The Disappearance of Jesus

How worried you are, Joseph, when, on your return journey from Jerusalem after having accomplished the annual pilgrimage prescribed by Moses, you realize that your 12-year-old child, Jesus, is not among the travelers of the caravan. You notice that your adolescent has decided to be on his own. What pain is yours to have a child who has given no sign of his whereabouts for the past three days!

But, what joy is yours, Joseph, when, after an anxious search, you finally find Jesus in the Temple, among the students and the Doctors of the Law. And with what deep emotion Mary must have said, “My child, why have you done this to us?” You hear Jesus answer, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” It seems that Mary and Joseph, up to his twelfth year, had not yet penetrated the divine mystery of their child.

You teach us Joseph, that the revelation of the mystery of Jesus occurs in stages. Like them, throughout all our life we must search to find out who Jesus is. Now that He is risen He gives us His Spirit who enables us to build the present society, the kingdom of Love and of human solidarity that He has come to inaugurate.

Lise Berger, sjsh