57. Tuesday after the Epiphany
Meditations no. 51 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
Seeking Jesus beside Mary and Joseph.
As good Israelites, Mary and Joseph went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. The journey from Nazareth would usually take four days. When Jesus had turned twelve, the age prescribed by the Law, his parents took him with them, in accordance with the custom of that time.
This was the first time that the Holy Family went to Jerusalem and to the Temple together to celebrate the great Jewish feast. They would have travelled in one of the many groups, accompanied by neighbours and others who joined them along the way. It would have been a tiring but nonetheless calm journey. How many memories it would have evoked of that other journey, years before, when the Son of God was still hidden in the Virginâs womb. Now, as then, they passed unnoticed. Other people were still unaware of the fact that God loved us so much that he sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
St Luke narrates: When the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it. At first, his absence didnât cause them any alarm. Supposing him to be in the company they went a dayâs journey, and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances, But all their inquiries proved fruitless.
Where is Jesus? The Child, my Lady! Where is he? Mary is crying. In vain you and I have run from group to group, from caravan to caravan: no one has seen him. Joseph, after fruitless attempts to keep from crying, cries too⌠And you⌠And I.
Sorrow is proportional to love. And love always leads to the desire of recovering anything good that has been lost. Therefore love for Christ means being firmly determined to return to him, if we should ever have the misfortune of leaving him.
My child, if some day you were to lose the way (something I donât desire: I donât want it and it wonât happen. I say to Jesus: our Jesus, you have always been the love of our loves, I ask you that we may never stray again from the path; that we may never wander from the path because of difficulties we come up against; that we may never again fail to take up the cross and bear its joyful weight; and that we may never leave this divine path, which is yours). But if some day something of the kind were to happen to us, and we were to lose Jesus, may we be humble enough to recognize our mistake, and may we also be willing to follow once more the path he has marked out for us. It will not happen; but, if it ever were to happen, we all ask you, all of us ask you, for a sense of responsibility; and for the cheerfulness to return to our dedication, our struggle, our victory. Because God doesnât lose battles, and if we unite ourselves to God our Lord, we can return to the right path and carry on going forward, triumphantly.
Mary and Joseph, their hearts rent with sorrow, searched the whole caravan for Jesus. And when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him.
The Mother of God, who looked for her Son so anxiously when he was lost through no fault of her own, and experienced such great joy in finding him, will help us retrace our steps and put right whatever may be necessary when, because of our carelessness or our sins, we have been unable to recognize Christ. With her help we will know the happiness of holding him in our arms once more, and telling him we will never lose him again.
The Childâs example in the Temple.
A second day dawned, and a third. Tirelessly Mary and Joseph continued their search. They questioned friends and strangers, they asked children playing in the streets, but no one had seen Jesus. Entering the Temple, their thoughts went back to their first visit there with the Child. Jesus was then a new-born baby in his motherâs arms, and Joseph carried a pair of turtle-doves. There they had met a devout old man named Simeon. Mary, who kept in her heart the vivid memory of all those events, had not forgotten what he had told her: that a sword of sorrow would pierce her soul.
Finally, after three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers. How great their joy must have been when they discovered, among the rabbis and disciples, the unmistakable figure of Jesus listening to them and asking them questions. And St Luke, who undoubtedly heard the story from Jesusâ Mother herself, goes on to tell us that all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
Mary and Joseph were astonished to find Jesus in such circumstances. They werenât amazed at the Childâs wisdom, for they knew he was the Son of God. But they were surprised that he acted that way, in such contrast to his normal manner of passing unnoticed.
Our Lady gently reproached him, with the love of a mother who had been crying for three days for her lost child: Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.
It was only natural that they should look for him, after losing him, our Father comments. And yet, how harsh, at least in appearance, are the Childâs words: Quid est quod me quaerebatis? How is it that you sought me? Nesciebatis quia in his quae Patris mei sunt oportet me esse? Did you not know that I must be about my Fatherâs business?
This reply was made by Jesus the Youth. And the reply was made to a mother like his Mother, who had been seeking him for three days, believing him to be lost It is a reply that has as a complement those words of Christ recorded by St Matthew: He that loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
Obedience, a source of effectiveness.
Reunited once more with his parents, Jesus went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. Here the Gospel account breaks off, until the time our Lord begins his public life. In the meantime, there are long years of silence, of work, and of obedience. We need to know doctrine, and see how it applies to our specific situation. And I tell you once again that we learn doctrine by considering and contemplating the life of Christ, who is our model.
Jesusâ whole life was one of obedience. Later on, during his public life, he would tell his followers: My food is to do the will of him who sent me. My children, our Father insists, may we learn from Jesus how to obey: each of us in the place where we are, in whatever corner of the world we find ourselves in, thinking of the future apostolate. Through the pen of the Evangelist he has chosen to leave us a marvellous biography: erat subditus illis (he was obedient to them). Look how necessary obedience is for a son of God: God himself came to obey, to obey two perfect creatures: Holy Mary, our Mother - only God is greater than she - and that most chaste man Joseph!
Jesus, how did you obey? Usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis. Even to death, and death on a cross. We have to obey, regardless of the cost, even if it means our life. Ordinarily, this will never happen. But if it does, donât worry: Jesus went that far.
My children, over these thirty-six years, our Father said in 1963, I have seen brothers of yours perform many heroic deeds ⌠and I have often had the impression of living among saints, among men capable of obeying usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis. I have seen brothers of yours carrying out marvellous acts of obedience, in a calm way, even though they were perfectly well aware that they were risking their lives, for the sake of the Holy Church, for the sake of the Roman Pontiff, for the sake of serving. We need to obey, to serve. There is no finer self-mastery than that of knowing that we are serving, serving because we want to! That is the way great honours are won, both on earth and in heaven âŚ
My children, perhaps people will be able to say of us that we tried to be good children of God, that we passed through life with faults, but trying to do good: that we struggled to obey. And when death comes, as it surely will, we will greet it joyfully, as we have seen some of your brothers gladly accepting it; because like Christ, we will rise again. And if we have imitated him in doing good, in obedience and in his Cross, we will receive the reward of his Love: Surrexit Dominus vere! (The Lord has risen indeed!) Do you see? He conquered death.
We finish our prayer by asking our Lady and St Joseph to intercede for us, so that our resolutions to imitate Jesus in his obedience may bear fruit.