Brian Hamilton

Harrisonburg Mennonite, Solemnity of the Holy Family, Welcome and Gospel

It’s just a few days since Christmas, and here we still sit astonished, contemplating the mystery of Christ’s birth. That great mystery of Incarnation—of the true God putting on true flesh—spills over into endless smaller mysteries of Christ’s life. We read of one example in today’s gospel passage, from the second chapter of Luke, verses 41–51:

Now every year [Mary and Joseph] went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when Jesus was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” He said to them, “Why were you searching 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. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

Mary and Joseph are also every one of us: always inadvertently leaving Jesus behind, searching for days, astonished to find him in the one place we know he should be. And we strive to respond as Mary did, treasuring all these things in her heart. She had done the same, remember, just verses earlier as she sat by the manger of the newborn Jesus. Right from the beginning Mary makes a habit of treasuring this child Messiah—as should we. And treasuring, as Paul will tell us later in a passage from Colossians (3:12–17), is always a matter of faithfulness and praise.

31 December 2006 |
tags: Gospel of Luke, Mariology, Worship Services