Joseph's Advent
In the last decade of the Joyful mystery we are asked to reflect upon finding the child Jesus in the temple. The twelve year old Jesus is found teaching and listening to the temple priests. Mary and Joseph travel three days retracing their steps to find him, a forshadowing of his resurrection. Jesus's priority is to be about the "things" or the "work of the Father." He places his trust (aka faith) above his devotion to his mother and father.
The story begins with a lost Jesus when Joseph and Mary are in a caravan of people. They just spent the past few days partying for the festival of Passover. The story ends however with Jesus being found. Yes, Jesus finds himself. He find's his identity in filial relation to God the Father.
We ask for holiness/piety upon praying this mystery. We are asked as Oswald Chambers asked, "Do I look at my life as being in my Father’s house? Is the Son of God living in His Father’s house within me?
As we close the Year of Mercy and begin the new year with Advent we are asked to look for his coming. Not only is Advent a time of joy (read third Sunday), but it is a an examination of conscience as well. We see this in the Gospel. Mary and Joseph examine where they lost Jesus. We too can ask this question for our own lives today. We too can find the joy of finding Jesus. It is important to note that it wasn't Jesus who left, but his parents. This is not implying that there was a sin committed on behalf of his Jesus parents, but it does state a human condition that it is our own undoing that removes ourself from God's presence. Jesus desire to stay after the festival of Passover in his father's house is a reality of who Jesus is, joy.
While Mary does all the talking, quietly in the background is Joseph. What were his thoughts? Was he just as anxious? I suspect that Joseph wasn't. His son stayed in the temple. His devotion to God was stellar. As fathers is that not what we desire most of our children? We understand as Fr. Richard Veras stated that "Joy does not spring from intellectual pride, but from being loved." Joseph loved the child Jesus so profoundly that he showed him God the Father. Joseph role in Jesus life is to stand as Proxy to the child Jesus until Jesus find's his identity with the God the Father, and this is Joseph's joy, this is why he died a happy death.
You could say that finding Jesus in the temple is a kind of Advent, a coming. A coming of Jesus into full understanding of his identity with the Godhead. Joseph mission was complete...the joy of knowing that "God is with us." This is something we can be thankful for this season with the natural world goes still because Jesus was never lost, rather he has arrived.
