GospelLK 2:41-51
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.
REFLECTION:
“Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”
In September 1965, a category four hurricane named Betsy was destined to make landfall 80 miles south of where I lived. In hurricane zones, people board up windows and prepare to survive with no electricity. For us, that meant not only making sure we had food, but also water, since our water well was run by electricity. Even though I was very young, I still remember getting ready to greet this storm by pulling our mattresses into the hallway and sleeping there for the night. This was my mother’s way of protecting her ten children from the unknown danger that would come in the cover of nightfall. Old Betsy caused a lot of physical damage along the coast and left us to manage without electricity for 19 days. Sometimes we question the trials we go through. But when we look back in time, we can see God’s hand guiding us and how his goodness only brings us closer to Him.
Mother Mary and St. Joseph were anxious because they couldn’t protect young Jesus. Mother Mary’s relationship with Jesus was mystical and therefore she had a spiritual life that was incredibly blessed. Her connection with Jesus is unmatched and so her question to Jesus was more than a physical separation. In her anxiety, she experienced spiritual separation from her Lord.
I am sure everyone has experienced times of not trusting the Lord and find themselves anxious and worrisome. In our relationship with God, we have to hand him our troubles and spiritual desolation by surrendering all to Him. How comforting to know Mother Mary can help us during a spiritual separation from the Lord, because she definitely knows how to help you find Him. Her Immaculate Heart is so joined to his Sacred Heart that a faith-filled person cannot see one without the other.
