(optional) Memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker
(Acts 11:1-18; John 10:11-18)
According to food guru Michael Pollan food habits are among
the last to be acculturated. Long after
immigrants arrive in a new country, they and their descendants prefer the native
foods of their homelands. For this
reason Simon Peter’s countrymen may be bewildered by his sharing the table of
Gentiles in today’s first reading. But,
of course, there is more at stake than that.
Jews at the time of Jesus, as today, are almost identified
by their refusal to eat pork. Yet it is
said that its prohibition is only the beginning of the kosher diet. Probably the certainty that Jesus kept it made
some disciples think that all his followers should do so as well. But since the stoning of Stephen, the same
followers were being increasingly alienated from Judaism. In face of Gentile converts’ desire to eat their
customary foods, the disciples are faced with a dilemma. Would Jesus refuse Baptism to people simply
because they eat foods that were forbidden Jesus’ ancestors?
Today we celebrate St. Joseph the Worker. An
honest carpenter, Joseph models many virtues like diligence and justice related
to work. As patron of workers, we can also
see him as a model of assimilation and diversity. Here’s the connection with a diverse
diet. Work since the industrial Revolution
has brought people from different backgrounds together. Joseph, a discerning person, would hardly
reject them for the diet they kept. He
may not have eaten all their foods. But
as he invited the Magi from into his home, he probably would have little difficulty
seeing their descendants attending Jesus’ church.
