Holy Family December 30, 2018

Reflection on the WORD

Holy Family: Today’s Gospel describes when the child Jesus was lost He brought great anxieties to Mary and Joseph.  Later when Jesus was found in the Temple speaking with great wisdom and revealing His Father’s mystery, Mary pondered them in her heart. Continue to ponder on God’s Will in your life.

Lk 2:42-51

When Jesus was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover as usual. When the days of the feast were over and they set off home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing it. They assumed he was somewhere in the party, and it was only after a day's journey that they went to look for him among their relations and acquaintances. When they failed to find him they went back to Jerusalem looking for him everywhere. 

It happened that, three days later, they found him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions; and all those who heard him were astounded at his intelligence and his replies. They were overcome when they saw him, and his mother said to him, ‘My child, why have you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you.’ He replied, ‘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 meant. 

He went down with them then and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority. His mother stored up all these things in her heart.

Today's Pointers on God's Word

As you read the passage what words, phases or meanings caught your attention?

  • •In today’s gospel scene, the young Jesus “stayed back” without His parents knowing and possibly without their permission.  This caused Mary and Joseph much anxiety.
  • •When they found their child “teaching” the Elders in the Temple, their anxieties turned into a mystery that they had to learn to “grow into” and accepted as part of God’s Providence. It was a reality that they could not fully comprehend, but to allow it to unfold in God’s time and ways. 
  • •When we experience anxieties in our lives and seek God’s help through our prayers, do we get “impatient” with God or do we, like Mary and Joseph, allow God’s Providence to unfold in His time and ways?