The Word, who is God, has become flesh and has dwelt among us. Hence, for us to want to meet him means we must look for him among us. 

Mary and Joseph do not know that 12-year-old Jesus has stayed behind in Jerusalem. So, they just look for him among kinsfolk and friends. Not finding him, they go back to Jerusalem to look for him.

But as they find him there, he suggests that there is one more thing they do not know. They do not know that he must be in his Father’s house. And that is why they look for him. It seems, though, that what Jesus says does not help. For they do not understand it. So now they do not know and do not understand.

Yet not to know, not to understand, is true of the lowly and simple folks God chooses. They know they are before a mystery that is beyond their grasp and speech. The mystery prompts them, then, to go into God’s house.

So, to look for and understand the mystery that is Jesus means to turn to lowly and simple Mary and Joseph, and to all other lowly and simple folks who keep the true religion (SV.EN XI:190).

We can learn from them to trust and rely on other lowly and simple folks. And their mutual love and respect should be ours too. Along with the love and concern they show for others who are in need or lost.

And they go to the temple or the church. This tells us that it is not enough for them to be part of their families. For they see that they must belong to God’s bigger family. Each of them, then, is Jesus who must be in his Father’ house. Jesus, whose great virtues are reverence toward His Father and love for others (SV.EN VI:413).

Yes, to find and understand Jesus, we must be with the lowly and simple folks.

Lord Jesus, grant that we seek and understand you. And prod us to accept your bidding, “Come and see.” We shall thus get to know what it means to hide in you and be full of you (SV.EN I:276). Let your word dwell in us. And nourish us in such a way with your body and blood that we become fully one with you. We, then, can do nothing but live and die like you. And each one of us can say, too, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

29 December 2024
Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
Sir 3, 2-6. 12-14; Col 3, 12-21; Lk 2, 41-52