Among my Father's things

Seeking the child in the Temple

The compilers of the modern lectionary have placed the story of Jesus’ visit to the Temple, aged 12, before we have even come to His Circumcision, eight days after His birth, on what we now consider New Year’s Day. This novelty arises from Pope Benedict XVI’s inauguration in 1921 of the Feast of the Holy Family, wherein the text is taken as a model for filial piety. Traditionally it belonged with the stories of the Epiphany, along with the Visit of the Magi, the Wedding at Cana and the Baptism of the Lord, and that is where it belongs: because while it may seem like a charming Christmas interlude, it is in fact an epiphany, that is, a revelation of who Jesus really is.

Several references in this story will spark the imagination of the attentive listener. St Luke tells us first that Mary and Joseph were accustomed to taking Jesus to Jerusalem every year for the Passover. This is despite the feast celebrated yesterday, in commemoration of the Holy Innocents, the dozens of infants killed by Herod in his hunt for their son. One can therefore understand their consternation when they cannot find him on the way home from their pilgrimage. We know, in hindsight, what they did not: that Jerusalem would be the place He died. And St Luke gives us a hint of this with the number of days He remains lost in the Temple: namely, three, just the number He would one day spend in the tomb.

Three is not the only number St Luke gives us to ponder. Jesus’ age in this story is twelve. This number should be familiar. By way of a Christmas quiz, can you think of any other biblical associations with this number? It is, of course, the number of the tribes of Israel and of the Apostles. It is also the multiple of three and four, the two parts of seven, which, by reference to the final day of creation, implies fullness and perfection. We need not wait for His baptism at the age of 30 to catch glimpses of who, even in His childhood, Jesus is and always was. He is in the Temple, representing the fullness of the people of Israel in their priestly role of intercession and sacrifice for all the nations of the world.

Mary and Joseph do not know where to find Him. After three days of searching, they find Him in the Temple, listening to the rabbis. His apparent attempt to calm them down is not very convincing. Modern translations fill in a blank in the Greek, putting the word “house” into Jesus’ mouth: the text does not include that word, but is rather vaguer: “among my father’s things” or “business” is a more literal translation. So what is Jesus saying here? Mary and Joseph, St Luke tells us, did not know. But perhaps we might. If we seek Jesus, we will find Him at His Father’s business, amid the Scriptures, in the Temple, questioning the teachers, deepening in wisdom. He is there in the questioning, in the pursuit of knowledge and holiness in the house of prayer, and that is where we will find Him even now.

Where else will we find Him? In obedience: for even the Word of God submitted to the teachers, and to His parents. The Word who taught Moses that we are to honour our mother and father would hardly break His own commandment. We, too, are to seek wisdom through obedient listening and inquiry. We may or may not find Him among our kinsfolk: Mary and Joseph could not. But we can and must turn to holy spiritual fathers and mothers in God’s Church.

Christ is revealed today, then, as God’s Holy Word and Wisdom. We are to treasure Him in our hearts as His blessed Mother did. We are to seek Him in the Holy House, we are to seek Him in questioning, and listening, and in obedience. But already, we are given a hint at where that search must take us. To arrive at the heavenly Jerusalem where Wisdom is enthroned in glory, we must first pass through the three dark days Jesus would spend in the earthly Jerusalem. That is, we must die with Him in baptism and, thereafter, continue in that death to self that He might grow in us and give us ever more share in His stature and favour with God. We must continue to search for Him by testing the words of Holy Scripture with holy and learned guides. But moreover, we must seek out His hiding place in the bread and wine of the altar, that His Passover sacrifice may be completed in us.