BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (# 5)
Holy Family, Year C – December 28, 2003
BIBLE READINGS
I Jn 3:1-2, 21-24 // I Sm 1:20-22, 24-28 // Lk 2:41-52
I came into contact with the pain and anxiety of a parent who lost a child. The Italian lady, Sarah, and her adopted girl, Saraji, the six-year old daughter of a leper couple from a leper colony where she used to work as a volunteer, were guests at our convent in Bangalore, India. One afternoon, they went downtown to shop. An hour later a very distraught Sarah came back to inform us that she lost her beloved Saraji who had wandered away in the crowd. We were deeply concerned for the lost child and we prayed in earnest for her return. The deeply anxious Sarah, accompanied by some of the Sisters, searched for her and after a few hours of distress, found the little girl at the police station calmly eating an ice cream cone. The mother was overjoyed when she found her child.
Today’s Gospel passage (Lk 2:41-52) is about the finding of the child Jesus in the temple. The story of the lost and found child seems banal and commonplace, but in the editorial strategy of Luke the episode illumines the entire Gospel. According to the biblical scholar, Robert Karris: “Luke used this story because it allowed him to dwell on his themes of cross, faith, fatherhood, must, temple, and way/journey.”
Indeed, this story that concludes the Infancy Narrative gives us a glimpse of the main content of the Christ event: Jesus’ special filial relationship with God and his paschal mission on behalf of the family of God. In this account of Luke, Jesus and his parents journey to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. The next time the evangelist Luke presents Jesus as journeying to Jerusalem will be for the celebration of the Jewish Passover feast at the end of his public ministry, and this will coincide with his own Passover sacrifice on the Cross.
The first words of Jesus ever recorded in Luke’s Gospel are climactic and full of meaning. To his mother’s legitimate reproach, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety?” (Lk 2: 48), the boy Jesus responded: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Lk 2:49). With these astonishing words Jesus makes a pronouncement about the meaning of his life and mission. According to Jerome Kodell: “Jesus states the priority of God’s claim in his mission. His life has a meaning that transcends the relationship of his human family. Thus he confirms the sword prophecy of Simeon.” The exegete Carrol Stuhlmueller also reflects on this Gospel episode: “Mary finds Jesus at his work; he is not simply his son, but the heavenly Father’s Son, sent on a mission in which she finds him totally involved; at this she sorrows for it means separation.”
In the context of the Father’s saving plan, the boy Jesus was not really “lost” in the temple, but was simply obeying a divine compulsion and asserting his personal duty to his Father in heaven. The necessity to be in his Father’s house and to be busy with his Father’s affairs lies in his inherent filial relationship with God who demands from him, the Servant Son, an absolute obedience to the divine saving plan. Indeed, the “three days” that Jesus stayed in the temple is a symbolic reference to the three days of being buried in the tomb, before he would reappear as the victorious Risen Lord, accomplishing the Father’s all inclusive plan to save the human family and the cosmic family of his beloved creation.
The episode of the boy Jesus in the temple depicts him as sitting among the doctors of the Law, not with any braggadocio or pride, but “listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and answers” (Lk 2:46-47). By implication, Jesus is being presented as the true Teacher at the center of the circle of teachers. He is the Divine Master – the ultimate Teacher - who would teach the family of God about the greatest lesson of love and obedience to the Father’s saving will. In the meantime, as the evangelist Luke narrates, he went down with Mary and Joseph, and was obedient to them, learning the sterling lessons of love, and service in the holy family of Nazareth. Robert Karris comments: “God’s Son willingly submits to obedience. Thus this story foreshadows the cross by insisting that Jesus preserved his identity in the role of servant.”
According to Luke, the parents of Jesus “did not understand what he said to them” (Lk 2:50) and Mary, his mother, is portrayed as keeping all these things in her heart (Lk 2:52). Mary, the first disciple and the first “christofora”, continues her journey of faith as she ponders the meaning and destiny of her Son, who “increased in wisdom, and age and favor before God and man” (Lk 2:52). Indeed, the full understanding of Jesus’ messianic identity and saving mission needs to await the paschal event of his death and resurrection.
With Jesus’ intimate filial relationship with the Father and his paschal destiny as a backdrop, it would be easier to understand the role of the Holy Family of Nazareth in the divine saving plan. It is the cradle of life and faith for Jesus, the beloved Son of the Father. The perfect paschal sacrifice to be offered on the Cross was being prepared silently and diligently in the home of Nazareth, under the loving guidance of Mary and Joseph. This grace-filled domestic setting is where the Son of God was loved, nourished and formed for his mission as the Servant of Yahweh, called to reunite at the end time the human family and the cosmic family of God’s beloved creation.
With regards to the intimate filial relationship of Christ with the Father and his saving mission, do we continue to deepen our understanding of it with Mary and like Mary, his mother, “who kept all these things in her heart” (Lk 2:51)?
Do we try to imitate Jesus who is completely consecrated to his Father’s affairs and avows his total commitment to the divine saving plan?
Do we try to see Nazareth as a kind of school where we may begin to discover what Christ’s life was like and understand his Gospel? Do we make of our own human family a cradle of life and sanctification? Do we try to minister to the needs of the greater families: the family of God - the Church, the family of humankind and the family of creation?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father, the origin of all families,
in Jesus Christ your Son,
we became a part of the greater family of God, the Church.
Like Jesus, your faithful Son-Servant,
help us to be always in “your House”
and be completely dedicated to your saving work and redemptive affairs.
May we look with joy to the Holy Family of Nazareth
and learn the enduring lesson of a holy family life
that is centered on Christ
and characterized by love, service, redeeming work and prayer.
Nourished as beloved members of the Christian family,
help us to reach out in love and service
to the greater family of humankind and cosmic creation
so that your beloved Son Jesus, our Savior and Lord of creation,
will be all and in all.
He lives and reigns in the temple of your heavenly glory forever and ever.
Assembly: Amen.
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Lk 2:49)
Today pause for a moment of quiet prayer and thank the Lord for belonging to the following: your biological family, nourishing family, family of God – the Church, family of humankind, family of creation.
Invite a needy family to your home for a dinner, preceded or concluded with a family blessing (cf. Book of Blessings).
Prepared by: Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang, PDDM