The Feast of the Holy Family, Sunday, December 26, 2021

Hi!  I’m under the weather for the last few days but I will try to write a reflection on St. John later today.  And I want to remind folks that there is no internet Bible Study tonight.  It will return next week.  I hope everyone had a nice Christmas!

Luke 2:41–52

Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.

“Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom.”  The beauty of the Holy Family is its normalcy, its quiet adherence to duty.  Mary and Joseph raised their Child in much the same way they had been raised and did not attempt to seek special privileges for their family.  Nor did they seek for Jesus to ease their lot in life.  They watched him with greater attention than other parents watched their children for they knew who he was.  But they did not know what to expect from him or when he might begin his mission.  Up until he turned twelve, he had done nothing extraordinary, though certainly absorbed with the Scriptures he heard read in the synagogue each Sabbath.  This was to change on the occasion of the family’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover.

“As they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem.”  He deliberately chose to remain behind after his parents departed.  He does this as a sign for his parents as well as to present himself to the teachers who worked in the Temple.  The sign is to show them his thirst for the salvation of the world.  No one would hold him back once he began his labor.  For us, he who teaches that we must forsake parents, siblings, spouses, and friends for the sake of the Gospel, also does this.

“When his parents saw him, they were astonished.”  The Greek text says “They were thunderstruck.”  The teachers were amazed at him and the parents are thunderstruck.  Jesus alone remains calm and is the master of the situation.  Jesus challenged the doctrine of the teachers and at the same time revealed a wisdom far out of keeping with his age.  He looked like a child and yet spoke like a God.  And this was what floored his parents.  For twelve years he had manifested no behavior outside the ordinary, but now, looking at his bearing and listening to his insights, it seemed to them that they did not know him at all.  

“Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”  The Greek translated here as “with great anxiety” is a participle meaning, “tormented”: “Your father and I have been looking for you, tormented.”  This is something greater than anxiety.  They were suffering dreadfully as they searched for him.  We ought to feel this way after we have sinned and returned to our senses.  Mary’s question is a desperate plea.  She needs to know if she has in some way failed him as a mother, or Joseph as a father.  Have they interfered with him throughout the past several years? Is she and Joseph now supposed to step back and allow him to begin his work of redeeming the human race?  So great was Mary’s and Joseph’s love for him that they would cling to him if they could, and yet they knew that he was the Son of God and that he must be free to do what he came to do.  Mary’s question comes down to “What do you want us to do?  In what way do you wish us to serve you?”

“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”  The Lord is saying to them, “You did not need to look for me.  You knew that I must be in my Father’s house.”  He has spoken to them as a child to this point in his life.  But now he speaks to them as their Lord.  St. Luke is careful to tell us that this event took place when Jesus was twelve: he has become an adult as a Jew.  Later, Luke will tell us that Jesus was thirty when he began to preach: the age when a Jewish man could be recognized as a teacher of religion, a rabbi.  Jesus does all things in their proper time.  “But they did not understand what he said to them.”  The answer Jesus gave them was not the answer of a twelve year old boy.  Nor did he answer Mary’s question in a direct way.  Instead, he speaks as he will later speak, answering not so much the question that is asked as much as the answer the questioner really needs to know.  

“He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.”  Having provided his parents with this sign, he provides us with another: that love means obedience and sacrifice.  He who made all things with a word makes himself subordinate to his own creatures.  We see the example he sets for us and knowing that he was obedient, we know we can be as well.  “His mother kept all these things in her heart.”  This is the work of the believer: to ponder and to meditate on Jesus Christ.  The Blessed Virgin will assist us in this if we ask her.  “And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”  He did this according to his human nature.  

We are mysteries to one another even after many years of intimacy.  Within our families let us respect and ponder the mysteries that are our fellow members.