Son, Go Work in My Vineyard

By Scott Ferrier, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

On May 1, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker and the human and supernatural value of work. When Our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished the work of our Redemption upon His Holy Cross, all things, including work, a prime human activity, were redeemed and sanctified through the instrument of His Sacred Humanity. In establishing the reign of His kingdom upon earth, “He has made all things new” (Rev 21:5).

The original precept of the first covenant with Adam in the Garden of Eden — “to work it, and to keep it” (Gen. 2:15) — made man’s activity to be principally one of worship. Adam was the first high priest. Through the Second Adam, Christ — the great High Priest — even the toil and suffering associated with work due to sin was made a part of the redemptive sacrifice that man can offer back to God as a “co-creator.” As Saint Paul appeals to us in his letter to the Romans, …“present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1), “for God has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Pt 2:9).

There are four aspects of human work in the context of Christian faith. First, it is the fulfillment of God’s command in Genesis by those who have been created in “his image and likeness.” Secondly, we exercise dominion over the earth by participating in the life of God as his adopted sons and daughters, as ‘co-redeemers’ with Christ, so to speak, through our prayer, penance, work, and apostolate. Thirdly, by overcoming our inclination towards sin, by the grace and impulse of the Holy Spirit, we acknowledge God’s dominion over us and within us, carrying out our work in the spirit of freedom — in an upright, moral, patient, trusting, and joyful manner, united with Christ and his Cross. By this our efforts acquire a meritorious, eternal value.

Finally, where our work is carried out according to the will of God and for his glory, we become witnesses of Christ by our faith in Him and by the example of our lives. Work itself becomes our apostolate. As Jesus instructed his disciples: “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Mt 5:16).