Dear Friends,
O God, who from the family of your servant David raised up Joseph to be the guardian of your incarnate Son and the spouse of his mother: Give us grace to imitate his uprightness of life and his obedience to your commands; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Happy Feast of St. Joseph the Worker AND May Day! Today, many are participating in “No Work, No School, No Shopping” as a way to show we care about the average working person and resist our country’s lurch towards authoritarianism and the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few.
Today we remember that we follow a humble Jesus who honored each person, especially those the powerful of society might want to overlook: children, women, the sick, the sinner. We don’t know much about his adopted father Joseph, other than that he supported his family through the work of his hands. We imagine that Jesus learned the work of a “tekton,” which is what Joseph was called, meaning a skilled builder, which could be woodwork, masonry, or general construction work.
It is so easy to be lured towards wealth and glamor in a society that celebrates fame and excess (what society hasn’t!?), yet we are called to “downward mobility” as we follow Jesus, who practiced the greatest downward mobility from person of the Trinity to incarnation as a human, from life to the humiliation of the cross. This is the way that so many of our great saints have shown us: Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero. Each could have been exalted, yet throughout their lives each moved closer and closer to the poor and those in need, exercising God’s “preferential option for the poor.”
At All Saints, we try to resist the glamor and pride of wealth and fame and remember our own humble humanity in a variety of ways, one of which is by supporting RCS, our food pantry, especially during the Ravenswood Run, which was last Sunday. It was glorious! 2700 runners, tons of volunteers, and so much joy. One of my favorite things to do is to cheer for those crossing the finish line and so many of YOU ran the race! And just as many got up at the crack of dawn to volunteer. Lori Gee, Executive Director of RCS, offers thanks below, and I add mine to hers. Thank you for saying “yes” over and over again to supporting the vision of a community where all can thrive.
We get to support another vision, that of cross-country solidarity, this Sunday as we welcome our beloved friend Padré Bayron from Cuernevaca, Mexico. Bayron is a model of selfless ministry, serving multiple parishes, which are open and affirming of all people, and his deep joy and faith are palpable and infectious. You can read more about Bayron, our friendship with him, and his ministry in this week’s newsletter.
See you on Sunday!
Faithfully, Suzanne+