A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. Our Lord said to his disciples, as the father has loved me, so I have loved you. Live on in my love. You will live in my love if you keep my commandments even as I have kept my father's commandments and live in his love. All this, I tell you, that my joy may be yours and that your joy may be complete.
This is my commandment. Love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer speak of you as slaves, for a slave doesn't know what his master is going to do.
Instead, I call you friends since I have made known to you everything that I heard from my father. It was not you who chose me. It was I who chose you to go forth and to bear fruit. Your fruit must endure so that all that you ask the father in my name, he will give you. The command I give you is this, that you love one another, and this is the gospel of the lord.
In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. The May 1, May Day, in the Holy Roman Catholic Church, we have the feast of Saint Joseph, the worker, corresponding to the commies May Day. Now, I take my opening text from that mass of Saint Joseph, worker, May 1. God created man.
And you see, these words are so familiar that we you know, they come like water on a duck's back. I love that expression if you know anything about ducks. But just remember what we're saying here, that god created man in his image. In other words, we are all, each and every one of us, created. Notice, we don't get it from the state.
We don't get it from our peers. We don't get it from society. We don't work and get it as a reward. We get it because god created me, because I'm his creation. Think of that.
Don't forget it. Each and every human being is made after the image of god. And then in the book of Genesis, first chapter, this is repeated that the divine image is reflected in every single human being. And then now this is taken from Saint Paul, and Saint Paul is talking to the Colossians. Now you see, there again, we take that word Colossians and, you know, who cares what it is?
But that's a very important city. It was in Saint Paul's time. It was over there near Ephesus in the Southwest Corner of Asia Minor, and there was a road going from Ephesus all the way across to the Euphrates. And the city of Colossae was right on that road. So it was a very important commercial site where everybody was very busy making money, of course.
So Saint Paul writes this letter to the Christians of colossal Colossae. And he says, whatever you do in the word or in deed, Do everything in the name of the lord Jesus, giving thanks to god the father through him. They're taken from Saint Paul's letter to the Christians of Colossians. So these texts are from the first chapter of Genesis and then from the book of Saint letter of Saint Paul to the Colossians. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.
Amen. And in a sense, they say everything I want to say. You, the individual you, independent of society and all that malarkey, you are created as an individual creation to reflect the image of god. And that everything you do, whatever it is, do it in the name of the lord Jesus to praise god the father. That's all I wanna say.
But, of course, I'm not going to sit down. We all have to do penance. You know? Now May Day passed by with hardly a wink. I think more attention was given to the last episode of Dallas than than the May Day got.
Hope you all saw it. I stayed up especially to see how that ended. It ended with the devil taking old JR and having him shoot himself. Couldn't happen to a better person. Now I wanna bring to your mind a couple of things today.
First of all, May Day. That's a Russian creation. It was created by the Commies and the Bolsheviks to to exalt the proletariat, whatever that is. And if you remember the maydays of the past, when hour after hour with immense armaments, thousands and thousands of people streamed across Red Square in a most orderly fashion. Did you see the news item this year on May Day what happened in in the Red Square?
Gorbachev, one man with one companion, goes up to that immense, vast, whatever it is up there, of a roof on the means tomb. I've never seen it. And there the two stood. And what kind of a parade? A motley crew of gloomy faced working men.
I suppose they were working men, straggled across Red Square. The contrast from what has been is simply unimaginable. And that this change could happen in such a short space of time is beyond all credibility. No one could have predicted this three years ago. And here you have a complete reversal, and I can't help but thinking.
Here you have the only instances only instance, as far as I know, in all of human history where you have a a huge nation formally explicitly denying God and cultivating atheism, who want to proclaim to all the world that God is a no thing, a nothing. And they did it. They did it since 1917. And where is it now? Oh, Gorbachev and one companion, they were the only two.
Watch this ragtail crowd straggling across Red Square in 1991. I couldn't help thinking it's almost the same as the end of good and dear JR Ewing. Now in contrast to that May Day let let me put this in just in in between. You know, when the communist got started, it was a strong labor movement. It was supposed to be the exaltation of the proletariat.
And, of course, you know, and the individual man and woman, they were simply nothing. I mean nothing. They were simply the means to the end, to the exaltation of what they call the proletariat. Well, remember, the proletariat only exists as an idea. It has no real existence whatsoever except in the individual human beings who constitute what they like to call the proletariat.
That's the only reality. Here you have the Catholic church presenting the idea that every human being individual that's what counts. I only exist as an individual. Of course, I'm born into society. But the only reality for me is my existence and your existence as individuals.
And remember, when the commies got going, it was a ready labor movement. And they thought they were going to capture the American labor movement, but they didn't succeed. I know they infiltrated some of the unions, but they didn't take over the labor unions of The USA. That's why we have their they they had their own Labor Day. They never went in with the Russians or the communists on May 1.
But now to come back to it, the church re the church's response to May Day of the communists, of the atheists, of the Marxists, of the dialectical materialists, was to institute the feast of Saint Joseph the worker. And here you have such a difference. Just think of these texts that I just read, that every individual remember, the proletariat's only a conception. It's an abstraction. It's an idea.
It's all. It's all. Except for the individual men and women. And here in the first chapter of Genesis, going way back to the first book of the Pentateuch of the Hebrew Bible, in the first very first chapter that god made every single human being after his own image. What do we mean after the image of god?
Look at yourself in the mirror and you say, is that god I'm looking at? In a sense, the answer is yes. Yes. But what do you see? What do you see?
An abstraction? No. No. You see yourself. The individual human remember, god did not create humanity.
God created human beings right down to the present tense. Now this feast of Saint Joseph's work, it was an effort on the part of the church in contradiction of the atheist who says god is a no thing, nothing. The Christian says that god is everything, everything. He said so himself. And each individual human being comes from god, each individual human being is destined to go back to god if he does what he's supposed to do with his life in between.
Compare that philosophy of life. If you wanna call it a compare that to what any secularistic, humanistic philosophy can offer you. That I came from god, that I made to his image, and I go back to god as he wants me to do, although I can say no. And how do I do it? By work, by how I live my daily life.
And, therefore, as Saint Paul says, whatever you do notice that's a pretty sweeping noun. Whatever you do in word or in deed, do it all for God in thanksgiving to God through his son. So that's the first point I want. The feast of Saint Joseph the work something funny happened to me on the first day. I got a telephone call.
They wanted to know who this Saint Joseph the worker was. I'm not kidding. They said, is he somebody different from Saint Joseph, the husband of Mary? Well, let me assure you they're one and the same. Now the second point I wanna make, really the third point, has to do with the the most recent encyclical from our holy father.
Now the Catholic church, at least since Leo the thirteenth, and and and many many Catholics have been very outstanding in social justice efforts, in activities of unionism, in in efforts to to raise the level of living, decency, respect for the working man and woman, the Catholic church has been very active. Now this latest encyclical letter of our holy father, which is the ninth of his years in the pontificate, I think it's fourteen now, I can't believe it, has to do with this question of labor. And as we today say, social justice. Well, now you should remember that though even the phrase social justice is a really new phrase. That's relatively new.
It's not a 100 years old. And the title of John Paul's latest letter is, meaning a 100 years. Well, what does that mean? I guess we could translate it as the hundredth anniversary of Leo the thirteenth's encyclical of 1891, Rerum Novarum. Rerum Novarum, which we could which simply means new things of new things.
But it what it really is, it's the church's official statement in 1891 on labor, its rights, and its responsibilities. 32 pages. The Holy Father's letter of May 1 is a 114. So there's more to say about it in 1991 than in 1891, I guess. Anyway, Leo the thirteenth's letter, Rare Novarum, on the condition of labor was absolutely for you can't really exaggerate what that letter meant.
Remember, in 1891, the very right of the working man to unionize was challenged and rejected and denied. One of the foremost champions of unionism, the right of the working man and woman to form their own associations, was John A. Ryan. And when I came to Catholic University in 1928, the rumor now I'm it was a rumor. I have no way of knowing whether it's true or false.
But the rumor was that a certain well known Catholic capitalist, head of a big company, had offered the university $1,000,000, and this is in 1928, when a million dollars meant something. Still means something, but not what it meant in '19 in that time, 1928. If they would get rid of John A. Ryan, and that came from a the rumor was that it came from a Catholic capitalist or head of a big corporation. Whether it's true or false, I don't know.
But he had been invited to leave his diocese because he defended the right of the working man to form his union. That's John a. Ron. And following him, you had Monsignor O'Grady, Monsignor Haas, father Cronin. I knew them all.
These were outstanding men who wielded tremendous influence on these very basic rights of the labor of the working man, human rights, inalienable rights, which they had to fight for. And this letter of Leo the thirteenth in 1891 was the official seal of the church that this was the way to go. And in that letter, you have the famous you can't call it a definition, but it was given as the church's official declaration on what a working man has a right to make what his wages should be. That was in 1891. Now then, forty years later, Pius XI issued another letter.
He called it Quadragesimo Anu forty years after, forty years after, where he that's Quadragesimo Anu, where he reaffirms and develops the thought of Leo the thirteenth of eighteen ninety one. Now you'd say, well, what's if if as far back as a hundred years ago, the church was so so strongly behind these very that these labor movements that today we absolutely take for granted completely. Why hasn't more been done? I can't I can't answer that question. You'll have to read a hundred years history of our world.
And the basic thing is that men and women can be very greedy. This that's the that's the bottom line of the thing. To think that something is accomplished by merely writing a letter, no nobody of any sense thinks that. That letter of Leo the thirteenth was rejected. It was damned to hell by a lot of people.
Catholics, I'm talking about. The the argument was that the pope has no business interfering with my business, which is to run a mill, a factory, or an office, or what have you. That I'll go to church on Sunday. I pay him a dues, but let him keep out of my business. And I've heard many many I mean, these are these are good Catholics in the sense in which they went to church and all that.
They said that business is one thing, but my religion is another. And I I I'm a good man in both of them. And they had a mansion to prove it. Now here we are a hundred years later after Leo speaks his piece in behalf of the working man, in behalf of those who have no other way of putting bread and butter on their table except through the labor of their hands. Well, there aren't many opportunities in this country or the Western world for labor anymore.
So we have to use the word labor now in a much broader context. Going to an office or what have you, going up in the air in a balloon, going down to the sea in ships, whatever. It's the working man can only put food on his table, take care of his children and his wife and family, leave them inheritance, have a home to what he can contribute in the way of work or labor. What else can he do except babe? Now I haven't read the whole letter.
I haven't seen it yet. All I have is an excerpt from it. And this new letter, this letter of our holy father, centesimus anus, the one hundredth anniversary of Leo the thirteenth, verum novarum, it completely, of course, affirms Leo and Pis, of course. But here's what it does that has not been done at all. It gives the churches approval to market economies.
In other words, it supports what we call capitalism. As far as I know, that's the first church document that is not hostile to the market economy. It's the first one I know that is not hostile. But I didn't say condemns, hostile. That goes for letters from hierarchies too.
It's the first one. This is very significant. Believe me. Very significant. And, of course, already, we have the liberal and progressive Catholics saying, oh, this doesn't go far enough.
Look at this. Look at this. Look at this. I'm only saying what the holy father says in those 114 pages as as I have read about it. It he is dead set against a socialistic dead set against a socialistic economy.
Of course, he is. Has some sense. But then he goes on to say, however, however, while it's there's nothing wrong with a profit, a profit goal, what's more obvious than a man runs a business business to make some money? So the holy father puts his seal of approval on profit. He doesn't condemn it, of course not.
It has been, of course, condemned by plenty of people, but he doesn't. But he says there's some more important values, and that is the value of the men and women in the industries. Their personal dignities, their self respect must be considered at least equal to the prospect and the goal of profit. This is according to what I've read. He says this expert.
And there he says there are moral laws, and there has to be civil laws to guarantee to the working man his basic rights. Then he asked this question, well, then should these nations, these countries which are now have broken away from socialism, from dialectical materialism, from communism, should they adopt should they adopt a capitalistic system? He says, according to what I read, he says that's a complex question. And I say amen to that. It sure is.
Now he he all in this he also goes on to criticize, pejoratively, bureaucratic welfare. Of course, that's practically self evident except in this country. And so when this letter, when it comes to your attention, it's a 114 pages long. It must be quite a document. I hope you will read it.
At least skim through it. Because as Catholics, you should know what the church's official position, not some theologian or some canon lawyer or somebody, but what the Catholic church teaches on this subject of the rights and responsibilities, because they go together, of the working man and the working woman. Fourth point I want to make is this is brief, but I I I don't want it to be brief. Remember, the most important part of a sentence, a paragraph, or a book is the last part, is our blessed lady. May Day opens her month, May.
And it used to be a great thing. Every Catholic home practically would put a little statue in some room with a lit with a candle and some little flowers, and the kids would keep fresh flowers in there, just what they could pick up in the fields or lawns or stuff. Don't let May pass by without your coming back to our lady. Her stock has gone down, but don't you dare blame it on Vatican II. She had she she is not as prominent as she used to be in Catholic thought and Catholic devotion.
But make an effort. Make an effort to bring Our Lady into your daily lives and may I don't care what but make an effort. Try to cultivate some virtue, more patience, more reticent and flying off the handle, more generosity, forgiveness, but make it a point in May daily to practice some virtue every single day. The same one. The same one.
Give the whole month of May to it. But something that's well within your ability to perform. I recommend the rosary. That, of course, has been is almost a forgotten thing. But it still exists.
It's a very good devotion. Some people find it difficult. Don't use it. But the point is, try it. Try to bring it back into your life, carrying it in your pocket.
And then there but there should be some very special little prayer, short prayer that you're going to say every day in the month of May to our Lady. Because let me tell you this, whatever else we say about the virgin mother, she comes to us with our Lord Jesus Christ in her arms, holding him out to us. In the name of the father, the son, the holy spirit. Amen.