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Gospel Reading for December 29, 2024 -Luke 2: 41-52
SENSE OF COMMUNITY
Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.
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At 12 years old, Jesus seemed to have gained wisdom as the Son of God, hence, he remained behind in Jerusalem to the great anxiety of his parents who thought they lost him. Mary and Joseph knew that Jesus was a very special person, hence, the anxiety was great. But, upon hearing what Mary said, Jesus obediently went back to Nazareth with them. And from then on, until he started his Ministry at 30 years of age, he stayed with his family, that’s why it is presumed that he also became a carpenter after Joseph.
Although Jesus already knew that God was his real father, he respected the family into which God placed him. Otherwise, he would have stayed in the temple in Jerusalem and told his parents to leave him there.
Today, as we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, we remember that the Family is IRREPLACEABLE. If we are to be molded into the best persons we can be, we need to grow up in a very healthy environment, whether it be with our biological parents, adoptive parents, or a home for children without parents. It has to be a haven of love and peace, and where strength of character is formed by moral values inculcated in the children. It is also in the Family that the SENSE OF COMMUNITY is formed in the child and where he/she learns how to live and interact with others.
This is why MARRIAGE IS SACRED. God puts the children into the family where parents or those who take the role of parents, have a mission to bring them up according to his design.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, rule over our families that it may be a haven of love and peace!
