Monday, March 19, 2007 Alipio: Preparing our children for life By Fr. Jose Alipio The Yoke
Lk 2:41-51
TODAY, we celebrate the Solemnity of Joseph, husband of Mary. Our lesson is taken from Luke's gospel and recounts the only childhood experience of Jesus in the New Testament. This story is told to illustrate the spiritual precociousness of Jesus. When Jesus was 12-years-old, he accompanied his parents to their annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem in celebration of Passover. On this occasion, when the celebration was done the family of Jesus and the pilgrims they traveled with returned to their homes. At the end of the first day's journey, his parents discovered that Jesus was nowhere to be found. They quickly retraced their steps to Jerusalem where they finally found Jesus engaged in deep discussion with the great teachers of the day.
We can draw some important lessons about parenting from this story. Joseph was more than the husband of Mary. He was also father to Jesus. From this story we know several things about the kind of father Joseph was. He was a father who included his children in family religious celebrations. Jesus learned his first spiritual lessons in the home from his parents. Joseph was also a father who encouraged independent thinking on the part of his children. It was no accident that the young Jesus was able to hold his own with the learned rabbis of his day. He had been given the chance to think for himself by his own father. There's the perfect balance of preparing your children for life -- give them a religious tradition and encourage them to make it their own.
