A reading of the holy gospel according to Matthew. Jesus went to his native place and spent his time teaching the people in their synagogues. They were filled with amazement and said to one another, where did this man get such wisdom and such miraculous powers? Isn't this the carpenter's son? Is it Mary, his mother known to be his mother and James and Joseph, Simon, and Judas, his brothers?
Aren't his sisters, our neighbors, Where did he get all of this? They found Jesus altogether too much for them. And then Jesus said, no prophet is without honor except in his native place, indeed in his own house. And Jesus did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith. And this is the gospel of the Lord.
In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. That opening prayer, of course, is a very good prayer and I I recommend it highly but there I have difficulty with one sentence in it and I just wanna make a brief comment upon it. This is the feast of Saint Joseph the worker, and of course, it's a great day in Russia. They've already begun their celebration. And the the feast this feast was initiated in the Western world, Christian world, Catholic world, to bring to our attention that we have an idea too about labor and the working man.
And so this feast of Saint Joseph came into into the picture. Of course, our Labor Day comes a little later. Now, in the in the opening prayer, we said, God our father notice that reading from Genesis that god created the world, but he turned it over to man to run it. So we prayed, god our father, creator and ruler of the universe, In every age you call man, now listen, to develop and use his gifts for the good of others. That isn't true.
Here again, I'd like to know what the original that's the remember, this is a translation. Somebody made it made given it their own interpretation. But the point is this, why did God make you? The Penny Catechism or two Penny Catechism or whatever it is, says he made me to know him, to love him, and to serve him. There's nothing in there about my neighbor so far.
You see, this is being being forgotten. My first duty isn't to my neighbor. My first duty isn't to to me. As a matter of fact, I come before my neighbor. My first duty is to god almighty.
You see how this is being soft peddled even in our official prayers? Now I know you can you can interpret this and weedle out of it, but why don't they say what we mean instead of making statements which on their face value are simply not true? The law of charity begins with God, then myself, and then my neighbor. The standard of loving my neighbor is myself. The authority for that statement is Jesus Christ.
And so you you see the connection between the God creating the world and not only creating it, we are not deists. We believe that God not only created the world, in other words brought it out of nothing, but that he sustains it and runs the show. You see the deist remember many of the founding fathers of this country were deists, not theists. The the the the deist it's the difference between the Latin and the Greek, but there's a big difference in the meaning of the significance. You see, the deist idea is that God created the world like you wind up an alarm clock.
Then you can put the alarm clock on the shelf and it runs. The theist says God created the world, but he keeps it running. It's dependent upon it. The technical term is contingent, that the entire universe for its very existence in every split instance of its existence depends upon God's creative act. God's creative act.
He sustains the universe. He not only started it, he not only wound the clock up, but he is the clock that keeps the thing moving. He is a we call as as as Aristotle put it, the the first and primary cause uncaused of everything. That's the best definition we have of God that I know of. And so this text, God created the world and and after six days, he saw that it was good.
Notice, he saw that it was good, and he turned over to man what he saw was good. And he said, now you take it. Now you run this show. Well, we've done it. Now we're doing a fine job of it.
It's not all been bad, of course. But the thing is, what what what is our first responsibility with what he's given us? What is our first responsibility in what we do with the gifts of God? What is our first responsibility with what we earn by our own power and development and talents? Where is the first level, the first target of duty?
Not myself, not my neighbor, but god almighty. God almighty. First, last, always. And yet we come up with a text like that in the official liturgical prayers of the church. Can you these things are beyond me.
I can't understand. And so on this day, if they chose the worker, the Russians have already started it, you know. They've already expressed their for America. Well, we can pray for it. Remember, religion is not dead in Russia by a long shot.
And so today, on May Day, first day of May, let us just recall this. What are we working for? What do you use your talents for? What do you use the gifts of God for? What is your primary goal that you are seeking?
What is Not the exclusive one. Not that the primary excludes the secondary, the tertiary, and all the rest, but what's the primary goal? That's the important question. What is your primary goal? And the answer is very simple.
What controls your decisions? That's where it comes out. Now we're beginning the month of May. It you we used to think of it lovingly and affectionately, even a bit with with great sentimentality. There's nothing wrong with that once in a while.
As dedicated to Our Lady. Let's keep that in mind. And one little resolve we could make would be to say the rosary every day. Try it and offer it for Russia. Remember, the great name for Russia was holy Russia.
Holy Russia. And that holiness is there it's still there. Remember, you don't destroy Jesus Christ. That's been tried many times. And so as we begin this month of May, let us orient our thinking, orient our lives.
Let us thank god for his gifts as as the whole new nature opens up and the flowers come and the birds sing and lilacs bloom, you know, all the the beautiful things of spring. Let us realize these are gifts to man to use. What for? And the answer is in the last analysis for a Christian, for God. And so let us get our thinking straight and and bring that thinking into our daily lives and even to these what seem to be unimportant decisions we make about almost trivial things.
Because as far as our salvation goes, there is no such thing as a trivial thing. In the name of the father and of the son, holy spirit. Amen.