Obedient

“And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.” (Luke 2:41-51).

The Twelve-Year-Old Jesus Teaching in the Temple (Mazzolino)

I have often reflected on the Fifth Joyful Mystery of the Most Holy Rosary, which is the finding of the Christ Child in the Temple…

I have heard and read many beautiful homilies about this particular experience in the life of Christ.  I have heard it said that this was a foreshadowing of the three days Christ would spend in the tomb prior to His resurrection.  I have heard it explained that this was God’s way to prepare the Blessed Virgin for what was to come.  I have also heard it said that this was a particular sacrifice accepted by the Blessed Virgin to atone for our sins…

And I have thought about that Child and His Parents.  I have reflected on the terrible dread in their hearts.  It was not one or two days away – it was three whole days with no phone or internet or word about where He was or what He was doing.  Imagine the Blessed Virgin’s grief at wondering if He was fed or hurt or where He was sleeping.  Imagine her prayers to her Heavenly Father – begging His forgiveness for losing the Child entrusted to her.  And imagine God the Father in His compassion loving this perfect soul that He had created and experiencing such joy in His handmaid who accepted His Holy Will despite all outward appearances of failure.

I imagine Saint Joseph.  Oh the poor poor man.  How helpless he must have felt.  How much he loved that Child and His holy spouse.  How powerless he would have felt.  How frantic.  Did he try to stay positive for his wife?  Did he lie awake at night imagining the worst?  Or did he surrender to sleep – as he had always done before when encountering challenges – and try to allow the angels to talk to him in his dreams.  And did he mourn their silence during those long long nights and days…?

“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).

And afterwards when they found Him…  How much He loved them – that Christ Child…  How much compassion for the suffering that they had experienced.  And I know this because we are told, “And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.” (Luke 2:41-51).

And I imagine the GREAT and PERFECT love of God for His Human Parents, that He was willing to remain OBEDIENT to them so that He would not cause them to suffer…

And how much He loves me also…  It is more than words could ever say…  And when God asks me to be obedient to His Holy Will, He is asking no more of me than He asks of Himself.  In fact He did much more, because He subjected His Holy Will in obedience to His human parents.  And there is a miracle so profound in a love like that, that it shall surely take me a lifetime of contemplation to unravel…

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