Daily Gospel Reflection
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March 19, 2025
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.
Today’s gospel reading sounds like a nightmare for most parents. Unfortunately, many can relate to the terrifying experience of losing a child in a crowded place. Jesus was missing for three distressing days, and even in such a brief passage, you can feel the anxiety and subsequent relief from his parents. However, what really strikes me is how Joseph deals with his anxiety upon finding Jesus.
As a father of four young (and frequently disobedient) children, I, too often, become angry after the resolution of a problem or a crisis with the children. When things in life go seriously wrong, we can easily fall into anger with our loved ones, ourselves, or even God because we seek to place blame.
I would have probably been brewing in a mixture of fear and anger for the three days while Jesus was missing, but Joseph and Mary were relieved and astonished when they found him. They only sought to understand and asked, “Son, why have you done this to us?” Perhaps even then they understood that because he was the Son of God, he must have had a reason.
Jesus’ response, coming from one of my kids, would strike me as insolent: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Once again, Mary and Joseph show no sign of anger here. Jesus was reminding them that God is the highest priority. Are we not all called to put God first in our lives, even before our family and other loved ones?
We should all strive to follow the model of Joseph and Mary and seek first to understand rather than seek to place blame.
Prayer
St. Joseph, you were entrusted to be the foster father of the Son of God. May we place our trust in your example, and may Mary, your spouse, increase our gift of gratitude for the divine life that was given to us by Jesus Christ. 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.