According to the Gospels, Joseph is a man without a woman. Mary, with her virginal conception, is a woman without a man. Jesus is a fatherless child. Can we talk about a family? A true human family? From a legal responsibility perspective, we can talk about a true family. A family exists where there is mutual responsibility, sharing, where the joys and sorrows of human existence are experienced together. There is a second element to highlight: Joseph and Mary are a couple submissive to the word of God. The Word became, in Mary, a fertilizing Word; she welcomed the Word and gave birth to Jesus. The Word then led Joseph to accept what was happening in Mary, and subsequently to save both her and the child. Their son is first and foremost the fruit of their obedience to God (and is one of the messages of today’s Gospel). Then there is an episode: the finding in the temple. Here a salutary crisis occurs for the family of Nazareth. Jesus abandons his parents. He is no longer the child but begins to be the son. This phase throws them into anguish, but they must leave him to his fate. Jesus feels drawn by an aspiration, by the law of desire. If he were not drawn, he would probably deny himself. The fact that they later find him among the doctors of the Temple means that Jesus desires to engage with and also reassure himself with people who had specific expertise. These confirm and strengthen his desire, assuring him of the validity of his vocation. The law of desire in Jesus is the Father; he will unite his life with that desire, resolutely determining himself (cf. Luke 9:51) to fulfil the plan of salvation. But that’s not all. Jesus himself will establish a family, but based on new criteria, new bonds no longer based on blood but on the will of the Father (cf. Mark 3:20-35). This family replaces the natural and religious ones. Whoever does the will of the Father is Jesus’ brother, sister, and mother.

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,
Prinknash Abbey