Daily Gospel Reflection
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March 19, 2024
Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
and when he was twelve years old,
they went up according to festival custom.
After they had completed its days, as they were returning,
the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem,
but his parents did not know it.
Thinking that he was in the caravan,
they journeyed for a day
and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances,
but not finding him,
they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.
After three days they found him in the temple,
sitting in the midst of the teachers,
listening to them and asking them questions,
and all who heard him were astounded
at his understanding and his answers.
When his parents saw him,
they were astonished,
and his mother said to him,
“Son, why have you done this to us?
Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”
And he said to them,
“Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
But they did not understand what he said to them.
He went down with them and came to Nazareth,
and was obedient to them.
It’s not difficult for parents to place themselves in the shoes of the Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph. I can recall three such instances when my wife and I thought we lost our children. There was the time our youngest child wandered off the trail hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There was the time our middle child, who, at three years old, decided she wanted to go to the beach after we had already returned to the condo. And then our oldest decided at 12 that running away from home would be a fun adventure. With each of these, every natural parental instinct kicked in—elevated heart rate, sweats, panic, fear, and prayers that God would help us find them.
For the 30 years I have worked with the Congregation of Holy Cross, I have admired and respected how the brothers, sisters, and priests accept their role as “foster parents” to the young people they are blessed to accompany. Following the example of Saint Joseph, these women and men have committed themselves to creating cultures of love and care.
Whether here in the tri-campus community, in the grade schools and high schools across the U.S., or in small villages in developing nations around the world, these men and women go as the Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross state: as “educators in the faith, supporting men and women of grace and goodwill everywhere in their efforts to form communities of the coming kingdom.”
Just as Saint Joseph was instrumental in forming Jesus and opened himself to love God’s son, Holy Cross religious and lay collaborators continue to shape the next generation of scholars, courageous citizens, virtuous leaders, and passionate disciples God has given them.
May our personal witness reflect that of Saint Joseph and the men and women who came before us, that is, “the Lord’s…so that it becomes a prayer: a service that speaks to the Lord who works through us.”
Prayer
St. Joseph, we send our prayers to God with your help. Saint Brother André urged us to come to you. Send more young men and women to join our ranks in Holy Cross. May we have your zeal in all the ministries that we do. You listened and obeyed the angels, please listen to all of our prayers. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Aside from Mary herself, St. Joseph is the saint most represented on Notre Dame's campus in painted images, stained glass, and statues. Joseph is one of the Catholic Church’s most popular saints, and he is also the patron saint of the brothers of Holy Cross, who built this University.
Joseph, like Mary, is one of the key figures of Salvation History, whose personality and biography are not included in Scripture. Most of our traditional stories about Joseph come from the early Christian legend, the Protoevangelium of James. From canonical Scripture, we know that Joseph was a laborer in Nazareth—a carpenter. We know he was not wealthy because when he took Mary and Jesus to the Temple after Jesus was born, he offered two doves, which was an allowance for those who could not afford to offer a lamb. Even though he was a worker, Joseph was from royal lineage—in Matthew's genealogy, which begins his Gospel, Joseph is listed as a descendant of King David.
In Scripture, Joseph provides us with the awe-inspiring example of a disciple who follows the Lord, no matter how surprising and shocking the commands received. When Joseph was engaged to Mary, she became pregnant with Jesus. Not knowing the child’s origin, Joseph planned to divorce her but intended to do so very quietly, so as to avoid scandal and causing additional pain for Mary. Joseph knew that this step could bring severe judgment—even stoning—upon the woman found pregnant by purported adultery. An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream to explain the pregnancy and the identity of Jesus. In sheer obedience and faith, Joseph took Mary as his wife and provided for her and Jesus, whom he loved and cared for as his own son.
An angel appeared to him again, later, when Jesus was in danger. Joseph immediately followed the angel’s instructions, took his family to safety in Egypt, and only returned when the angel told him it was safe.
Because he is absent entirely from the story of Jesus’ public ministry, his passion and death, tradition teaches that Joseph died before these events took place. He is the patron of a happy death because tradition holds that he died of natural causes with Jesus and Mary at his side. (Joseph is pictured on his deathbed in a mural in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on campus, seen below.)
Above all, we know that Joseph was faithful—he followed all of the religious laws of the time, and made the expensive trip to Jerusalem every year to celebrate Passover there. He followed without question the promptings of the angels who appeared to him, even though it sent him into the unknown. The Catholic Church has taught that Joseph and Mary had a celibate marriage, certainly a difficult vocation.
Joseph has two feast days—today, and May 1, when he is venerated under the title, Joseph the Worker. He is patron saint of the universal Church, of workers and carpenters, of immigrants, of those who are dying, of those who are buying or selling a house, and of fathers, among many others who claim his intercession. His relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus, including pieces of his robe.
St. Joseph is depicted in a statue that stands atop the founder’s monument on campus, near Old College and the Log Chapel (shown in our featured image for today). In one hand, Joseph holds a lily—a traditional symbol of purity—and, in the other, he holds the child Jesus. St. Joseph was chosen for the monument because he is the patron of the Holy Cross brothers, who came to the American frontier in northern Indiana to establish a university. They taught and provided indispensable labor such as carpentry and farming, building Notre Dame in both the intellectual and physical sense. The names of the founding brothers are inscribed on the back of the pedestal. Joseph is an inspiring image of someone who, like the brothers of Holy Cross, seeks to conform his life to the shape of the cross. Whatever Joseph's hopes were for his own life or his relationship with Mary, he gave those up to help bring God's plan for salvation to fruition.
Among many other places on campus, Joseph is also depicted in this statue above that decorates the atrium in the Stinson-Remick Engineering Hall, where he is reading a scroll with the child Jesus.
St. Joseph, faithful spouse of the Blessed Virgin and patron saint of the Holy Cross brothers—pray for us!
To learn even more about St. Joseph, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.