Joyful Mysteries: The Finding in the Temple

Hello, welcome to Form Now. We're in a fifth part of our five part series on the Bible study

on the joyful mysteries. And joining me today is Dr. James Perthrow, a professor at the Agustin

Institute Graduate School of Theology. And we, Jim, we've been going through these mysteries and

we've gone through other mysteries of the Rosary. So if you'd like to go back and look at some of

the other resources we have informed and what has been really beneficial for me, and I know some

viewers as well, is to go through the scripture passages. So it just really helps me pray and our

viewers pray the mysteries more attentively. And we're now at the fifth joyful mystery,

which is the finding of the child Jesus in the temple. Where should we start? Oh my goodness.

So we should start for this one in Luke chapter two. The joyful mystery is really you can just

read through the first couple chapters of Luke and we'll find it. And we'll start in verse 41.

So do you want me to read it? Do you want to read? I can read it and then you can comment. Yeah,

it's time to stop. Yeah. So we're in Luke chapter two, chapter two, 41. If you want to get your

Bible. Now as parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of Passover, this is something that

people would do, right? That the Jews would do is make a pilgrimage at some times of the year.

That's right for these major feasts. And one interesting thing with this is that Mary goes along.

So it's the heads of the households. It's the men that are required to go for the pilgrimage.

Usually you leave the woman home, right? Or with the with the little kids or something like that.

But you can see the piety of the whole family and of our lady, along with St. Joseph,

that she is going to Jerusalem as well and that they're bringing Jesus with them. Would it be so

another three pilgrimage feasts? Do we know what would they make every pilgrimage feast? Or was it

one of the three you would make it to Jerusalem? So ideally you're supposed to make all of them,

right? And there's a certain things that you can do to sort of send things or send offerings,

but really somebody is supposed to go from the household for the major feasts. And Jesus is too

young to go by himself at this. Yes. Right. And Joseph so what I just points, Joseph's going to be

alive in the story. Mary is alive. Jesus. Great. Holy family. When he was 12 years old,

they went up according to the custom. And when the feast was ended and they were returning,

the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it. But supposing him to be in

the company, they went a day's journey and they sought him among their kinfolk and acquaintances.

And when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem seeking him. After three days, they found

him in the temple sitting among the teachers listening to them and asking them questions.

Can you imagine? Yeah. Yeah. Well, first of all, but I can't imagine is like, how did

are they your responsible parents? How did they not know that Jesus was with them? I'm sure there's

like, there's a mystery here. It clearly is a mystery. Perhaps I'm saying it's obviously

mystery. Yeah. My mind, my mind goes much more to like the practical realities of okay, well,

everybody else from Nazareth, you know, came up and now we're all leaving at the same time and

the same caravan because you want to, you don't want to be a family alone on the roads, right?

It can be dangerous, right? So you go in and group. He's 12.

Hi, friends. I might, yeah, he's, my seven-year-old has friends. I might lose her for an hour or two,

right? Jesus is 12. She'll be like, oh, yeah, he's over there with, you know,

Johnny's family and then they're over here and everything. John the Baptist family.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I was just grabbing a name out of, out of, out of Ranna. I was

grabbing a name at Ranna, but yeah, so, but, but they, they, they can't find him and then they

search for him and they look for him in Jerusalem and it takes three days, this whole finding of Jesus.

Right. So they go one full day away. They realize he's not there at night. It's the next morning

they get up and they go back. And then the next day they find him. Yeah. So I, I think that's

right. It's three days, including the first and the third day. So not three days after like,

they find him and then the next day starts and that counts. One, just like the

crucifixion and the resurrection, right, where he dies on Friday, stays in the tomb on Saturday

and then rises early on the third day. So it's one, two, three, even though it feels like there's

only one full day in between. Do you remember a blockbuster video? That's how they did their videos.

You had to be here for three days, but it's due tomorrow. I know. I know.

Different times. Okay. So after three days and they find Jesus with the teachers in the

temple, it's really amazing to contemplate. So Jesus is 12 years old. And they're all who

heard him verse 47, look to 47. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his

answers. And when they saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, son, why have you

treated us so? Behold your father and I have been looking for you anxiously. And he said to them,

how is it that you saw me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house? And they did not

understand the saying which he has spoke to them. He went down to Nazareth with them and came to

sorry, he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them and his mother kept all

these things in her heart. Beautiful. Beautiful. And there's one verse here that I want to bring up.

And then we can maybe come back to Jesus there in the temple. Yes. Like you said, it's amazing

that he's sitting there with the teachers. And everybody's amazed at his answers that he's

giving and the questions that he's asking. And we all know, and if you teach, you know, there's

a difference between, or if you're a student, there's a difference between being able to give the

right answer when somebody else asks you the question and then being able to come up with a good

question to really penetrate an issue that takes a different kind of wisdom and learning.

So Jesus is there. It's quite amazing. And there's an interesting note here in verse 52,

just the one in the last verse. No, no, no, I just, I want to, I want to tack it on here.

Says, Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. Now this happens

and it's true. It's also worded in a particular way for Luke to make us think of somebody else

who was interesting, grew up around the temple and priests whose mother had prayed for him and

sang a song and who also it says increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.

And that's Samuel. And I love reading the Samuel story in the book of first Samuel,

this first few chapters there. One of the things that's amazing to me is actually on the one hand,

how much there is in common between Jesus and Samuel, right? And the way that Luke presents

Jesus to us and his childhood. But then also the contrast. And this is, this is where I see the

biggest contrast. I mean, obviously Jesus is divine and Samuel isn't, so that's a big contrast.

But right here, when Samuel's young, he's there, he's in the shrine at Shiloh, they don't have

the big temple yet, but they don't have the sort of moving tent either. They have the shrine there

at Shiloh in a little house. And he's there and he's staying by the ark of the covenant.

And he hears the Lord speaking, but he doesn't recognize it. And the priest Eli has to tell him

when he realized, like, maybe God is talking to him. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And so Samuel comes

out and speaks, Lord, you're service listening. So Samuel is just learning how to listen to God

and communicate with God. And he's learning it from his teacher, right? Eli, the priest, even though

he's not the greatest priest there in first Samuel. Jesus is here in the temple and he's very

Samuel-like. But he's the one asking the questions, right? He's the one teaching, right? His

relationship with the father is already set and intact. His mission from the father is already

set and intact, right? His sort of being together with the divine will is already there. So Jesus

divinity, even though on the one hand, you see his humanity where he increases in wisdom,

acquiring new bits of human knowledge, he increases in stature, right? He gets taller and everything

like that, right? He gets some whiskers. And yet the fullness of who he is, even in his mind,

is already there and present before he shows up. He doesn't have to get this from anybody else.

He's asking questions and answering them with the teachers and it's amazing everyone. It's just

to think about our Lord and the wonderful mystery, you know, the incarnation that we celebrate

in these mysteries, it really all of the mysteries, that Jesus is both growing and also already

has the fullness of knowledge at the same time. Thank you for bringing that because I remember

many times in my different types of formation and priests even saying, well, when did Jesus

know he was God? When did Jesus know what his mission was? And it's a question that the gospel

writers aren't writing the gospels to answer, but clearly from this scene, Jesus knows who he is

and he knows what he's about. The test of the Father has given him. Yeah, yeah. And you can see

that then in his response, too, right? So Mary and Joseph find him and his mother said to him,

this is in verse 48, my translation is slightly different because I've got the ESV CE and he's got

the RSV, but that's just fine. So same word of God. And Mary says, why have you treated us so your

father and I've been searching for you in great distress? And he said to them, why were you looking

for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house or about my father's business?

So he knows exactly who his son he is, right? Mary is, but also, right, supremely, and for his

mission, he knows that his father is God the Father. And that's going to actually set him at a bit

of distance from the people who love him in a human way and even people who love him in a more

than human way, because it's going to have to lead him all ways to actually abandon them

briefly. And they're going to feel that way just like this. Yeah, it reminds me of just the mystery,

you know, the presentation of the temple, where Simeon has the prophecy about the sword piercing

the mother's heart. I can't imagine this is one of the first fulfillment of that. Yeah.

Being pierced of having looking for her son and then his response and trying to understand

it, she ponders them and keeps them in her heart to meditate on them. But I'm sure that was a

dark. Yeah, no, but so, you know, and he's there. He says, I've got to be about my father's

business or in my father's house. He says, among my father's things, and you can translate that as

my father's stuff to do or my father's like furniture, you know, and so both of those are okay

translations. But it's because he's doing the will of the father and his part of the mission of

salvation and salvation history here in his own childhood that he's actually

scaring Mary in a human way. And I mean, I don't know about you, but there's I find that

particularly. There's a lot to meditate on. There is. And as you're talking, I'm just stressing

of, you know, I was reflecting on son, why have you treated us so your father and I have been

looking for you? And then he says, no, that's not my father. It's even for Joseph, a dark for

his own heart of he's he's adopted foster father chosen by the father to be the father to, you

to his son. Father father father father father. Exactly. But the idea of that, you know,

your father and I marry identifying with Joseph in that relationship, like we're looking for you

and he's like, I'm with my father. And I'm doing my father's business. So yeah, definitely a lot

to think about here. Is there any significance to the being 12 years old? Probably a lot. I mean,

12 is a really important biblical number. Okay. Excuse me. Nothing goes to mind for me. I just

I don't know if I was like, I know that in Jewish communities today, like a bar mitzvah,

like a coming into manhood is kind of a transition time. Is that age? Yeah, that's right. It's

it's definitely around that age in the ancient world. So I would I would guess that this has

some significance. Right. He's not too. Yeah. Right. He's 12. Right. And this is the

time. He's not he's not a baby. He's not an infant. He's not a toddler. He's not a man yet. That's

right. And he's not a teenager. He's preteen. That's right. Yeah. But his, but his course is being set

already. Yeah. The looking in verse 48, your father and I've been looking for you. It makes me

think of just the also the presentation, like looking back in this, the narrative of Luke's gospel,

where Anna is looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. Yeah. So she's looking. There's a searching.

There's a longing for it. And they've been longing and searching to find him.

That Hannah connection, maybe think of that too, that Hannah from Samuel. Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. So this is also seems to be, I mean, is there anything else like that you think

it echoes to the Old Testament before we kind of I think it's foreshadowing something in its own

life later too? Definitely. That's that's that's where I where I look first actually is.

Yeah. It's the foreshadowing of what's great. Let's go there. What else? Yeah. How does this point

to later in Christ's life? Well, I mean, so as we said, right, you've got the three days. And

what's Jesus doing, the will of the father and the will of the father that even those closest to him

don't exactly understand, right, or don't comprehend in a full way. And it causes them pain.

And yet they have great joy on finding him again on the third day.

And I want to make us think about the cross and then the resurrection.

Right. And Jesus goes to the cross, not my will, but yours be done. He prays in

assembly. He moves all the way up the hill, right, tells the women on the road, right? Don't wait

for me, wait for your children. Gives his mother to John the beloved disciple there.

Says it's finished and dies, right? Well, what's finished? Well, his hour has come.

The plan of salvation that's been there from before the foundation of the world. We learn

in Ephesians that God's plan to save God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the same plan that he's

already on the move for even here in Luke chapter two. And that's when he finally brings it home.

But it's not as though, no matter how many times he told them, I'm going to die, right?

I'm going to be handed over and crucified and I'll rise again on the third day.

No matter how many times he told them, they still don't quite get it. And so you think about

the experience of the twelve, but we find out from the book of Acts and the book of John that

marries there with the twelve, too. Think about the experience of losing Jesus for that period of

time when you can't see the end. It's kind of like the experience of having a son lost.

And you know he's out there somewhere, but you don't know if you're ever going to see him again,

right? And think about the joy that Mary experiences and Joseph experiences when they finally see him

again on the third day and think about the even greater joy that this foreshadows on Easter.

And I mean, this is this is where when I when I pray this mystery, this is where I sit

for the longest, I think, because how how many times in your own life or in the lives of others

that you're praying for? Do you know somebody? Do you know that God is doing his thing and doing

his work of salvation? That's his job. That's his business. That's what he loves to do. God is

always moving things toward the ultimate end, right, of good and the renewal of the world,

right, and the renewal of us in our hearts. And how many times do you wonder where on earth he is

in your own life? And you go like, Lord, I thought I was with you and you seem to be gone.

And I want to see you again. And so I this this is a mystery where I spend a lot of time

interceding for people that I know either have some natural knowledge of God or really have faith,

but they're struggling, right? They've got broken hearts or they're afraid or they're confused.

They don't know what God is doing in their life right now. And I just pray that God would

encounter them and let them find him. The book of Isaiah says, seek the Lord where he is to be found.

I think it's in chapter 55. Yeah. I'm forgetting that. And I say, yeah, I just say,

Isaiah, like that God is a hitting God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. To search for him and find him.

That's right. But he reveals himself. He unhides himself for us to show himself to us.

And always praying for, I mean, for myself, certainly in certain times, but for other people,

always, that they would see him again when they're confused. Because God's always doing his thing,

right? Jesus isn't lost. He's in the temple. He knows where he is. Yeah. But she's scared.

We were looking for you. We've been searching for you in great distress or with anxiety.

All right. And that's the experience of so many of us. Full machine, the great Catholic speaker

and author mentions this scene in regards to people in the state of mortal sin. He said,

now Mary Joseph would have never committed mortal sin. They don't know sin, but they do know

what it's like to not have Jesus in their life. So just complimenting the point that you've

been making of to pray for people at this mystery who don't have Jesus in their life or they can't

find Jesus. We know that he's there, but they're looking for him. They're searching for him that

they may find him and then rejoice greatly when they do find him. Amen. Well, thank you, Jim,

for joining me. Thank you for your insights into this mystery of the rosary. And thank you for

joining us in this series. We've gone through the five joyful mysteries of the rosary.

We have a series where we've gone through the other mysteries of the sorrowful mysteries of

the glorious mysteries, eluminous mysteries as well. So if you've enjoyed this, we're grateful.

We have a mission circle where people who've benefited from conversations like we're having

donate monthly to the work of the Augustan Institute, to the work of forums and the graduate

school as well. So if you'd like to join that, if the Lord has put that on your heart,

I encourage you to look at our mission circle. But regardless, thank you for your support and God

bless.