Pondering All Things in One's Heart

In today's Gospel, Luke 2: 41-51, Jesus' parents and Jesus, then 12 year's of age, go up to the Temple for the feast of Passover, as they had done every year.  Following the festivities, Mary and Joseph got into separate caravans--probably one for the men and the other for the women. Both think that Jesus is with the other but at the end of a day's journey they are unable to find him so they return to Jerusalem. After three days of searching, they find him in the Temple listening to the teachers and asking them questions. The teachers are astounded by Jesus' understanding of the Scriptures. Upon finding their son, Mary says to Jesus:  "'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."

Imagine Mary and Joseph's anxiety.  I can easily imagine Mary and Joseph asking themselves the following questions:  What could possibly have happened to him? Is this what the prophet Simeon warned me about, namely, that a sword would pierce my heart? Is Jesus in some kind of trouble? Is he in danger? Did some one, in fact, kill our son?" These questions, I think, would have been normal thoughts for Mary and Joseph! And how does Mary respond to Jesus' answer to her question of why he ever did such a thing to them? She does not scold Jesus but ponders all of this in her heart! 

As a parent, I would have been angry with Jesus! I would have exerted my parental authority and placed consequences upon him. She does no such thing! She reflects quietly upon her son's choice to stay behind to listen to the teachers and ask them questions. And she herself  meditates upon his questions:  "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"  She "digs" deeper into the situation. There is a letting go on Mary's part, a surrender to her Son's Father and hers!  She lives her faith and trust in God, who called her to be the mother of His Son!

May you and I learn fro  her!

Mary's Faith Journey: Her Questioning and Ours

Today we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  The Gospel tells the story of Mary and Joseph taking Jesus up to the temple on his 12th birthday. Jewish boys, at that time, become a bar miszvah, "literally a 'son of the commandment(s).'   He can then perform all the mitzvoth and is required to do so with full responsibility for his religious behavior. When the boy is first 'called up' to the Torah, symbolic of his attainment of majority, the father utters a blessing commemorating this transition to adulthood."  Following the ceremony, Jesus stays behind in the Temple. Mary and Joseph leave Jerusalem, thinking that Jesus is in the caravan with the other parent.  He is not!  Mary and Joseph spend three terrifying days looking for him, Mary no doubt recalling Simeon's prophesy that Jesus is destined to be the cause of the rise and fall of many in Israel and a sword [of sorrow] will pierce her heart.

We read about the terror any parent goes through when a child is abducted, kidnapped, lost.  Mary and Joseph are no exception.  They find Jesus after a three-day search and Mary says to Jesus: "Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety" (Luke 2: 41-51).  And Jesus responds: "Why were  you looking for me?"  That response must have baffled Mary and Joseph, I would think. The Scriptures tell us that "they did not understand what he said to them."  He left the Temple and returned to Nazareth with His parents, and "was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart."

We next meet Mary in the Scriptures when she and "his brothers come looking for him"(Mt. 12:46). Rumors  were such that his relatives wondered whether Jesus had lost his mind--had he gone crazy, being so involved in his ministry that he did not take time to eat. And finally, the next appearance of Mary is beneath the cross, where Jesus says to her: Woman, behold your son; Son, behold your mother"--all of us are entrusted to her care and she becomes the Mother of the Church!

Mary's faith journey was anything but simple or easy. Every parent knows Mary's pain and the burden  and responsibilities of parenthood--they do not disappear when a child enters adulthood.

The question we may want to ponder is: what does Mary teach us about parenthood, about being there for a  child, or anyone,  in trouble, about dealing with life on God's terms?