We've Lost Jesus!

“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.”

Fear.

It is terribly difficult for us to admit—even, or perhaps especially- for those of us with faith. We are Catholics or Christians, after all, and we trust Jesus, we have faith in God the Father. We know not to fear. Argue with ourselves when we are afraid.

Last week, I was positive I had 'it': the sore throat, heaviness on the chest, dry cough along with feverish feelings. Did I speak with my husband about it? Of course not, I doubled up on Vitamin C, took the homeopathics that I keep on hand, and prayed, “Please don’t let me give it to John or anyone else.” I am not afraid for me but for him. Believing that to be true.

Only when my husband and I talked a week later did I learn that he’d had the same symptoms-and yet neither of us said a word to the other. Consequently, I have listened twice to Monseigneur John Esseff in his podcast, Facing the Fear- Daily Spiritual Counsel Through This Pandemic of Fear. Former confessor and retreat director for St. Teresa of Calcutta’s, Msgr. Essef can be heard daily on Discerning Hearts Radio. Originally recorded on March 19th, the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the priest tells his co-host, Kris McGregor about his own fear the evening before the podcast, caused what he was convinced were symptoms of The Virus.

I was both intrigued and comforted by the priest’s frank account of the difficulty he had admitting-to himself-that he was afraid. And I thought of the countless millions throughout the world feeling the same way as both my husband and I had. That is why I listened twice to his excellent meditation on the gift given us by the young Holy Family.

By the next morning, the day of the podcast, Msgr. Essef named his fear, by identifying with Mary and her husband Joseph:

“We have lost Jesus!”

“Joseph, I thought he was with you!”

“Mary, I thought he was with you!”

We can imagine the frantic parents of this miraculous twelve- year -old as they search the caravan, and then through the crowded city of Jerusalem. And we can readily feel their rising panic as they looked everywhere for their child, day after day, after day.

“Have you seen our boy? He is about this tall...is wearing...” 

Mgsr. Essef reminds us of the purity of the Mother of God. And that her husband Joseph was a ‘good and righteous man.’ And yet, they did not hide their fear, to themselves, or one another.

“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?”

The readings for last Thursday are a reminder that too often we put out trust in the government, or wealth, or the medical profession. And when they fail, we succomb to anxiety and fear. Let us realize that the fear exists because we have fallen out of the habit of recollecting His Presence in us. Mgsr Essef reminds us that He lives in each baptized person, in the Temple of our body.

St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans describes this precious gift of ours:

Brothers and sisters: It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith. For this reason, it depends on faith, so that it may be a gift, and the promise may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not to those who only adhere to the law but to those who follow the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us, as it is written, I have made you father of many nations. He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not exist. He believed, hoping against hope, that he would become the father of many nations, according to what was said, Thus shall your descendants be. That is why it was credited to him as righteousness.