Even Saint Joseph the Worker was once unemployed

With mass unemployment still high as the coronavirus pandemic drags on, Catholics may regard St. Joseph as a special intercessor, two priests said.

Citing the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt, the devotional writer Father Donald Calloway said that St. Joseph is "very empathetic" towards those suffering from unemployment.

"He himself would have been unemployed at some point in the Flight to Egypt," the priest told CNA. “They had to pack everything up and go to a foreign country with nothing. They weren't going to do that. "

Calloway, author of the book "Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father," is an Ohio-based priest of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception.

He suggested that St. Joseph "was certainly very worried at one point: how will he find work in a foreign country, not knowing the language, not knowing the people?"

According to recent reports, about 20,6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in late November. Many others work from home with coronavirus travel restrictions, while countless workers are faced with workplaces where they could be at risk of contracting the coronavirus and taking it home to their families.

Father Sinclair Oubre, a labor advocate, similarly thought of the flight to Egypt as a period of unemployment for Saint Joseph, and also a period that showed an example of virtue.

“Stay focused: stay open, keep fighting, don't get down on yourself. He was able to build a livelihood for him and his family, ”Oubre said. "For those who are unemployed, St. Joseph offers us a model for not allowing the difficulties of life to crush one's spirit, but rather by trusting in God's providence, and adding to that providence our attitude and a strong work ethic."

Oubre is pastoral moderator of the Catholic Labor Network and director of the Apostolate of the Seas of the Diocese of Beaumont, which serves seafarers and others in maritime work.

Calloway reflected that most people in life are workers, both on the go and at a desk.

"They can find a model in San Giuseppe Lavoratore," he said. "No matter what your job is, you can bring God into it and it can be beneficial for you, your family and society as a whole."

Oubre said there is much to learn by reflecting on how the work of St. Joseph nurtured and protected the Virgin Mary and Jesus, and so it was a form of sanctification of the world.

“If Joseph hadn't done what he did, there was no way the Virgin Mary, a single pregnant girl, could have survived in that environment,” Oubre said.

“We realize that the work we do is not just for this world, but rather we can work to help build the kingdom of God,” he continued. “The work we do takes care of our families and our children and helps build future generations who are present”.

Calloway warned against "ideologies of what work should be".

“It can become slavery. People can turn into workaholics. There is a misunderstanding about what work should be, ”he said.

St. Joseph gave dignity to work “because, as the chosen one to be Jesus' earthly father, he taught the Son of God to do manual labor,” Calloway said. “He was entrusted with the task of teaching the son of God a trade, being a carpenter”.

"We are not called to be slaves to a trade, or to find our ultimate meaning of life in our work, but to allow our work to glorify God, to build the human community, to be a source of joy for all," He continued. . "The fruit of your work is meant to be enjoyed by yourself and others, but not at the expense of harming others or depriving them of a fair wage or overloading them, or having working conditions that go beyond human dignity."

Oubre found a similar lesson, saying "our work is always at the service of our family, our community, our society, the world itself".