My Father’s Business
The Gospel story today is simple enough. It’s been twelve years since the Christchild was born in Bethlehem, and Mary and Joseph have decided he’s old enough to make the pilgrimage with them to the Holy City of Jerusalem. Afterwards on the way home, thinking their Son was with other members of the family as they traveled back north, they’re unaware that he has remained behind in Jerusalem. When that realization finally hits them, they are sick with worry, and hurry back to the city to find him. For three days they sought him everywhere, their anxiety growing by the day. So great was his Mother’s fear that she wouldn’t find him, that it counts as the third of her seven sorrows, the third sword to pierce her Immaculate Heart.
How great then was the joy with which they find him on the third day. And yet, mixed with their relief was the nagging question of our Lord’s motive in causing them so much sorrow. Even his blessed Mother, that towering pillar of wisdom, was at a loss, bluntly asking him, “Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us?” And we today, we also puzzle over our Lord’s actions. It’s okay for us to be confused—after all, if our blessed Lady had trouble with this uncharacteristic and apparently uncaring behavior of her Son, then certainly we should have no pretensions to any better understanding of his actions. If she, who is the Seat of Wisdom, was at a loss to explain his behavior, we’re definitely going to have problems figuring it out.
Even when our Lord explained himself to his Mother, she still did not understand. Indeed, his answer does not seek to excuse what he did. His response came first in the form of a question—“How is it that ye sought me?” A strange response, to be sure! Surely, a twelve-year-old boy knows enough that if he goes missing his parents are going to be worried beyond imagination and are going to look for him. So why is it that he asks his Mother why they sought him? And then comes his second question, one which this time contains the real answer, “Wist ye not”—Don’t you know—“that I must be about my Father’s business?” Our Lady, although not yet understanding fully what he meant, begins to see some light and keeps these sayings in her heart for later consideration. She knows very well who our Lord’s Father was—the Angel Gabriel had made that very clear at the Annunciation. We too should start to see a glimmer of the great truth behind our Lord’s questions.
The entire episode seems to have been a lesson, not only for the benefit of Mary and Joseph, but for us also. Every year, we celebrate this Feast of the Holy Family and we marvel at the unity and love of Jesus, Mary and Joseph living together in Nazareth, the very model of family life, held up before us as the example of how we should co-exist as a family. Indeed, the Holy Family are not just any example, but the supreme representation of family life, one that is held up to us as the perfect model for us to follow in our own families. And yet (and here’s the lesson), no matter how perfect that family may have been, it still pales in comparison with our spiritual family. For just as God was the Father of the Child Jesus, so too he is our Father, and we are his children. Our loyalty to our heavenly Father must be placed on a far higher level, even than our loyalty to our earthly family—that’s what Christ is teaching us by what would otherwise be rather heartless conduct.
“The family that prays together stays together.” This was the famous saying of Fr. Peyton whose apostolate back in the fifties was to promote the Rosary, especially within the setting of the Catholic family. The reason families remain united when they pray the Rosary is this: the Holy Rosary is the story of our Redemption, and if we pray it in unity with our family, our family will remain united not just physically but spiritually, inspired to live our lives according to Christ’s teachings and example. We will be united because we all have the same Father in heaven and the same blessed Mother. All of us who keep that faith alive in our homes will remain brothers and sisters in the Mystical Body of Christ.
Regrettably, the realities of life rarely cooperate with our plans of perfection. Very often, family members are not on the same page as us when it comes to things religious. Today’s climate is openly geared towards self-fulfillment, pleasure, and the accumulation of material wealth, and most people have succumbed to the lures of temptation. Family honor is a thing of the past, and the selfish wishes of the individual have taken over any desires that once existed to remain faithful to our commonly held beliefs and principles. We can no longer rely on our fellow family members sharing our desire to please God first and foremost and sacrificing their own individual whims and desires to a higher principle. Often, they go their own way and the result is that many families have lost their unity. If the family is no longer united around the Cross of Jesus, then it is no longer united. We might wonder how we got here, but we know where we are!
So what can we do about it? There’s a saying that if you can’t beat them, join them. That’s definitely not the answer. We must wholeheartedly reject that concept and remain loyal to Almighty God. No matter what family discord may result from our refusal to fall in with the majority as they delve further and further into worldliness and sin, we must remain steadfast in our submission to the laws of our Father and Creator. I don’t need to go into detailed examples, we all have our individual family issues going on, I’m sure. But if we stand firm, applying the principle of God First to our own circumstances, we’ll not only remain on the path of salvation ourselves, but might even inspire the fallen-away to return to the bosom of a family united under God.
If the twelve-year-old Christchild was prepared to allow his Mother and Foster Father St. Joseph go through their three-day ordeal, it was to give us this lesson, that the natural good and happiness of even the Holy Family itself is not enough for us to disregard our higher allegiance to our Father in heaven. God first, family second. So the next time we’re harassed by our family for not agreeing or turning a blind eye to their ungodly ways, let us repeat to them the words of that twelve-year-old Boy: “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business.”