarity Among Workers in favor of the Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker, I take the Catholic et/et approach.

Venerable Matt Talbot

If you accept the basic historicity of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, at least with regard to some of Jesus's earliest life, Joseph of Nazareth was a worker. He was a tekton, which likely refers to multi-skilled tradesman. On this basis it seems a safe assertion that Joseph taught Jesus his trade. Perhaps for a time they worked side-by-side, not only with each other but with their fellow laborers. Most of the work in the region of Galilee from whence they hailed at that time was probably to be found building the city of Sepphoris, which was a massive undertaking by the tetrarch Herod Antipas.

Another holy worker comes to my mind today: Venerable Matt Talbot. How I dearly desired that during his visit to Ireland Pope Francis would've pronounced Matty Blessed, thus moving this saint whose intercession has been so effective for so many people, including myself, one step closer to canonization. Matt worked in a lumber yard as a manual laborer until that Trinity Sunday in 1925 when he died making his way to Mass along Granby Lane in Dublin.

The Labor movement in the United States was aided and abetted by the Church. Many of the hard-won victories of the labor movement have been lost and most of those that remain are on unsteady ground. We need more than a day of international solidarity among workers. We need a new and energetic labor movement!

It seems fitting that the Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker falls on the first day of the month dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. There is a parish in my diocese, located in what was and largely remains a working class part of Salt Valley dedicated to St. Joseph the Worker.

St. Joseph the Worker, pray for us