Scripture Notes: A Missing Boy, Part 2 (Luke 2)

In the last post, we reflected on the twelve-year-old Jesus going missing during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Mary and Joseph finding Him in the Temple having a detailed theological discussion with the teachers there. But questions remain: Why does this event happen? What is the significance of it? What does God want to teach us through it?

First, the three days Jesus is missing foreshadow another three days, the three days that Jesus is in the tomb. At that point, Mary’s sorrow and grief reach unknown proportions as she mourns her Son, even knowing that He will rise again. She remembers finding Him in the Temple when He was twelve, for she has kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. He has promised that death will not hold Him, and it does not. She finds Him again, in an even greater way than ever before.

Second, this little incident of the missing Jesus shows us something about what we must do during those times that we wonder if we have lost our Lord. We must look for Him in the Temple. But where is the Temple for us? It is in the Church. It is in the Mass and the Eucharist (where Jesus is really present Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity). It is in the Scriptures (the Word of God in print). It is in the writings of the saints, that great cloud of witnesses. It is in prayer, where we speak to God and listen to Him. And it is in our own hearts, where our Lord is longing to meet us.

Jesus never leaves us. We sometimes leave Him. But He is always seeking us, always loving us, always reaching out to us. All we have to do to find Him is to turn to Him in faith, hope, and love and seek Him in the Temple.