Not Your Average Joe

     “O God, Creator of all things, who laid down for the human race the law of work, graciously grant that by the example of St. Joseph and under his patronage we may complete the works You set us to do and attain the rewards You promise. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” Collect for the feast of St. Joseph the Worker


     God has a plan for each one of us: to complete the work He has called us to do. It is often in the mundane, ordinary work of our everyday lives that God expects us to exercise this plan. We must do all that we do, even when we don’t feel like it, in the best way possible, so we may offer it to God as a gift.


     Today, our Church raises St. Joseph under the title of the Worker, as an example for us to imitate. “He was an ordinary sort of man on whom God relied to do great things. He did exactly what the Lord wanted him to do, in each and every event that went to make up his life. That is why Scripture praises Joseph as ‘a just man.’ In Hebrew a just man means a good and faithful servant of God, someone who fulfills the divine will or is charitable toward his neighbor. So a just man is someone who loves God and proves his love by keeping God’s commandments and direction his whole life towards the service of his brother, his fellow men (St. Jose Escriva).

     In the little town of Nazareth, St. Joseph would have been known as “the carpenter.” That was his trade and the way he provided for Mary and Jesus. The fact that he, along with Mary, was raising the Son of God, was unknown to the people of the town. They did not know that he had been visited by an angel. That he was exercising an extraordinary task in the little obscure village. He would have been seen as just an ordinary man, living his life as everyone else. He would do his work to the best of his ability, and teach Jesus, who would become a carpenter as well. He was a God fearing man, who passed on to his Son, the tenets, obligations and traditions of their Jewish faith.

     To the eyes of most that looked upon Joseph, he was “your average Joe,” and because of his great humility, his mission would remain hidden for all of his life. Like our Lady, he said “yes” to God and was obedient to all that was asked of him. He was not sinless like Jesus and Mary, but struggled like we do, fulfilling the tremendous task that was given to him. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, “The Lord prepares those whom He calls to do His work,” and it seems clear that this was the case when we look at the faithfulness of St. Joseph.

     God prepares us as well, to fulfill the work that He has called us to do. It is in the ordinary tasks of our daily life, that we obtain the grace for our sanctification. Like St. Joseph, the world looks at us unaware that as we carry out our duties, we are growing in holiness. When preformed with God in mind, our work can perfect us, in ways far beyond our vision. It can help us to grow in patience, perseverance, selflessness, long-suffering, punctuality, dependability, and many other virtues. For this to come to pass, we must not slacken in our efforts to offer our very best to God each day!

     “O St. Joseph, how much I love you! How much good it does me to think of your humble, simple life! Like us, you lived by faith. I contemplate you in the little house at Nazareth, near Jesus and Mary, busy working for them. I see you using the plane, and then wiping your forehead from time to time, and hurrying to finish the work on time for your customers. Although you live with the Son of God, your life was very ordinary, for Jesus certainly did not perform any useless miracles. Everything in your life was just as it is in ours. And how many sorrows, fatigues and dangers! Oh! How astonished we should be if we knew all that you suffered! (St. Therese of Lisieux).

     Let us beseech good St. Joseph, to assist us through his intercession and obtain for us from his Son, the graces and gifts we need, along with the desire to respond to them. Like St. Joseph, may we be faithful to all that God is calling us to do and carry out the deeds to completion. May St. Joseph, patron of a happy death, walk with us in this life and welcome us into the next.

     “Blessed are all who fear the Lord and walk in His ways! By the labor of your hands you shall eat; blessed are you, and blessed will you be” (Ps 128 vs. 1-2).