The feast of St. Joseph the Worker was first established in the 1950s by Pope Pius XII. In a time when Communism was growing in power, St. Joseph served as a powerful reminder of the real purpose of work. Work is meant to be participation in the work of God.
St. John Paul II, that famous champion against Communism, wrote Laborem Exercens in 1981, and this encyclical shed more light on the dignity of work for the Christian person. In doing so, it also gives us a better understanding of Joseph.
Work and the Image of God
In the beginning of Laborem Exercens, St. John Paul II writes,
“Man is made to be in the visible universe an image and likeness of God himself, and he is placed in it in order to subdue the earth. From the beginning therefore he is called to work.” ….
