Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?
Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?
Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
December 30, 2018
Luke 2:41-52
Next Sunday’s story is more about theology than emotions. In Luke’s Gospel, it will be the first time Jesus speaks. What we will hear are his first words, and it is important when reading Luke to pay attention to where things happen. If he provides the detail of a location, it matters. Luke is taking great care to shape the early identity of Jesus as a true Israelite, raised from birth in the cherished traditions of his people. He was formed in faith at home, at synagogue, and in the temple. Nothing about the Gospel gives us reason to think he was ever a child prodigy/messiah. What we see here is youthful stirrings of his awareness about a place in God’s plan; but it would be years before anything comes of it. During that time, we get from these verses a sense of how and where he grew into the man he became. It all happened in a home, in the relationship of a family, a family that kept alive and observed their religious traditions, and it happened in synagogue, and at the temple. The nesting ground for anyone who would seek their place in God’s plan is the same. The relationship that disposes Jesus for his relationship with God is the one he shares at home with Mary and Joseph in the context of their lived faith. It can hardly be any different for us. A people seeking their place in God’s plan will find it at home, in the synagogue and the temple.
Fr. Tom Boyer