Pondering Your Words in My Heart

Pondering Your Words in My Heart

Feast of the Holy Family

Lk 2: 41 – 52

Introduction

In today’s reading we are told of the boy Jesus who was lost and then was found in the temple. Today is also the feast of the Holy Family.

The Gospel

            In today’s reading, Luke narrates to us how Joseph and Mary went to Jerusalem to celebrate the yearly Passover, this time with the boy Jesus who was then twelve years old. The Passover is the greatest Jewish feast in the year.

However, when the feast was over and as they were returning back home, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing about it. Joseph and Mary thought that Jesus was with the rest of the caravan heading for home. They realized that Jesus was not with them only after a day’s journey. So they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.

Finally, after three days of searching, they find 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.

At seeing this, Joseph and Mary were astounded. Mary then said to the boy Jesus: “ Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” Jesus then replies: “ Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house? Luke then tells us that both Joseph and Mary did not understand what Jesus said to them.

They then left Jerusalem and went home to Nazareth. There the boy Jesus was obedient to them. As all of these things unfolded, Luke tells us that Mary kept all these things in her heart. Luke then ends this episode telling us: “ Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man. “

Reflection

We reflect once more on an episode which is unique only to Luke. No other gospel speaks of this early youthful stage of the Lord’s life.

As in most of Luke’s stories, the temple plays an important role. Luke begins his gospel in the temple where Zechariah was told by the angel Gabriel about the birth of John the Baptist.  

Here once more in this episode, we see the temple’s importance as we see how Joseph and Mary fulfilled the precepts of the law regarding the Passover in the temple. But most important of all, the temple gains much importance as we see the boy Jesus remaining in the temple even as his parents headed home.

The boy Jesus’ first words in the gospel of Luke are uttered in the temple. There in those words, we hear the young Jesus telling us his mission: “ Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” The temple was God’s home on earth. It is the place where God was present with his people. And Jesus knew, even as a young boy, that he must be in his Father’s house, obedient to the Father’s will, as he sat in the midst of the teachers listening and asking them questions.

The young Jesus’ pilgrimage to the temple seemed like an anticipation of Jesus’ own journey to Jerusalem where he would suffer and die. The young Jesus’ presence in the temple was also in anticipation of another Passover, where the sheep that will be slaughtered for the feast will no longer be a one year old lamb, but Jesus himself, the lamb of God who becomes the Passover. All of this done and fulfilled in obedience to the Father’s will.

But then Luke shifts our attention to another temple – to another temple which we call a home; a home in Nazareth where Jesus, Mary and Joseph live. There in that temple, or home, Luke tells us that Jesus became obedient. Just as Jesus was obedient to the Father by being in his father’s house, so was Jesus also obedient as he lived his life with Mary and Joseph in their home in Nazareth.

In highlighting the two temples – the temple in Jerusalem which is God’s home, and the temple in Nazareth which is the holy family’s home, Luke seems to tell us that the single ingredient that allowed the young Jesus to grow in wisdom, age and favor with God is the singular virtue of obedience. Jesus was obedient to the Father as he was obedient to both Joseph and Mary. With obedience to the Father’s will and obedience to one’s parents, one grows in wisdom, age and favor with God.

Lastly, Luke singles out Mary. Luke tells us that Mary did not understand what the child Jesus meant when he said to them: “ I must be in my Father’s house.”  Yet Luke tells us that “ Mary kept all these things in her heart.” Her heart was a listening heart; a heart that treasured everything that was spoken; a heart that was open to what was said, even if the message was not fully understood.

Luke tells us that obedience really starts from listening and keeping everything in one’s heart. Mary was obedient to the word. She believed in the angel’s message to her. She believed in what the young Jesus told her in the temple, even if she had not understood it fully well. Incidentally, the word obedience comes from the Latin word ob audire which means to listen.

Let us ask the Lord the grace of listening so that we may learn to obey.

Prayer

Dear Lord, at an early age, you were already obedient to the Father’s will just as you were obedient to Mary and Joseph. Teach me to learn to listen to you first. If I do not know how to listen to you, how could I even know what you want me to do? Like Mary, help me to keep your words in my heart so that I may continue to ponder on them each day. Amen.

“ If you will only obey the Lord your God, by diligently observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth; all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the Lord your God.”

 - Deut 28: 1- 2

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