Do you remember when it was a big deal to get into the car and make a trip of one hour? I do. My family often did it to visit my aunt and uncle and cousins in Harrisburg, or to go to St. Ann’s Shrine in Scranton, or even to make the big trip of two hours to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes and the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland. We planned for days for these trips and could hardly wait to get on the road. Once in the car, we would make the Sign of the Cross, pray an Our Father and a Hail Mary and then, “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, be with us on our way!” Under Divine protection, we were off!
My thoughts go back to those days especially because we are in the Year of St. Joseph and very close to the month of May, the Month of Our Blessed Mother. Wherever Our Lady and St. Joseph are, there we find Jesus. They always were with us then throughout my life, I believed. They are always with us now, I do firmly believe!
It is a blessed “God-incidence” (not a coincidence) that the first day of the month of Our Lady is the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. In 1955, this feast was instituted by Pope Pius XII in response to the Communist celebration of May 1 as ”May Day” that emphasized the worker as subservient to the Godless communist state that violated the human person by treating the individual in a subhuman way. Instead, the celebration of St. Joseph on May 1 underlined the truth that St. Joseph was called to the exalted vocation of being the Foster Father of the Lord Jesus and the pure Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this very vocation, St. Joseph also worked with his hands as a carpenter and showed that manual labor is a means of growing in holiness. Each man and woman, certainly each worker, is first and foremost a child of God created in His image and likeness. Each possesses the dignity of a human person with inherent rights who does not loose these by being subservient to a political system, a Godless ideology or a government that robs people the right to worship God, the Giver of all good gifts.
St. Joseph the Worker is a powerful witness to the dignity and rights of workers. As St. John Paul II taught, “St. Joseph was a just man, a tireless worker, the upright guardian of those entrusted to his care.” He found God in the call to do the work entrusted to him and served God with all his heart. He was the provident guardian of the young Jesus and His Holy Mother in their daily life. He always accompanied them on their way. He was with them in the trip to Bethlehem to register for the census when Jesus was still in Our Lady’s womb and then born. He watched over them during the dangerous flight into Egypt to free them from the cruel King Herod’s attempt to murder the Holy Child. He walked with them on the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover and went back in search of the Child Jesus when He seemed lost but was teaching elders in the temple, His Father’s house.
St. Joseph is always with us on our way today as well. No matter how short or long our journeys may be, the Guardian of the Redeemer leads us. St. Joseph the Worker cares for us and the entire household of the Church. By His powerful intercession he protects us and guides us to His Divine Foster Son, our Lord and Savior.
We are reminded in the month of May that the Mother of God, our own Blessed Mother Mary, walks with us on our pilgrim way, too. Just think about her amazing role in the life of the Church. It is through Mary that Jesus came to us. The Eternal Word came to us by becoming man in the virginal womb of Mary and dwells in our midst. It is also through her that we go to Jesus. Did not Our Lord entrust us to her as he hung upon the Cross? “Woman, behold your son.” (Jn 19:26) Jesus said to her referring not only to St. John who stood beneath the Cross that first Good Friday but also to all of us who through baptism are immersed in His Passion and Death? Jesus then says to St. John and all of us, “Behold your mother”(Jn 19:27) offering to us the Lady who takes us into her Immaculate Heart not keeping us for herself, but leading us to her Redeemer Son.
We never take a step that she is not at our side, praying for us, protecting us, taking us by the hand and guiding us. As the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council so beautifully taught, “For Mary, who since her entry into salvation history unites in herself and reechoes the greatest teachings of the faith as she is proclaimed and venerated, calls the faithful to her Son and his sacrifice and to the Father’s love.” (Lumen Gentium, # 65) Our Lady always leads us to Jesus as our loving and caring Mother and Queen.
As we walk the road that lies ahead of us, we should never be afraid. We are in the best of company. Jesus, Mary and Joseph accompany us. They are better than any escort, any army, any jet-setter. They are rather, “heaven-setters.” They lead us on every trip here in this life, through our earthly pilgrim journey to the Kingdom of Heaven. Not a bad crowd, I would say!
As the month of May approaches, let’s take a look around us and see who are travelling companions are. On the first of May, let us ask St. Joseph to show us that our true dignity and our rights come from our identity as sons and daughters of the Most High God who calls us to work in His service. Let us pray to St. Joseph each day for parents and bread-winners everywhere that they might see the sublimity of their vocation. During this month of Our Mother, let us turn to by praying the rosary and meditating on the mysteries of her Son’s life, death and resurrection. Let us pray for families and mothers everywhere that they may be strong and united in love of God and each other. We should pray that families may be strengthened in the Faith and see themselves as the “domestic church.”
Pope Francis has asked that during each day of May, the Rosary should be prayed in a different Marian Sanctuary throughout the world for the end of the COVID pandemic. Let us heed Our Holy Father’s call to pray the Rosary daily, especially as a family, to beg her intercession and God’s mercy upon the whole world and to end the pandemic. We follow Pope Francis’ faith-filled example as he so often led us to the ancient image of Our Lady found in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome and entrusted us all to her Maternal Heart.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we believe that you are with us on our way!
Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh