May 1 Joseph, the worker

John and Thommy

good morning
i love you

May oneth was an important day in my life long before 1982. Joseph is my confirmation name [i couldn't spell christopher; i didn't want anyone to know that AND i did not want the teacher to know i hadn't gotten my parents to ok the name i'd chosen]. Joseph, Mary's husband. Joseph, father of Jesus [step father? the man of the house - the man who raised Jesus] one of the few with more than one feast day in the year. there he was in every church; front right, holding Jesus in his arms - a message of fatherliness imprinted on our souls as well as on our minds. i got to know him much better as i began to consider marriage as a possibility [maybe late grad school; though even then it was a conceptual possiblitiy, Bill a husband, yeah, an idea i did not reject out of hand. and after the engagement, my becoming maybe someday a father brought Joseph into my life big time, major presence, model, inspiration, personificatoin of expectatoins and how to fulfill them. get to know joseph; every man should know him, imitate him, aspire to be like him.... husband, father.... and, for today, a special reminder that he too, husband and father, is a, The, worker....

Jesus, is he not the carpenter's son? we are known by the work of our father. we are known by our own work - how we do our work, the effects of our work, the results we achieve.... Joseph worked ad majorem Dei gloriam - - take the time to read the encyclicals and the church documents and our teachings about work - the glory, the honor, the dignity of work; because of our being created in the image of God, what we do, our work, our own creativity/creating in first praise of God, a gesture of thanksgiving to God, an imitation of God for others to see who God is for them.... Joseph was a good man - and we mean that very differently than is meant when a gds spokesperson says you are a good boy, though it would be a blessing if he meaning were applicable. a good man, a man who lives the motto, thy will be done: seeking to discern God's will and doing that; doing 'the Lord's work'....

Joseph worked for his wife, for his family, for his son. the purpose of work is best kown in our heart so it will be at the core, in the essance of what we do, how we do it, why we do it....get to know Joseph's work, the why and the how as well as the what. as grandpa says 'we do alright in this country' - referring as he sat at the dinner table, to the fruits of his labor - 'three squares a day and a roof over our heads'. why did he work? you still have a chance to ask him, better take advantage of that gift because tomorrow you don't know; he hasn't bought a green banana for a long time now.... i believe that what i do is my vocation. [occasionally since 1994 i've felt imprisoned in a particular job but always 'doing the lord's work', called to do this work - for the children, for a better life for each of them, for better institutions/society, culture for them.

1955 pope pius xii wstblished this feast to counteract the communist celebration of the worker. we've yet to get to a Joseph day parade to match the May Day parade. we do, however, have a better understanding of "the worker" because of Joseph.

1982, 25 yeares ago, a glorious saturday in tuscaloosa, look it up, we had a wedding, uncle ken in a tux, your jones-girl cousins and ginger in peach dresses matching your mother's.... too bad, way too bad, a wedding ceremony, even wrapped in a Mass, does not a marriage make - your mother's not getting her marriage to rick redmon annulled as she promised kaboshed the sacrament even though we did not discover her deception until 1994. i can imagine how we would all be better if she had done that day right. i even imagine how we would be if she had righted that day afterwards, after, e.g., her convrsion and confirmation. alas, none of those sacraments were sacramental for her. so today, y'all are this year 20 and 18, sans pater materque, the product of a marriage that never was. i am sorry for the cause(s) and the outcome so far.... oro pro nobis....

get to know Joseph the Worker. speak with him. listen to him. follow his lessons.

i love you
xxxooo
dad