Genesis 1:26 - 2:3 / Matthew 13:54-58
Where there is work to be done, the usual reaction would be anything from indifference to reluctance.
Not everyone is going to be that enthusiastic about work, especially when the work is not that pleasing and when it is also quite demanding of our time and our energy.
In the 1st reading, we heard of God creating the world, and after the heaven and the earth were completed with all their array, God rested on the seventh day after all the work He had been doing.
God also blessed the seventh day and made it holy. We can imagine God taking pride in His work of creation and seeing it as very good, and hence the seventh day is indeed a holy day, and especially for us to wonder and give thanks for God's creation.
Today as we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, we ask for his intercession for all workers that, like him, we will give glory to God with the work of our hands.
But St. Joseph is not the patron saint of workers just because he was a carpenter. His most important work was that he took Mary home to be his wife and to be legal father of Jesus.
It was a work, or a mission, that he was not prepared, nor did he expect it. But with further promptings from God and in obedience, St. Joseph accepted the work he was tasked to do, with commitment and with responsibility.
May we, like St. Joseph, always do our work well and give glory to God with the work of our hands.
May we also, like St. Joseph, be prepared to do God's work willingly and cheerfully, so that God's work of creation will be continued in us.