The Foster Father

Raising up our children to seek God’s will

03/19/2019

Luke 2:41-51A 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.

I think every parent believes their baby will become a child prodigy, regardless of what potential they carry or what problems they cause. My parents no doubt think I will be the pope one day, and who can blame them? But the ironic thing is that when I was a baby, they tell me I was terrible trouble at Mass. I cried all the time and disrupted the divine liturgy and tormented many poor Indian priests. That is why I am so tolerant of troublesome toddlers at my Masses because I feel this is divine justice. What goes around comes around.

I recently read about a refugee family from Nigeria residing in New York who really are raising a child prodigy. Eight year old Tanitoluwa Adewumi just won the New York State chess championship for his age bracket. The remarkable thing is his family lives in a homeless shelter and little Tanitoluwa only learned how to play chess a year ago. His skills are off the charts and his coach believes Tanitoluwa could reach the level of “master status” in a year or two. The world’s youngest grandmaster qualified at the age of 12. All parents believe their children will grow up to do great things, like become the pope or the youngest grandmaster in chess. And parents spend their lives – and sacrifice their lives – trying to help their children pursue all their potential.

March 19 is the feast day of St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, and the Spouse of Mary. Joseph not only believed that Jesus had great potential; he beheld it day after day. Can you just imagine how hard it was for Joseph to sit down to breakfast every morning across the table from the woman who was immaculately conceived and the boy who was the Second Person of the Holy Trinity? What can you say: “Pass the cereal” or “Little more cream and sugar in the coffee”? No wonder Joseph never said one single word that is recorded in the scripture.

Luke 2 records the incident when Jesus’ potential was on display for the whole world to see. We read: “After three days they found him [Jesus] 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.” Incidentally, Jesus was only 12 and no doubt the rabbis and teachers in the temple felt he could be the “youngest grandmaster” spiritually speaking.

But Joseph also silently watched how Jesus hid all his powerful potential at home. Joseph presumably died before Jesus began his public ministry but Jesus did not raise him from the dead, like he did Lazarus. We can imagine Jesus mastered the trade of a carpenter faster than any boy in Nazareth, and yet he remained humble and hidden. In his silent daily contemplation of the Holy Family, Joseph, the faithful foster father, learned that Jesus’ real potential was not to the pope or the youngest grandmaster in chess. Rather, his highest hopes were for heaven, not this world.

My friends, for all of you who are parents (or grandparents) and see all your children’s potential to become child prodigies, St. Joseph offers you a little balance. First of all, try to see yourself as a foster father or foster mother to your child, strange as that sounds. On the day your children are baptized, they belong more to God the Father and to Mother Mary than they do to you. From that moment on, their purpose in life should be to discern, to discover and to do God’s will, not your will, and not even their own will. As spiritual foster parents, teach your children to seek first their heavenly Father’s will, just like Joseph taught Jesus.

Secondly, help them to have hopes and dreams as high as heaven. That’s one great reason to send your children to Catholic schools. I discovered my vocation to be a priest while attending Catholic schools, as do so many other future monks and nuns. Joseph taught Jesus the carpenter’s trade, but he also taught him that there’s more to life than making money.

Every parents hopes their child grows up to be the next pope or the youngest chess grandmaster. St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, helps parents to hope for even more than that for their children.

Praised be Jesus Christ!