The framework of human existence

The monotony and toil of daily work was no stranger to you. Being a carpenter was no sinecure as you responded to the needs and demands of your clients who ordered a cradle, a bed, or who undertook the construction of a house or the repair of farming tools. You used your talents to serve the community and you were close to the people of the village of Nazareth.

But what joy you felt, Joseph, as you taught your son, Jesus, the secrets of your trade, a trade midway between that of architecture and the mastery of art. Without doubt, in your daily conversations, Jesus must have shared with you the main purpose of His Mission: offering to the World of all times and all cultures a new life “framework”; being for humanity as a whole and for each person in particular the solid structure which assures a life of Happiness. Surely, he must have revealed to you that He is the “Framework” of every human life without which one could not live steadfastly and be really free.

If one does not welcome Jesus in the depth of his/her being, is he/she not risking the loss of all foundation? Of all interior solidity?

Lise Berger, sjsh