Homily For Wednesday Fifth Week of Easter Year B, The Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker, 1st May 2024

 

Readings: Gen. 1:26-2:3; Ps. 89; Col. 3:14-15,17,23-24; Matt. 13:54-58

Fr. Emmanuel Emenike  Onyia

 

THE WORLD IS IN NEED OF FAITHFUL MANAGERS LIKE ST. JOSEPH

 

Today the Holy Mother Church celebrates the memorial of St. Joseph the worker, the great Patron of all workers. This celebration occurs every 1st of May of which the world also celebrates World Labour Day and May Day.  On this day also we begin our May Devotion.

 

Taking about St. Joseph whose memorial we celebrate, Pope Francis in his Apostolic Letter entitled Patris Corde (“With a Father’s Heart”) describes Saint Joseph as a beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father; a creatively courageous father, a working father, a father in the shadows.

 

Thus in our first reading today, we read that God created man in His image and likeness, and said: let them be masters of all that He created. God blessed them, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. With this mandate, God made man the master and manager of all that He has created. Hence, from Adam till the birth of Jesus God has entrusted to humanity everything he created but humanity in one way or another has failed to properly manage the things entrusted to them. Now when God wishes to fulfill his promise of redeeming the failed humanity, He needed a true manager to entrust not just His creatures but also His only begotten Son. Thus, God finds in St. Joseph that true manager who will be truly and faithful guardian of His son.

 

So, St. Joseph the Worker ( carpenter) as he is called was upright, virtuous and good in all the things he had done, a hardworking servant of God in all things. He was the one who accepted Mary and her baby and brought the Holy Family safely to Bethlehem, where Mary gave birth to the Lord Jesus in a stable, during persecution he took Jesus and Mary to Egypt because of King Herod and his agents who were trying to kill the baby Jesus. It was he who also brought them back to Nazareth, he protected the holy family and raised Jesus properly.

 

Today, due to the important roles and tireless efforts made by St. Joseph to protect the family entrusted to him, he has proved to be a perfect image of God’s faithful manager and has taken up the task of being the Protector of the Universal Church and the Patron of all workers and managers. He was full of virtues and faith, and he dedicated his life to the service of God and managing the task of raising Jesus as his own foster Son, with great dedication, not minding his reputation or his own personal ambitions or desires.

 

Dear friends, all humanity is called to be God’s manager, we are called to manage all the things He created beginning with our lives, but humanity has failed to manage properly God’s creative works and because we mismanaged God’s creatures, humanity has turned the world against herself and today we are all suffering as a result of our mismanagement. Therefore, it is time for all humanity to imitate the example of St Joseph, the faithful manager of God. It is time for us to change our ugly and evil ways of life and begin to take proper care of all the Lord has entrusted to us. It is time for all humanity to assume the role of a faithful manager which we are called to be.

 

Hence, I don't know how faithful you have been in managing your life and other things the Lord has entrusted to you, I don’t know what your experience of the world has been. I don't know how you woke up today, I don't know what troubles your mind. But all I know is that today is another gift of God to us, a new month. I am excited, and hopeful and am going to live it with all joy and strong will to be a true manager of God’s creatures not trying to change things that I could not change or try to fix things that do not want to be fixed.

 

I will not let ugly events of the past distract me today or steal my joy. Rather, I will focus on the blessings that come with the gift of this new month. Like St. Joseph, I will be that true and faithful manager of the Lord. I will constantly follow the directives of the Lord, for his ways are right and the upright walk in them and are safe, but the transgressors stumble in them and perish.

 

LET US PRAY. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of this new month, through the intercession of St. Joseph the worker, make us true managers of the things You created and help us to correct the things we have mismanaged as You heal and restore the world from its ugly situation which was caused by our failure to manage properly the thing you entrusted to us. This we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen. Happy New Month.