Finding Jesus in the Fray

They say that children grow up fast. In fact, when referring to some particular age or event in the life of a child, I often hear parents and grandparents say, “Don’t blink – you’ll miss it!” I’m sure it can be hard to treasure those precious moments because, in the moment, they are so fleeting.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is twelve years old. Yesterday, we heard about his birth in Bethlehem and today he’s already practically a teenager. Talk about growing up fast! Of course, this jump in time has a purpose – to show us a particular moment in the Lord’s life that was important not only for him but for his family too, because today is the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Looking at their family, centered around Jesus, we learn also something relevant for us – about how our families also should be centered on this Child who is God.

We might think the Gospels would relate to us some idyllic account of the Holy Family at home in Nazareth: perhaps Jesus helping Joseph in his carpenter shop, or assisting Mary in preparing the family meal. But today’s story is nothing of the sort. Indeed for anyone who has lost a child, or even just couldn’t find one a few moments, we can imagine the anxiety and heartache that must have filled Mary and Joseph as they searched for Jesus in a large, bustling city unfamiliar to them. Finally, after three whole days – imagine! – they find him in the Temple, conversing with the wisest and most learned of all Jewish scholars. And then he tells them something astonishing: that they should have known to look for him there, “in my Father’s house.”

Jan Steen, The Child Jesus in the Temple (c. 1660)

Why this story? What does it teach us about the Holy Family? You know, we remember this story when we pray the Rosary; it’s the Fifth Joyful Mystery, and we call it the Finding of Jesus in the Temple. Is that really an accurate way to describe it? It’s only a finding if Jesus is really lost. But the point he seems to be making to his Mother and his foster father is that he’s exactly where he is supposed to be. Even more than Jesus himself, what is really being discovered in the Gospel is a new and heightened awareness for who he truly is, and for what his Presence among us truly means. And that is why it is joyful too – despite the real anxiety and heartache that Mary and Joseph would have experienced, by the end of the story they would have rejoiced at being reminded, again, that their Son was truly the Son of the Father in heaven.

And that truth is what we recall and celebrate today ourselves. If Mary and Joseph may have needed a gentle reminder about the identity of the Son born to them, and what that identity *means*, then certainly we do all the more so. Christmas was literally only yesterday, but I bet if we’re honest with ourselves, it’s possible that we have already begun to mentally move on to the next thing – to get ready for the work week, or for the return to school and after-school activities, or for our New Year’s resolutions, or for whatever else is currently our priority. Perhaps our lives feel very disorganized right now, and we feel as if we've missed Jesus somehow, as if we want to find him but we don't know where to start. 

Here's the crucial question for where to begin: has our celebration of Jesus’s birth changed us in some way? Has the mystery of the Lord’s Incarnation moved us to new and deepened praise and thanksgiving? And, perhaps most importantly for today, are we inviting that mystery into our lives, into the lives of our family in a new way? Are we seeking to make our families focused on Jesus, just as the Holy Family was, living out our relationship with him not just individually but communally, in our homes, in the relationships of family life, practicing our faith and forming our families so that no matter what anxiety or heartache we may face, the joy of his Presence among us will never be dampened? 

Friends, if we can begin to ask those questions, and answer them, we will know where to find the Lord anew in the fray of our busy lives. I pray that the Lord will truly bless you and your families in this Christmas season. Its moments and memories may be fleeting, but we can hold on to its mystery and its grace, and with the Lord’s Presence in our hearts and in our homes, ask him to form us and our families to be like him – holy.