by Paul VI
The mission is entrusted to Christian workers
of witnesses and apostles of Christ.
CWe celebrate the feast of Saint Joseph, patron saint of the Universal Church. It is a celebration that interrupts the austere and passionate meditation of Lent, entirely absorbed in the penetration of the mystery of Redemption and in the application of the spiritual discipline that the celebration of such a mystery brings with it. It is a celebration that calls our attention to another mystery of the Lord, the Incarnation, and invites us to rethink it in the poor, sweet, very human scene, the evangelical scene of the Holy Family of Nazareth, in which this other mystery was historically accomplished.
The most holy Madonna appears to us in the most humble evangelical picture; next to her is Saint Joseph, in their midst Jesus. Our eye, our devotion today stops on Saint Joseph, the silent and hard-working blacksmith, who gave Jesus not his birthplace, but his civil status, his category social, economic condition, professional experience, family environment, human education. We must carefully observe this relationship between Saint Joseph and Jesus, because it can help us understand many things about the plan of God, who comes to this world to live as a man among men, but at the same time their teacher and their savior.
It is certain, first of all, it is evident, that Saint Joseph comes to assume great importance, if the Son of God made man truly chooses him to clothe himself with his apparent sonship. Jesus was said filius fabri (Mt 13, 55), the son of the blacksmith; and the blacksmith was Joseph. Jesus, the Christ, wanted to take on his human and social qualification from this worker, from this worker, who was certainly a good man, so much so that the Gospel calls him "just" (Mt 1, 19), that is, good, excellent, impeccable, and which therefore rises before us to the height of the perfect type, the model of every virtue, of the saint. But there is more: the mission that Saint Joseph exercises in the evangelical scene is not only that of the personally exemplary and ideal figure; it is a mission that is exercised alongside, or rather above, Jesus: he will be believed to be the father of Jesus (Lk 3, 23), he will be his protector, his defender. For this reason the Church, which is none other than the mystical Body of Christ, has declared Saint Joseph its own protector, and as such venerates him today, and as such presents him for our worship and meditation. This is how the feast is called today: we were talking about Saint Joseph, protector of the boy Jesus, during his earthly life, and protector of the universal Church, now that he looks down on all Christians from heaven.
Now pay attention. Saint Joseph was a worker. It was given to him to protect Christ. You are workers: would you feel like carrying out the same mission, to protect Christ? He protected him in the conditions, in the adventures, in the difficulties of the evangelical history; would you feel like protecting it in the world you are in, in the world of work, in the industrial world, in the world of social controversies, in the modern world?
Maybe you didn't think that the feast of Saint Joseph could have such unexpected conclusions and so directly aimed at your personal choices; nor perhaps you expected the Pope to delegate to you a function that seems entirely his, or at least more his than yours, that of defending and looking after the interests of Christ in contemporary society. Yet it is so.
Dearest Children! Listen to us carefully. We think that the world of work needs and has the right to be penetrated, to be regenerated by the Christian spirit. This is a first fundamental point, which would deserve a long discussion [...]: either the world will be pervaded by the spirit of Christ, or it will be tormented by its own progress to the worst consequences, of conflicts, of madness, of tyrannies, of ruins. Christ is more necessary than ever today.
Second point: who will bring back, or rather will bring (so profound is the diversity of today's world of work from that of yesterday), who will bring Christ into the world of work? Here it is: We are convinced, as were Our venerable Predecessors, that no one can carry out this great and healthy mission better than the workers themselves. External aid, environmental conditions, the assistance of teachers, etc., are certainly useful factors, even necessary in certain respects; but the indispensable and decisive factor to make Christian, that is to save the world of work, must be the worker himself. We need to regenerate this world, still so restless, so suffering, so needy and so worthy, from within, from the resources of energy, ideas, people, of which it is still rich. Christ today needs, as he already did in his evangelical infancy, to be carried, protected, nourished, promoted within the working categories, by those themselves who compose them; or, better said, by those who within the working classes feel the vocation and take on the mission of Christianly animating the ranks of colleagues of effort and hope.
What we now need to point out to you, in order to celebrate today's feast well and to establish a living and active memory in your spirits, is the esteem that the Church professes in your ability to defend and spread the Christian ideal; it is the discovery of the providential plan that rests upon you, and which we admire prodigiously accomplished in the humility and faithfulness of Saint Joseph: that is, you can and must be the guardians, be the witnesses, be the apostles of Christ in social life and in the world of work today.
We realize we are asking a lot! Yes. It is an act of trust, which shows no easy duties and requires no small effort. But we trust that we will not ask in vain: isn't it true, dearest children?
Homily on the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, 19 March 1964.