By Fr. Parker Love
Despite having not released a new episode in almost a decade, Greg Daniel’s The Office remains a cultural phenomenon. In its original run, this television sitcom ran for nine seasons and was regularly praised by critics and audiences. Since it ended, and especially since it began its run on on-demand services like Netflix, The Office has only grown in popularity. During its original run, critics praised the show’s tight writing and innovative storytelling, and then as well as now, audiences have watched over and over again the ridiculous situations that the characters they have grown to love often find themselves. The relationship between Pam Beasley and Jim Halpert embodies everything its fans admire about the show: the relationship is heart-warming, it makes you laugh, and you always find yourself rooting for characters you know will eventually succeed. Jim, especially, embodies the role of husband and father in a way that many should consider deeply.
When the audience first meets Jim, he is a young salesman who finds himself working at a dead-end job simply to pay the bills and finding no passion in his work. The daily monotony of office life wears on him, and the only thing that keeps him at his place of work are the friends he has made. His closest friend is Pam Beasley, his future wife, but when she initially spurs his romantic advances, he leaves. This begins a cycle of frustratingly poor relationship timing between the two, though it also inspires Jim to become increasingly concerned for his future. It is a concern that multiplies when Jim and Pam finally begin dating and grows again as the two begin to make a family.
Jim’s concern for his future and his desire to succeed at his place of employment do not come from selfish reasons, nor do they arise out of being overly concerned with his economic success; rather, Jim strives to be successful so that he can better provide for his wife and children. There is nothing particularly noble about his work; selling paper is hardly the kind of virtuous action that might regularly change lives. However, his desire to ensure that his wife has time for her own pursuits and that his children have every opportunity available to them are the kind of virtuous actions that certainly change lives; at the very least, Jim’s work changes the lives of his wife and children.
Recently, Pope Francis declared that 2021 would be devoted to St Joseph, and so meditating more deeply on what it takes to be a virtuous husband and father is worthy endeavour. While Jim has much to learn from St Joseph, both men show us that a virtuous life is self-sacrificial and that perusing your own individual vocation in life is the best path to holiness. No one but St Joseph was called by God to be the husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus; similarly, no one but Jim Halpert was called by God to be the head of the Halpert-Beasley household. Beyond self-sacrifice and vocational discernment, St Joseph also reveals to us the great dignity of working for a living. St Joseph’s carpentry did not change many lives; in fact, perhaps the only life it changed was Jesus’s own life, who saw in His foster-father the discipline and patience it would take to not only be a carpenter but indeed, to change the lives of everyone in the universe.
While the vocation of being a husband and father is strictly a masculine vocation, more than just men can learn from St Joseph. The virtues of self-sacrifice, vocational discernment, the dignity of simple work, discipline, and patience are characteristics of all holy people, and all those who strive for holiness should strive to make them a part of their own life. Jim Halpert hardly embodies these characteristics as well as St Joseph does, but given the contemporary trend to make men and fathers in modern media into parodies of themselves and additional children for a wife and mother to care for, Jim does offer us something. He offers us an image of a man who, if not perfect, is in many ways striving for growth. We might do well to learn from him.
Fr Parker Love is a Priest for the Archdiocese of Regina. Ordained in the summer of 2019, Fr Parker serves as Parish Priest at St Augustine Parish in Wilcox, Saskatchewan. He also often helps at Christ the King Parish in Regina, and he serves at the Archdiocese’s Vocation Director. Somehow, in the midst of this, he still finds too much time to consume media in the form of books, tv shows, and movies. To justify that over indulgence, he also hosts a podcast called Cold Drinks, Questions, and Christ, which can be found here, or anywhere you get podcasts.
