Jesus Found in the Temple

Jesus Found in the Temple,  James Tissot

One of the secondary goals of the Joe Catholic apostolate is to groom men to be able to engage in catechetical teaching and writing. Today, we share a guest post from my younger brother Matt. 

-By Matthew Gonzales-

While reading my daily meditation from Opus Dei, I experienced an "aha" moment. It felt like the fog had been lifted and I could see and understand the writer more clearly. How appropriate being that where I live, there was some pretty heavy fog this morning. The title and heading of the daily message was: Mary Looks for the Son Who was Lost. "Mary spent three days and three nights looking for the son who was lost. May you and I also be able to say that our willingness to find Jesus knows no rest" (Furrow, 794). St Josemaria Escriva was explaining the pain and anxiety Mary and Joseph must have felt when they thought they "lost" Jesus (See Luke 2:42-51). Then they"found" him instructing the teachers of Israel and Jesus essentially scolds them for not knowing where He would be – "in my Father's house."

I know personally, I have had thoughts and feelings that I had lost Jesus from my life. This couldn't be further than the truth, but how awesome it is to share these feelings of despair with our Holy Mother Mary and Joseph. I find it very reassuring to say the least. When Jesus got after his parents, it made me feel like a kid all over again. We can learn from our own children sometimes. Why would we not know where He is? Jesus is always with us and He never leaves us. It is us who allow ourselves to be distracted and then in turn think we have lost Him. He is always doing His Father's work. A perfect place to start and "find" Him again, would be Church. Jesus is definitely at Church, especially in the Eucharist  There is no need to stay in the anxiety and pain when Jesus is always waiting for us to find him.