Friends,
today’s Gospel tells the familiar story of Mary and Joseph finding
twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple. When they find him, they upbraid
him with understandable exasperation: "Child, why have you treated us like this?" But Jesus responds, "Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?"
The
story conveys a truth that runs sharply counter to our sensibilities:
even the most powerful familial emotions must, in the end, give way to
mission. Though she felt an enormous pull in the opposite direction,
Mary let her Son go, allowing him to find his vocation in the Temple.
Legitimate sentiment devolves into sentimentality precisely when it
comes to supersede the call of God.
On
a biblical reading, the family is, above all, the forum in which both
parents and children are able to discern their missions. It is perfectly
good, of course, if deep bonds and rich emotions are cultivated within
the family, but those relationships and passions must cede to something
that is more fundamental, more enduring, more spiritually focused.
The
paradox is this: precisely in the measure that everyone in the family
focuses on God’s call for one another, the family becomes more loving
and peaceful.
Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Lectionary: 358/573
Beloved:
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,
who will judge the living and the dead,
and by his appearing and his kingly power:
proclaim the word;
be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient;
convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.
For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine
but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity,
will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth
and will be diverted to myths.
But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances;
put up with hardship;
perform the work of an evangelist;
fulfill your ministry.
For I am already being poured out like a libation,
and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have competed well;
I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.
From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me,
which the Lord, the just judge,
will award to me on that day, and not only to me,
but to all who have longed for his appearance.
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.
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