Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 2,41-52

Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom.
After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.
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 returned to Jerusalem to look for him.
After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions,
and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers.
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.”
And he said to them, “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 said to them.
He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.
And Jesus advanced (in) wisdom and age and favor before God and man.

A Pilgrim Family.

Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries

Rome, December 29, 2024 | The Holy Family.

1Sam 1: 20-22.24-28; Col 3: 12-21; Lk 2: 41-52

Last Sunday, as we celebrated the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, we recalled that She did not have an easy life for many reasons. Today, as we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, the Gospel text reminds us of a serious difficulty that Mary and Joseph suffered during Easter, with the disappearance of the teenage Jesus for three long and anxious days.

This singular moment in the life of Christ deserves special attention for several reasons. It is the only episode we know of his youth; it contains the first words of the young Jesus; and it is the last occasion on which St. Joseph, who is thought to have died before his Son began his public ministry, appears. Undoubtedly, the trials through which the Holy Family went through would be many more, which the Gospel does not record.

We should reflect a little more and complain less, when we see that Christ had serious difficulties within his family, who came to consider him crazy (Mk 3: 20-21) and his own Mother, at Cana, made him change his plan on how and when to begin his public mission. None of this meant a tragedy or a deterioration in mutual trust. On the contrary, the Gospel text concludes by saying that, on returning home, the young Jesus lived subject to his parents.

The difference with our misunderstandings and disagreements is that we do not believe that God wants to tell us something through the person we judge wrong or inopportune. The key is given to us today in the Gospel in Mary’s attitude: “His mother kept all things carefully in her heart”.

She did not limit herself to being patient and long-suffering. She knew that Providence would do precious and unexpected things with every experience, happy or painful of her days.

Undoubtedly, we lack that virtue that our father Founder, Fernando Rielo, advised us to live: good humor, which does NOT consist in telling funny stories, but in not dramatizing, keeping a distance from calamities, which are real, but they do NOT define us nor can they control us.

A young mother was at home cleaning when the phone rang. As she went to answer it, she tripped over a poorly laid carpet and, looking for something to hold on to, she leaned on the telephone table. It fell with a clatter and the receiver came off the hook. As it fell, it hit the family dog, which jumped up, howling in fright and barking. The three-year-old child, startled by this noise, burst into loud yelps. The woman gave a few desperate cries. She finally managed to pick up the receiver and hold it to her ear, just in time to hear her husband’s voice on the other end: No one has answered yet, but I’m sure I’ve dialed the right number.

—ooOoo—

The family, or the religious community, not only fulfills protective functions, which is desirable and necessary, but its witness marks its members profoundly. In a powerful and irreplaceable way, the person’s future is sealed by his or her community experiences.

* To say in a powerful way means that, even if the person for a while forgets, renounces, rejects or opposes the best values and virtues he has seen in his family (even if they were very few!), time will confirm that it was a treasure perhaps badly used in his youth or adult years. Today, it is recognized that many of the attitudes we learn in childhood become elements of our personality. In a very special way, our ability to relate to others is shaped and conditioned by the way we were treated and listened to (or ignored) in our family.

Not only that, but the possibility of living an authentic spiritual life and a form of religious vocation, in whatever state, is also shaped by our childhood years. We all know the case of Louis and Zélie Martin, parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux and canonized in 2015, who saw their four daughters consecrate their lives to God. In today’s First Reading, Anne, the mother of Samuel, is fully aware of the privilege she has received, not only of bringing a son into the world, but of being able to give him to God: This is the child I was asking the Lord for and he has given him to me. Therefore, I now offer him to the Lord, so that he may remain consecrated to him for life.

In the books of the Vedas, belonging to the ancient religion of India, and which were taught to all children, one can read mantras that mean: Worship your mother as God. Worship your father as God. And the Vedas were taught to everyone in childhood.

* To affirm that the witness of the family (or the community) is irreplaceable is something we have all experienced. How many times a young person who knows the Catholic doctrine, who tries to do good and agrees with all Christian values, decides to completely change his plans and consecrate his life to God, when he sees in a community the realization of Christ’s promise: Whoever has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for My name’s sake will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life (Mt 19: 29).

On the other hand, it is needless to insist that the anti-witness given by a divided community has the evil power to crush the call of the Holy Spirit, who will be forced to look for other ways for the generous soul to achieve the divine plan for it.

The seed that has not been sown in the family environment will have many difficulties to prosper if we want to plant it later, when we are confident and sure of the value of our experience. As the old proverb says, you can bend a green branch as much as you want, but you cannot do the same with a dry stick. Jesus already responded clearly to Nicodemus, saying that no one can see the kingdom of heaven unless he is born again; this is a way of saying that, in order to change profoundly, we must get rid of habits, of ways of acting that, over time, have become heavy burdens that make it difficult for us to transform ourselves.

The natural or religious family is not meant to “endure” or “live in peace”. These are obviously necessary conditions. But a family, like a religious community, a country or any human association, degenerates and is destroyed when its members lose sight of its purpose. This is a lesson from history, which continues to perplex us as we watch empires fall, not simply for lack of capacity, but because of the corruption and lack of commitment of their citizens.

In the case of a natural or religious family, this is especially important and is manifested in individualism, even if at the beginning the aspiration of each member was to share everything. This is the way we are. Ultimately, we do not depend on our abilities and ingenuity, but on welcoming God’s grace, to which we are so often insensitive.

Family peace and harmony cannot be taken for granted and, in fact, family breakdown is becoming more and more frequent, occurring within a few months or after many years.

A family is called to live several concrete missions in a particular way:

– The mutual care of the spouses, in all dimensions of existence; as it is said in the rite of the Sacrament of Marriage: …for richer or poorer, in health and sickness, all the days of my life.

– Attention to the children in their health, education, social life and – of course – in faith.

– The exquisite care of elderly or sick members.

– In the case of Christian families, they have to explore how to share their faith with other families, with anyone who visits them.

As Pope John Paul II said: As goes the family, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.

One lesson we must learn from today’s Gospel is that, to know someone takes time; in fact, total knowledge of a spouse, a child or a brother in community is impossible… and not indispensable. Mary and Joseph could not accurately imagine the mission of their Son, just as Elizabeth and Zechariah, although both were righteous in the eyes of God (Lk 1: 6), did not foresee the greatness and martyrdom of their son. Every human being is a true mystery and that is why we must look at him and treat him with reverence, because God the Father is waiting to embrace him.

This helps to understand the importance of obedience. It is well known that this word comes from the expression ob-audire, which in Latin means to listen with an open mind to the one who speaks to me, recognizing his authority. Therefore, the child, or the person under direction, must obey the parents, or the superior, but, at the same time, a form of obedience is due to the one who submits to authority, because that person is under the action of Providence, even if he is rebellious and selfish; perhaps he forces me to change my best plans. Only after many years did I begin to understand what our Father and Founder was telling a group of young missionaries: I obey not only God, but also each one of you.

The three Evangelical Counsels, but most strongly obedience, create and ensure communion, therefore obedience is – at least – “a thing of two”.

This is not an idealistic or romantic way of speaking; certainly, God WANTS to tell me something through the person who is less experienced, younger, who has a different opinion from mine or who even rebels. In the time of silent prayer, this reflection cannot be absent, this effort to discover little by little the mission of that person and to help him/her to be faithful. This is what happened with Jesus in the Temple, who at the age of twelve began to live in a different way, responding to the will of his heavenly Father practically as an adult, for at the age of thirteen the age of majority was recognized in Israel.

It is not superfluous to remember that, within the family or the religious community, teaching is carried out by example, however necessary words and lessons may be.

A mother was shocked to hear her son tell a lie. Taking the little boy aside for a heart-to-heart talk, she explained graphically what happened to liars: A big ugly man, with fiery red eyes and two sharp horns, catches children who tell lies at night and takes them to the planet Mars, where they have to work in a dark cave for fifty years. So, she concluded, you will never tell a lie again, will you, sweetheart?

No, Mom, replied the boy, seriously …… but you tell bigger lies, Mom!

_______________________________

In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

Luis CASASUS

President