The Gospel reading for this Sunday depicts a scenario that might puzzle us. How could St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary not realize that Jesus had not set out with them from Jerusalem? How could they leave him behind for three days? We might be tempted to think that they grew careless and had a sort of Home Alone moment. But if we look at the cultural context of the passage, we can see that the situation is very understandable.
At the time of Jesus, people often traveled in caravans for protection, just as Joseph and Mary do in the passage. Recall the story of the Good Samaritan, where a traveler journeyed by himself and was beset by robbers. Having a group travel together provided safety. Since the caravan included extended family and acquaintances, Joseph and Mary did not need to be worried if they didn't see Jesus for a while on the trip back home.
Another interpretation goes even further. During the day, the theory goes, the women would be in one section of the group and the men in another. Only at night would the families gather back together. Children belonged to the women's sphere, so they would be traveling in the women's group during the day.
Jesus was twelve at the time, which was the threshold when a boy could move from the children's world to the men's sphere of his culture. Jesus could, at this time, still move between the two spheres, allowed to spend time in either. Considering that St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary were traveling in separate parts of the caravan, each could reasonably assume that Jesus was with the other group for the day's journey. Only when the families reunited in the evening would they have realized that Jesus was gone.
Joseph and Mary turned back to find him but most likely they would have had to wait until morning and would have had to risk the journey back to Jerusalem on their own, without the caravan, unless some of their party were willing to go with them. They would have arrived back in the city sometime during the second day. They would have started the search immediately, but it is not until the third day that they found him in the Temple. That is how Jesus could be lost for three days.
The separation of Jesus from Mary for three days foreshadows the three days he will spend in the tomb. His being in the Temple, where all the ritual sacrifices are offered by the priests also foreshadows that Jesus himself will be the High Priest, who will offer himself up as the sacrifice for the forgiveness of the sins of humanity.
The wisdom Jesus displays in speaking with the elders also shows his divinity. Let us take a moment to review the underlying theology. As Catholics, we believe that God is Triune, Three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in one Divine Nature. When God became Incarnate, the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, took on a human nature and came among us as Jesus Christ.
Jesus is fully human and fully divine, without either his human nature or his divine nature being altered or compromised. Jesus has a human body, a human soul, a human mind, a human will. But he is not a human person. He is the Divine Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Jesus, unlike us, was also completely sinless. All sin is a rebellion against God and God Incarnate would not have rebel against himself.
As Jesus lived his earthly life, his human nature grew according to the natural order of the human condition. He lived like one of us, humbly subjecting himself to the vicissitudes of the human condition. However, we must be careful when we talk about the humanity of Jesus. A recent school of thought has overemphasized the human nature of Jesus to the point of saying that he didn't know that he was divine until later in life, like at his baptism or at the Resurrection. Catholic teaching is deeply at odds with such ideas.
The Church has consistently maintained that Jesus was always fully conscious of his divinity. At no time did he not know that he is God. In the Middle Ages, the baby Jesus was often depicted with a beard and holding the whole world in his hand to underscore that his self-awareness was always fully divine.
At the same time, Jesus lived a humble life like one of us in order to experience our condition. He did not use his divine knowledge and power for his self-aggrandizement. With his human mind, he learned like other children, even though he had at his disposal infinite divine knowledge. He worked hard, making a living as a skilled laborer, even though he could have just snapped His fingers to make food and money for his family.
We see in the Gospel of Luke that when Jesus started his ministry, his neighbors were surprised by the superhuman wisdom and miraculous powers he showed forth, indicating that he lived like an ordinary human until the time came for him to begin his ministry and reveal his divine identity. However, at key points in his life, we see a theophany transpire - a special manifestation of his divinity.
Each theophany precedes a new chapter of Christ's incarnate life. The Archangel Gabriel greets the Virgin Mary before the conception of Jesus. Angels tell the shepherds the Good News that Jesus is born. Jesus reveals his divine wisdom just as He is about to come of age in his culture. The Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus and the voice of God the Father is heard at his baptism, which marks the beginning of his public ministry. He transforms water into wine at the wedding at Cana, showing that his ministry is not of human origin.
After his public ministry starts, we might say that all his divine teachings and miraculous acts are theophanies. But even then, certain events are extraordinary theophanies. Jesus reveals his divine glory on Mt. Tabor during the Transfiguration, just before he begins his journey to be crucified. The miraculous tearing of the curtain of the Temple after the death of Jesus shows the end of the divide between God and humanity brought about by human sin. The Resurrection shows forth the power of God over life and death. The Ascension of Jesus signals the end of his earthly ministry. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost ushers in the beginning of the life of the Church.
As mentioned above, the theophany at the Temple happens just before Jesus comes of age according to the rules of his culture. After that manifestation of divine wisdom, he returns to an ordinary life with his mother and foster father. Ordinary, that is, except for sin. Both Jesus and the Virgin Mary were completely sinless. As stated above, Jesus had no sin since he is God Himself. The Virgin Mary was free of the taint of Original Sin from the moment of her conception and she also refrained from all personal sin during her entire life. Though there is no official Church teaching regarding whether or not St. Joseph was sinless, according to a pious tradition, St. Joseph was cleansed of Original Sin in the womb and, like the Virgin Mary, did not commit any personal sin in the course of his life. The family of Jesus was truly the Holy Family. They lived in perfect harmony with one another, their lives governed entirely by God's love.
Leo Tolstoy famously said at the start of his novel Anna Karenina that "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Happy families are happy because they are like the Holy Family - their lives are grounded in love, the infinite love that only God can give. At the root of the contemporary societal collapse of Western Civilization is the breakdown of the family. Broken families lead to a broken society, a broken culture, a broken world.
To heal our society, we must focus on the healing of families. As we begin a New Year, let us examine our role in our own respective families. When have we truly loved with the love of Christ and when have we failed to do so? What are the things we must ask forgiveness for? What are some things we must forgive others in our families? If there is alienation and brokenness, let us examine how we can be channels of Christ's self-sacrificial love for healing.
In some cases, the brokenness might be so deep that the only thing we can do is pray. But let us not undervalue the power of prayer. Let us pray ceaselessly for healing. Let us pray to Jesus, St. Joseph, and the Virgin Mary that our own families might be holy, pure, and filled with God's infinite love, like the Holy Family.
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The readings for the Epiphany of the Lord in Ordinary Time, Cycle C are:
Sir 3:2-6, 12-14
or 1 Sm 1:20-22, 24-28
Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
or Ps 84:2-3, 5-6, 9-10
Col 3:12-21 or 3:12-17
or 1 Jn 3:1-2, 21-24
Lk 2:41-52
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: The remains of the home of the Holy Family in Nazareth (c) 2016 by Zoltan Abraham.