Sunday, July 14, 2024 – Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
A couple of weeks ago I referred to the darker side of the Summer of 1974. It was a time of worry and challenge for the country, yet it did have its bright and memorable side for me and, I would believe, for many of us. I have been thinking about my life in the Summer of 74. It was the summer following my freshman year in high school and I began my first summer job with who else but my father at Hoffman & Peterson Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc. based in Ludlow, Kentucky. This was my Dad’s small heating and air conditioning business which was highly successful. He and his partner, Frank Peterson became good friends with Ralph Drees, a home builder who gave my Dad’s company whole subdivisions in the Kenton County suburbs to install heating and air conditioning systems in.
During that summer I learned what it was to work for pay and what it was like to be “low man on the pole,” doing the dirty work. By the end of the summer my hands were all torn-up from cuts in cutting sheet metal for housing duct work. I had to bundle-up on hot days when we installed insulation into a house shell so I would not get the fibers into my skin. After and during rains, I had to go into flooded basements of house shells to install floor vent elbows and other duct work as my ladder sunk into the wet dirt and mud. Dad would just say “You do it, it will be good for you.”
This was a good experience for me, though not always fun. I could think of multiple other ways to spend my summer, but I am so grateful for that experience. I learned a lot and it was a privilege to work with Dad. He taught me to work hard, do the job right, and to have class and dignity in the process. It was good to experience what he did to support our family in so many ways. I value and cherish the experience as much, if not more, than I did the times when we played ball together and went to Reds games together with my uncle (his brother) who had Reds season tickets. In my reflecting on the Summer of 1974, it makes me wonder what it was like for Jesus to work with his earthly farther, Joseph, the carpenter.
We celebrate Joseph the Worker every year on May 1, and I wonder how Joseph’s work, his work ethic influenced the young Jesus. We have no Scriptural record of such experiences, though we believe that Joseph had an influence on Jesus’ life. What was it like at the work bench between the two of them? What was the dialogue like? I would like to think it may have, in some way, paralleled my own experience of working with Dad fifty years ago.
I hope in an official summer job, or just around your home growing up, that we have fond, pleasant, and growthful experiences working together with our parents. I hope we can all recall memorable conversations with them during these work projects and the life lessons we learned and embraced. Let us give thanks to God for these early moments of grace in family life and may the memory, spirit, and lessons learned follow us throughout our lives.