Is he not the carpenter's son?

While Jesus' disciples usually address him as “Teacher,” yet, for his townmates in Nazareth, he is simply the carpenter's son, alluding to the trade of his known father, Joseph. This could give us an insight into Jesus' growing-up years. Somehow, he must have learned aspects of the trade from his silent and laborious father who must have inculcated in him the value and the dignity of work.

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Pope Francis says of work, “Work had goodness within itself and creates the harmony of things—beauty, goodness—and involves man in everything: in his thought, his actions, everything. Man is involved in work. It is man's first vocation: to work. And this gives dignity to man. The dignity that makes him resemble God. The dignity of work” (Homily, 1 May 2020).

Let us pray, through the intercession of St. Joseph the Worker, that all those in working age may be given a worthy employment that will allow them to thrive as co-creators of God.

First Reading • Gn 1:26—2:3 (or Col 3:14-15, 17, 23-24)

Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.”