The Fifth Joyful Mystery
The Finding of Jesus in the Temple
1. Mary and Joseph came according to custom to celebrate the feast of
the Pasch in Jerusalem. They took with them Jesus, Who was now twelve
years of age. When the feast was over, the pilgrims came together to
return to Nazareth. As usual, they gathered in the temple to say a final
prayer and then divided into two companies, one consisting of men, the
other of women. The children were assigned to either caravan.
At
any rate, when the two groups came together for the night after a day’s
journey, Mary and Joseph looked in vain for Jesus. He could not be found
in either caravan. We can imagine how they suffered. However, they
returned without delay to Jerusalem to look for their Child. They
searched for three days. At last, when they went into the Temple to pour
out their troubles to God, they found Jesus sitting among the doctors,
who were amazed at the wisdom of his answers and of his questions. There
was joy and sorrow in Mary’s countenance as she regarded Him. “Son,”
she said gently, “why hast thou done so to us? Behold, in sorrow thy
father and I have been seeking thee.” Jesus’ reply was also mild and at
the same time mysterious. “How is it that you sought me? Did you not
know that I must be about my Father’s business?”
Then He returned
with them to Nazareth, where He remained “subject to them.” But His
mother, we are told, “kept all these things carefully in her heart.”
(Cf. Luke 2:41-51)
This mystery of the Rosary is at the same time
joyful and sorrowful. We can learn a good deal by meditating on it. We
can admire the divine wisdom of Jesus, Who even from childhood desired
to reveal a little of the truth, and also His obedience to Mary and
Joseph until He reached thirty years of age. We can admire, too, His
hidden life in the workshop in Nazareth, interrupted only by this brief
demonstration of His divinity; and the anxiety of Mary and Joseph to
find Jesus when they had lost Him, as well as their delight when He was
restored to them.
2. If we should ever have the great misfortune
of losing Jesus, let us have recourse at once to Mary and Joseph, who
lost Him without any fault on their part, searched anxiously for Him,
and did not rest until they had found Him.
To search for Jesus is
the principal obligation of the soul, to find Him is its highest
happiness. If we are without Jesus, our minds are in darkness and
scarred with false ideas. Separated from Him, our hearts are filled with
remorse, emptiness, and yearning. Only when Jesus is with us have life
and death any meaning. Then we can set our journey towards the unfading
star of Christian hope.
When Jesus had promised to give us His
flesh to eat and His blood to drink, He saw that his listeners were
going away scandalised. “Do you also wish to go away?” He asked His
Apostles. “Lord,” replied St. Peter, “to whom shall we go? Thou hast
words of everlasting life.” (John 6:69)
3. By mortal sin we lose
Jesus, and we lose our peace of soul. By venial sin we put Jesus farther
away from us. For this reason we should not only avoid mortal sin,
which leads to spiritual misery, but also venial sin, which diminishes
our charity and weakens our spiritual life. We should, moreover, have
compassion for poor sinners, who are our own brothers and are supremely
happy, even if they may not realise it. We should pray a great deal for
them, so that they may soon return to Jesus, Whom they have lost.
We should ask the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph to intercede for
sinners so that they may return forever to the merciful embrace of their
divine Redeemer.
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