How small ordinary things can be great

IT’S kind of amazing that in the gospel reading for the Mass of the Memorial of St. Joseph, the Worker, (cfr. Mt 13,54-58) celebrated on May 1, the figure of the foster father of Christ is just mentioned in passing, giving us the impression that he is no important character and that whatever he did was no big deal.

That’s when Christ went to his hometown and started to teach in the synagogue, astonishing the unbelieving townmates who could not help but say: “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son,” they commented. They did not even mention the name of Joseph who simply was referred to as a carpenter.

But to be sure the role of Joseph in the life of Christ and in the whole economy of salvation cannot be exaggerated. He played a very crucial role in taking care of Christ as a child and in giving us a clear example that one does not have to be a big, prominent man, humanly speaking, involved in some big things, again according to human standards, for him to do the things of God and thereby achieve his holiness and real greatness.

The great lesson we can learn here is that all our duties and responsibilities of whatever state in life we may have, whether we are married or single, father, mother, son, daughter, worker, or whether we are a lay person or a religious consecrated person, are our clear way to cooperate in God’s continuing and redemptive providence over us. We need to appreciate more deeply the significance of our ordinary duties which we often take for granted.

And this is all because we are all children of God, and as such, our life is always a life with God. Everyone of us has a vocation that gives meaning and purpose, color and direction to our whole life.

Whether we are prominent in society or just an ordinary guy, a big politician or a menial worker spending the day toiling in the farms, each one of us is called by God, i.e., is given a vocation and has a mission to carry out in this life. We have to be aware of this basic truth about ourselves and be most discerning as to what specific vocation God is giving us.

In the case of St. Joseph, he was called, almost from nowhere, to be the husband of Mary and the foster father of Christ. It would look as if he was just asked to play a cameo role, an extra in a story, some kind of a prop to complete the scene in a given play. And yet he did it very, very well!

He corresponded to his vocation as the foster father of Christ and as husband of Mary with all his heart, even going through heroic episodes when, for example, he had to gather Mary and the baby Jesus in the middle to the night to escape the murderous rampage of a mad king.

If we would just be faithful to our vocation, no matter how small or hidden it is, we would already be carrying out an important part of God’s providence! We need to set aright our attitude toward whatever condition and state in life we may have in this life. The ordinary little things that we handle everyday are first of all our way to show our love for God and to cooperate in his ongoing providence over us.