Where He May be Found

The exact circumstances of Saint Joseph’s death are unknown to us, but he isn’t mentioned after Jesus became a man. Christ is present in people who look unimportant and people who die in obscurity, mourned only by family.

Christ left His job as a carpenter, when the time was right, and wandered around the country staying wherever He was welcome. We are told that, at least on occasion, He had nowhere to lay His head. He made scenes when it would have been safer to stay silent. He befriended people it would have been safer to leave alone. He spoke truth to the powerful even though He knew full well what would happen. Christ is present in wanderers, nuisances and fools.

Christ was betrayed, denied and abandoned by His closest friends. He was denounced by the leaders of His faith. He was dragged before the local authority by a lynch mob and the authority washed his hands of it. Christ was stripped, tortured, mocked; He was abused verbally, physically and sexually, brutalized in every way that Roman soldiers liked to brutalize madmen who were their prisoners. He spared Himself nothing. He was dragged outside the city, carrying His own cross, and hung up to suffocate. His mother watched, but could do nothing. He is present in victims of all these abuses, wherever you may find them.

Blessed are you if you take no offense.

Blessed is anyone who still seeks Him in the places we know He went.

And if we choose not to seek Him– if we turn away and look for Him among the comfortable instead? We will never find Him, and that won’t be His fault. He showed us where He would be.

It’s not too late. You and I are still alive. There’s one more hour in the year, here in the Eastern time zone, if you’re into New Years’ resolutions. But any time is the right time for such a resolution. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call to Him while He is near. And if you can’t find Him near, go to where He is. Go pay attention to someone less fortunate than you are.

Don’t project things into Christ that simply aren’t there.

(image via Pixabay)