Where Christ is

One of the two Gospel passages available for today’s Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is the familiar Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:41-51a).

There is an interesting ambiguity in our Lord’s response to Mary and Joseph. Traditionally, it has been translated:

Did you not know that I must be about my father’s business?

But translations read by many today put it this way:

Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?

Both translations have value, not just from the technical standpoint of translation, but also in the spiritual meaning of our Lord’s words.

On one level, the correct sense seems obvious: our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was found in the Temple – the special earthly house of God his Father – and it should have been obvious that he would be found there, “in my Father’s house.”

But our Lord spent only a small portion of his earthly life and ministry in his "Father’s house" and so, on another level, the other sense of our Lord’s words seems much more apt: that he is to be found about his “Father’s business.”

And where Christ is, so too must we be: in our Father’s house, about our Father’s business.

The ancient Benedictine phrase expresses it succinctly: ora et labora - prayer and work.

As Christians, we must be about our Father’s business: teaching his truth and sharing his love.

As Christians, we must also spend time in our Father’s house: alone with him in prayer as well as together in prayer and faith with the Church (the house of God, e.g. 1 Timothy 3:5, 15).

As we continue this season of Lent with our self-examination and spiritual growth by the grace of God, we do well to ask ourselves these questions:

How much time do I spend about my Father’s business?

How much time do I spend in my Father’s house?

How might I better imitate Christ?