Lk 2:41-51a (Thursday's gospel)
41 Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
42 and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom.
43 After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.
44 Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances,
45 but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.
46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions,
47 and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers.
48 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."
49 And he said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"
50 But they did not understand what he said to them.
51 He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them;
----------
The UCSSB website lists two choices for today, so I took this one. This is the fifth joyful mystery of the Rosary.
At the Men's Day, Msgr. Callahan talked about putting ourselves into the scene of a gospel reading. Here's one that I would have loved to witness -- a twelve-year-old boy questioning and teaching the teachers of the temple. I'd love to see the reactions of those in the temple with him. He's there for three days. I've got to believe that by day 3 of this, the Q&A dialogue was getting pretty darn detailed.
Beyond the actual scene there are a lot of things to consider:
· They find Jesus after three days. We'll here more about three days later in the story. :)
· If we want to find Jesus, where can we look? In his Father's house. He was physically there for Mary and Joseph. Two thousand years later, he is physically there for us too. It's so sad that so many have abandoned this truth.
· v50 - Mary and Joseph didn't understand what Jesus meant when he said they should have known he would be in his Father's house. I don't have a great explanation for this. We know from Luke and Matthew that they both knew exactly where he came from and who he was, but they don't understand what he's saying here. It makes me wish we knew more about Christ's early life. What was it like to have that guy growing up inside your house? What were Mary and Joseph able to see?
· Jesus is clearly superior to Mary and Joseph even at this age, yet he humbles himself in obedience to them. His example of humility and service is clear even then.
