Father Deiss helps us discover the environment of light-Joseph and Mary’s tenderness-in which Jesus’ humanity developed. Today, we refer to the Holy Family as Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. In Nazareth, they said, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, or Joseph, Mary, and child. This work reflects on the child Jesus, stressing the influence that Joseph and Mary had on Jesus’ childhood at the human level both intellectually and spiritually.

Mindful that post-paschal Christological formulas God, Savior, Messiah, Lord, King, High Priest often run the risk of erasing Jesus’ humanity, Joseph, Mary, Jesus, focuses on Jesus’ childhood years, highlights his humanity, and presents him to us familiarly as a child. It concentrates on the sources of Jesus’ formation, the rich tradition of the people of Israel, the family practices of Joseph and Mary, and finally on what Jesus discovered on his own in his relation with God.

Mary is presented here in her relationship to the child Jesus and in her role as initiator of Jesus’ piety. The themes of her Magnificat are also developed in Jesus’ preaching. Joseph, nearly forgotten in salvation history, appears for what he was in the tradition of the time, the head of the Holy Family and the one responsible for the formation-including the religious formation-of his child.

Throughout this work, Fr. Deiss’ aim remains the same, to bestow on readers an understanding of Joseph and Mary’s profound love - a love whose single focus was for their child, Jesus.