Losing or finding (Lk 2: 41-52) - Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
The event that today's Gospel tells about is the only recorded episode from the period of the so-called Jesus' "silent years". We know little of the "gospel of childhood", although the rich apocryphal literature abounds in legends and stories, the credibility of which is impossible to verify. Apocrypha is a more intelligent version of modern tabloids and gossip portals that are more about sensation than reaching the real truth.
There were three feasts of pilgrimage in the Jewish calendar, when all believers should appear at the temple: the Passover (cf. Mt 26: 2), the Feast of Weeks (Acts 2: 1) and the Feast of Tabernacles (Jn 7: 2). It is not surprising, then, that Joseph and Mary, as pious and practicing Jews, went to Jerusalem each year for the holidays. This was due more to their beliefs and the need of their heartsthan to the requirements of religious law. The pilgrimage from Nazareth to Jerusalem and back lasted at least 10 days (including the Sabbath rest!). So, it was quite a challenge and a test.
What happened to Joseph and Mary was not so bad yet compared to what many parents today are going through. It is true that the three days of fear and feverish search for Jesus were not the easiest ones, but the mere fact of finding the Son in the temple among the teachers of faith must have calmed them down. This situation proved that it was not an irresponsible whim of youthful nature or a prank of a teenager. It was neither an escape. If the rite of the bar mitzvah for every Jewish boy meant that they would part with their childhood forever, with the unawareness and the resulting carelessness of life, and take responsibility for everything before God, then in the case of Jesus it has a special and unique dimension. Perhaps it was then that Jesus first recognized who he really was. Perhaps it was then that first time he realized his identity and oneness with the Father.
There is tension in the finding scene. The fear and pain both, Mary’s and Joseph’s, seemed unnecessary and unfair. As Mary concentrates on human fears and the pains of human hearts, saying: " “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father (that is, Joseph) and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” Jesus replies that more important than earthly pains and fears is the will of the Father: "Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?" And when Jesus says this, he is by no means thinking of Joseph. He thought about the Eternal One. The temple of one God is most of all His home, and He is first and foremost the Son of God. The Evangelist did not hesitate to give his own commentary on the behavior of Mary and Joseph: "But they did not understand what he said to them." How is that? Our Lady does not understand something? That sounds like heresy. Devout souls, engrossed in and in love with Mary, may even be scandalized by it. But replacing Mary's faith with obviousness does not serve her glory, it does not exalt her. On the contrary - it would make her unreal! Fortunately, this was said by an Evangelist under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Paradoxically, this can be good news for many modern parents who do not understand what is happening to their children. Many parents experience the horror of the true loss of their son or daughter. Many have to experience the difficult period of their maturation, about which the poet-romantic said: "a time of storm and pressure." Some parents are forced to deal with their teen's runaway or wandering evenings, others with drug strings, suspicious company with which the child surrounds him and with difficult-to-check contacts. In many homes, parents are unable to recover from the excesses of their underage children and look helplessly at their mistakes or sins and the embarrassing consequences that result from them. Perhaps it is some price for their mistakes and sins as parents, or maybe it is simply fear for a child that is the price of every motherhood and every fatherhood.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george