On May Day, International Workers' Day, since 1955 the Church has celebrated St. Joseph the Worker Day, who has traditionally been identified with a carpenter, but who was much more; he was a "τέκτων". Do you know what it means?
To know the office of St. Joseph, the husband of Mary, we must look for the reference in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, which relates how, after hearing the people of his town speak to Jesus with such unction and wisdom they could not believe it and asked themselves, "Is this not the carpenter's son?" This is how the Greek term "τέκτων (tekton)", in which the Gospels were written, has traditionally been translated, since it was the common language in the eastern Mediterranean at the time of Jesus.
The question is: would we define tekton as what we understand today as a carpenter? And the answer is an absolute and resounding no. A carpenter, today, we identify with someone who is dedicated exclusively to woodworking. And we would distinguish a carpenter (who builds structures, works with large beams, etc.), from a furniture carpenter (who manufactures and installs doors, cabinets, kitchen furniture...), from a cabinetmaker (who carves, models and turns wood...).
A tekton was all that, but much more, because the word designates a person who exercises a wide range of manual labor, which today would fall into the category of masonry work, including all construction tasks and even stone carving. It is, what we would say today, a handyman, a craftsman, a person with great knowledge and skill for manual trades related to construction.
But what about Jesus, was he also a handyman? A rabbinical sentence stated that "whoever does not teach his son a manual trade, is teaching him to steal", so we can assume that Jesus followed the customs of his people and learned the trade from his Father. And I say well, of his Father, with capital letters, since (oh coincidence!) also his real Father is presented in Genesis as a craftsman who, with the skill of his hands, built the universe and modeled men and animals.
It is easy to imagine Joseph and Jesus, in their workshop, sawing a large beam and, soon after, Joseph, trying to delicately remove the speck of sawdust that had accidentally fallen into the boy's eye; it is easy to see the boy brushing and sanding a yoke as his father had taught him so that it would be smooth and not hurt the neck of the neighbor's ox or carving a stone that the architects had discarded for not being quite perfect to turn it, with two chisel strokes, into the cornerstone of a new building; It is easy to contemplate Jesus as an adult and Joseph, mace in hand, tearing down the façade of the synagogue of Nazareth that had rotted due to humidity and rebuilding it, as the Pharisees had requested, with a wider door, since the original one was too narrow for them to enter comfortably with their sumptuous clothes.
Church tradition has also seen Jesus Christ working hand in hand as tekton, this time alongside his Father God and as the second person of the Trinity, in the following passage from the book of Proverbs: "When he laid the heavens, I was there; when he traced the vault over the face of the deep; when he fastened the clouds on high, and fixed the abyssal fountains; when he set a boundary for the sea, whose waters do not pierce his command; when he laid the foundations of the earth, I was beside him, as architect, and day after day I made him glad, all the while I played in his presence: I played with the ball of the earth, and my delights are with the sons of men."
On this feast of St. Joseph the Worker, I think of the lack of renovations in my interior house: of the need to repair that chipping that life has left me, of the urgency to tear down those walls that I have built against others, to open a window in that room a little sad and to make some good shelves that will allow me to organize so much clutter that I sometimes cause. I know a couple of good handymen who can help me for sure. If you are like me, I have left their number here. Give them a call. They are reliable.
Journalist. Graduate in Communication Sciences and Bachelor in Religious Sciences. He works in the Diocesan Delegation of Media in Malaga. His numerous "threads" on Twitter about faith and daily life have a great popularity.
