the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem,
but his parents did not know it.
When Jesus wished to be unhindered he would pass freely through the midst of crowds whether those crowds desired to put him to death or make him their king. Simple attentiveness was not enough for even the best of parents to keep track of such a child, especially when there were many places he might legitimately have been. It was only after some period of too much time that passed without his return that his parents were able to suspect a problem.
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 had assumed a natural explanation for the absence of Jesus, befitting any normal child. Thus they looked for him in expected places among those familiar relatives and acquaintances, but found him not. Only after exhausting these possibilities did they realize they did not have an explanation for his absence, and made a more significant modification of their plans, an entire about face in order to look for him.
they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.
His parents had an affection for Jesus similar to that of any parents for their child. He was a good and faithful child and they had expectations that he would continue to act accordingly. They were not able to guess or predict the sudden inspiration of a supernatural motivation on the heart of their son.
“Son, why have you done this to us?
Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”
It was as though Jesus was preparing them and purifying their natural affections and expectations to demonstrate the way in which a higher and supernatural reality must begin to more and more take precedent in his action.
“Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
It took three days of anxiety-filled searching for Jesus to be found, just as he would be three days in the tomb before his resurrection would be made manifest. His parents found him in the temple, his Father's house. In his resurrection was rebuilt the true temple of his body, even more truly the house of his Father.
But they did not understand what he said to them.
They did not understand, perhaps, with their minds. But they did experience being acclimated by degrees to the primacy of the heavenly Father in the life of Jesus. They learned to let go of natural presuppositions about him and learned to trust (not that they doubted) that his behavior was not reckless or malicious or careless, but issuing from the same goodness that they recognized when they saw it on a more natural level.
He went down with them and came to Nazareth,
and was obedient to them;
and his mother kept all these things in her heart.
The contemplative heart of Mary was able to hold these mysteries about her son in her heart even before she could fully understand them. Her fiat to the declaration of the angel was reaffirmed here, and again and again through her life. Her heart was prepared by this searching for Jesus for that most difficult affirmation of her consent that was still to come as she witnessed his execution and death.
The lessons Mary took to heart are lessons she wants to convey to us. She wants to show us how to seek and to find her son when we lose sight of him. If even the best of parents could experience this, how much more might we who are often careless and preoccupied lose sight of him. She can teach us to trust and pursue Jesus in the face of anxiety, even in spite of suffering that we do not understand. She now knows well what it means to Jesus that his Father comes first and she can help us understand and orient our own lives toward the primacy of his Kingdom.
Mary poured out her own heart like water in the presence of the Lord. She lifted up her hands for the life of her little one, but was made to wait three days to receive him back. She now pours out that same heart for her other children who are lost and not in dwelling fully in the Father's house. She pours out her heart that we too would come through that three day journey from death to life that baptism inaugurates, but that takes a lifetime to finish, which only hindsight fully comprehends. But she is with us, and her love and compassion are powerful forces before the throne of God that help us as we strive to persevere and trust her son.
Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.
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