Page 142 - Reflections on St. Joseph

has a special
WORK place in the GOSPEL

JESUS WORKED IN THE

SHOP OF HIS FATHER

excerpted from

St. Joseph and the Redemption of Work
Fr. Tarcisio Stramare, OSJ

“Jesus did not think it unworthy to labor in the shop of His father.
He wanted to consecrate human work with His divine perspiration.”
Pius XII,
Encyclical Fulgens radiatur
March 21, 1947

e do not meditate enough on the
mystery of the Incarnation.

“In the human growth of Jesus, ‘in wisdom,
age and grace’ the virtue of work had a notable
part, since it is ‘human labor’ which
‘transforms nature’ and made makes man ‘in
a certain sense more human’(Redemptoris
Custos, n.23).

Considering the importance that work has in
the life and the transformation of man, you
can understand why “human labor, and in
particular, manual labor have a special
emphasis in the Gospel. Together with the
humanity of the Son of God, it has been
embraced by the mystery of the Incarnation,
as well as being in a special way redeemed.
Thanks to the workbench upon which,
together with Jesus, he exercised his craft,
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Reflections on st. joseph