2nd Epiphany
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| 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
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.
