As a parent, have you ever had that anxiety of losing a child? My wife and I have – numerous times. My parents have – one time with a child they called “Messy Moto”. It was on a Sunday afternoon when visiting my mother’s parents in the City. It was a special day because my mom’s brother was visiting from Houston and we all met at Grandma’s house for a little family re-union. Before sitting down to eat, the grandkids decided to go on a walk thru the city. Messy went with them but the problem Messy had (and still has to this day), is he spent a lot of his time looking up at the sky while walking. So as the group ahead of him took a right, Messy, with his “head in the clouds” took a left and before he knew it was lost in the mean streets of South St. Louis. Messy strolled around the streets for what seemed like hours and he kept passing another house that was having a reunion of their own. After about the 5th time passing their yard, they could see that he wasn’t handling being on his own very well and asked if he was lost. They asked all sorts of questions about where I needed to be and getting nowhere fast, so they called the police in. The police came and took Messy back to the precinct office and started asking the same questions. What is your name? to which he replied – Messy Moto. Who are your parents? to which he replied – Mom and Dad – what kind of a dumb question was that? Where do you live? here, Messy was quite specific – in a white house next to the yellow one. What is your favorite cereal? now how that was supposed to help in getting anyone found and back with there parents Messy wasn’t sure but he knew he couldn’t tell them Captain Crunch – everyone’s favorite cereal, so he lied and told them Cheerios. (Who would ever eat Cheerios over Captain Crunch?). Anyway, long story short, my parents were able to find Messy (after they passed that same house with the family reunion about five times and they told him that the police had picked me up and taken me back to the precinct). My father swore from that day on that he would no longer call his (favorite) son by the nickname Messy Moto but by his true name – Jerry. Yeah, that lost idiot was me and yes, this is a true story – even the part about me being dad’s favorite – just ask any of my siblings – they’ll tell you.
Is there a point to all of this? Yes, a simple one. I got lost and my parents stopped at nothing to find me. Sarah and I have had the same experience and we stopped at nothing to find our child(ren) – it’s happened more than once in this house. Mary and Joseph lost Jesus and spent days trying to find Him. Go even deeper than that, you may be lost right now. But don’t lose hope. Your heavenly Father is looking for you and will never cease looking for you. Just as my love runs deep for my children and their well being; just as Joseph’s love for Jesus ran deep for Jesus; so much more does the love of our heavenly Father run deeper for all of His lost children.
Do something great for our Lord today – on this Solemnity of St. Joseph, pray that the lost children of God are found. Pray that until they are found that they be kept safe from all evil. Pray that their reunion is as warm as the reunion I had with my parents when they showed up at the police station or when Joseph and Mary found Jesus in the temple.
God’s will, not mine, be done.
Be not afraid; just have faith.
Jesus, I trust in You.
He must increase; I must decrease.
On a side note, thank you for all the prayers offered for my sister Janice’. She is recovering from her knee replacement (which for her has been rather painless). She is in preparation for the “walker 500”. She and my mother are going to do 500 laps around the school gym with their walkers – I believe it’s going to be on pay-per-view.
Please continue to pray for my brother-in-law who is in his second week of isolation (for a cancer treatment) at SLU hospital. Pray for him, his wife and his children.
St. Mary Magdalen Men of God 