Friday, January 24, 2014

2nd Epiphany 2008, North Star

2nd Epiphany
Borgnone
Luke 2, 41-52

Every year his [Jesus’] parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they took him with them. Now after they had gone there and fulfilled the custom during the days of the feast, they set off on their way home. But the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know this; they thought he was among the company of the travelers. After a day’s journey they missed him among their friends and relations. When they did not find 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 those who heard him were amazed at his mature understanding and his answers.

And when they saw him, they were taken aback, and his mother said to him, “My child, why have you done this to us? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”

And he said to them, “Why did you look for me? Did you not know that I must be and live in that which is my Father’s?”

But they did not understand the meaning of the words he spoke to them. And he went down with them again to Nazareth and followed them willingly in all things.


And his mother carefully kept all these things living in her heart. And Jesus progressed in wisdom, in maturity and grace [favor] in the sight of God and man.

2nd Epiphany Sunday
January 13, 2008
Luke 2:41-52

From a seed a little green shoot rises up. And shoots multiply themselves until a form appears, a plant, a bush, a tree. But one day something new appears – a green bud opens to reveal, not another set of leaves, but a blossom. It is altogether different from what went before. It is a preparation for fruitfulness.

Something like this happens in the early teen years. Parents awaken to a stranger in the house – someone new and unpredictable; someone with their own agenda. The bud has opened.

This dynamic continues throughout our lives. For a while things hum along with more of the same. But eventually something new makes itself known – perhaps a new phase requiring us to master different tasks; perhaps a loss that opens the way for the discovery of a new gift or purpose. And frequently we don’t understand until later that it is the basis for our fruitfulness.

Christ Jesus is our guiding star in all of this. He Himself, as a human being, went through great changes and great losses. He is our North Star, the One on whom we can fix our gaze while all else is furiously changing. He helps us find that which is our Father’s.

One of the early desert mothers said:


Observe the trees. Just as they
must  endure the winter’s storms
before they can bear fruit, so it is
with us. This troubled age is our own
destructive storm. Enduring
its trials and temptations, we obtain
our inheritance, our flowering, this new
fruitfulness, and also enter heaven’s kingdom.[1]





[1] Mother Theodora of Egypt (c. 340 – 410 AD.) “Sayings”, in Love’s Immensity, Mystics on the Endless Life, Scott Cairns, p. 42.