I Know Your Parents (2015-08-09)

[__01__]     “I know your parents.”

“I know your parents.”

Have we not been greeted by people from time time who know us, identify us, or identify with us, because they know either our mother or our father? Perhaps, also one of our grandparents.

“I know your parents.”

[__02__]     For several years, I was assigned to a parish church in River Edge, New Jersey, north from here, located about six miles from the George Washington Bridge.

Starting out in River Edge, I knew a few people. However, due to a variety of coincidences, several people knew me before I arrived.

And, my parents knew several of these families as well. However, we had never lived in River Edge or even travelled there at all.

Thus, I would be greeted by certain people from time time. “I know  your parents. I know your mother, your father.”

This was not a threat, but a friendly overture, a way of connecting.

Of course, this connection, this statement. This happens to us throughout our lives.   “I know your parents.”

[__03__]     In the Gospel today, we read, “we know his parents.”

We imagine folks (people) in the crowd around Jesus are calling out to him.

“Hi ..Hello… I know your parents”

Some in the crowd were connected to Jesus to him through his parents, through Mary and through his foster-father Joseph.

We read …

“The [Jewish people] murmured (they grumbled) about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven” and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his mother and father? Then, how can he say ‘I have come down from heaven’” (John 6:41-42)

“We know HIS parents.”

[__04__]       The biblical scholar and Vincentian Father Bruce Vawter wrote that this “I-know-your-parents” statement is really part of the Christian profession of faith.

After all, we will profess in a few minutes …

“I believe in God the Father the Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth …and in Jesus Christ his Son, our Lord … who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary …”

Father Bruce Vawter reminds us that the first readers of the Gospel of John were also well aware of our Savior’s birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Blessed Mother.

“I know your parents” à The Gospel of the Lord.

“I know your parents” à Praise to you Lord, Jesus Christ.

[__05__]      Saint John the Evangelist, reporting this encounter, reminds us that our Savior’s mission came from his ancestry, his parentage.

His birth was his connection to God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Jesus said in the Gospel this Sunday:  “Stop murmuring [stop grumbling]among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him and I will raise him on the last day.” (John 6:43-44)

In other words, Jesus said, “You know my parents.”

And, we are receiving the same message, from him and remember that our Savior’s vocation and calling and the calling to love, to serve was nurtured for him and for us …in the home.

** PAUSE **

[__06__]       “I know your parents.”

Hearing this statement, I usually found myself in an encounter with someone who worked with my father or mother, who went to school with them, or grew up in the same neighborhood in the Bronx.

Hearing this statement, we are sometimes called to imagine are parents much younger, at a time in the past, perhaps before we were born.

** PAUSE **

[__06__]   “I know your parents.”

Of course, we have also been taunted or threatened by this statement.

By, for example …

è The school principal or teacher turning to us or catching us in some act of defiance or disobedience. You know … “I KNOW YOUR PARENTS.”

è By the coach who wants us to play harder or work harder …“I KNOW YOUR PARENTS.”

è By the neighbor who caught us trespassing, “I KNOW YOUR PARENTS.”

è Or, perhaps we are warned by the parent of one of our friends. “I KNOW YOUR PARENTS.”

“I know  your parents” is a reminder that we are tempted, that we are fragile, broken, that we may need correction, corrective measures, that we  may need to be pulled back from danger, that we may need mercy and compassion and forgiveness and that we need, also, God’s paternal-maternal love throughout our lives.

“I know your parents.”

[__07__]   Hearing these words, Jesus was reminded that his mission and covenant began even before he was born in Bethlehem, in the time of the Roman Empire and Caesar and King Herod.

And, his mission would continue after his death on Calvary.

 [__08__]  “I know your parents.”

This also reminds you and me that we are loved and known even before we were born.

And, a reminder that our faith, our baptism also makes us one family that we are works in progress, that we are children always developing.

That we are young people in God’s eyes and still able to learn and practice the good things we have been given.

For, we know our parents.  [__fin__]