Obedience

“‘Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?’” (Luke 2:49).

Saint Joseph and Jesus (Melanie Jean Juneau)

I have been reflecting on the finding of the Christ Child in the Temple, which we commemorate in the fifth Joyful Mystery of the Most Holy Rosary.

When I was a little girl I had a lot of trouble understanding this passage of Scripture.  It was not that the words were difficult or unclear, but rather that the meaning behind them is quite complex…

“After three days they found Him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions... and His mother said to Him, ‘Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.’ And He said to them, ‘How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?’ And they did not understand the saying which He spoke to them. And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.” (Luke 2:41-51).

I know of course that Christ is sinless.  He is perfect God and perfect Man, and this means that He is without sin.  He cannot have sin because sin is a rejection of God and He – as God – will not choose to reject Himself.  I know that He is capable of being tempted, which is of course why He was tempted in the wilderness…  But I also know that He told Satan to “be gone.”  And he was…  And yet, in reading this passage I cannot help but feel the anguish of the Blessed Virgin and Saint Joseph who would have been so worried about their Child…  I cannot help but feel how much they suffered during those three long days…  After all, they would have travelled in very large groups with their family.  The women in one part of the caravan and the men in another.  Christ would have been among the teenage boys.  And they had no reason to think that He was not with them.  And yet – suddenly and out of nowhere – He was lost.  And the anguish they must have experienced.  How terrible an anguish.

I once lost one of my children for a little less than an hour in a large crowd.  The anguish in my soul was so great that when I finally saw him in the crowd and ran to him, he held back and would not hug me because he did not recognise me because of the distress on my face.  The Blessed Virgin did not lose Christ for less than an hour.  It was three days of travel and looking.  It was a terrible suffering…

And I have often asked myself – since I was a little girl – how could a sinless Christ cause such suffering?  And the answer is that He is perfectly Obedient.  You see, Obedience – true obedience – is the honest reflection of what God wants from me.

And that was what Christ was doing at that time.  And that is what He meant when He said, “‘Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?’” (Luke 2:49).

And that is what I am called to do…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.