The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 33: Lost and Found

Episode Date: February 2, 2025

Why does Jesus leave Mary and Joseph to remain in the temple in Jerusalem? Fr. Mark-Mary unpacks the spiritual significance of the Finding in the Temple, teaching us about filial obedience and how we can understand our own journeys through this mystery of the Rosary. Today’s focus is the mystery of the Finding of Jesus in the Temple and we will be praying one Our Father, three Hail Marys, and one Glory Be. For the complete prayer plan, visit https://ascensionpress.com/riy.

I'm Father Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and this is the Rosary in a Year podcast where through prayer and meditation, the rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world. The Rosary in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. This is day 33. To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a Year, visit AscensionPress.com forward slash rosary in a year or text R-I-Y to 33777. You'll get an outline of how we're going to preach month and it's great what attracts your

progress. The best place to listen to podcasts in the Ascension app. There are special features built just for this podcast and also recordings of the full Rosary with myself and other friars. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the Rosary in a Year Prayer Guide, a book published by Ascension that was designed to complement this podcast. You'll find all the daily readings from Scripture, Saint reflections, and beautiful full-page images of the sacred art we'll be reflecting on. The Fifth Joyful Mystery, The Finding of Jesus in the Temple, Luke chapter 2, verses 41 through 52. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. When he was 12 years old, they went up according to custom, and when the feast was ended as 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 to day's journey, and they sought him among their kinsfolk 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. 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 sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house? And they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them. And his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man." All right friends, a lot of beautiful details here.

From the outset, I'm just going to let you know, I'm primarily pulling from Pope Benedict the 16th's section on this mystery that's in Jesus of Nazareth, the infancy narrative. So I'm not going to say over and over again, Pope Benedict said, but that's kind of my primary and major source for this. Alright, first of all, we have the opening words. His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. So why are they on their way to Jerusalem? Are they the only ones who are doing this? The answer is no.

So every Israelite, the Jewish people, they were to visit the temple three times a year for three major feasts. Those three major feasts are the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Weeks, and what we have here, the Feast of Passover. What's a little bit of a question and a debate at the time was whether or not this was an obligation just for men or men and women. Whether it was obligatory or not, Mary is on the journey as a sign of her faithfulness.

Also, I think what's interesting is that the obligation to make this journey for men began actually at 13. But as you've maybe picked up along the way, there's just a lot of rules and a lot of commandments. And so there's actually like a phase in raising a young Jewish man and helping them get accustomed to the law. And so you kind of slowly introduce parts of the law, even though they weren't absolutely obligatory, so that when you did come of age, you didn't just get hit with everything all at once. So the obligation to make this journey for men

actually began at 13. And what we have here is the 12-year-old Jesus making this journey. And the insight offered, the proposal offered by Pope Benedict is that this is part of Jesus doing what probably a lot of other 12-year-old boys were doing, of kind of making the journey a little bit in advance as part of this ongoing growing

in preparation for taking on the full burden of the law. What I think is particularly noteworthy is that what we'll actually find is a journey, a pilgrimage that's being made at the beginning and the end of this passage again just in a different way. Verse 41, we have this reminder of the people of Israel making these three pilgrimages a year to Jerusalem. And this is part of them remembering, like remembering not just in thought, but in action that they are a pilgrim people.

People always on the journey, always growing closer to the Lord in intimacy with the Lord, in their identity with the Lord. Verse 51, we have these words, Mary kept all of these things in her heart. And what's being highlighted here is that Mary is going to continue to live

this ongoing pilgrimage of faith. And Mary, the icon of the church, reminds us of what this pilgrimage is gonna look like for all Christians, this ongoing deepening, journeying with the Lord, journeying in the mystery of what He's doing in our lives in the same way that Mary does, by pondering these in her heart.

Okay, now so let's look at Mary and Joseph losing Jesus and then finding him on three days. First of all, there's just very, very simple, ordinary explanations for both. It was very common. You're traveling with people you know. In Nazareth, we talked about there's only maybe, you know, a couple hundred people. So they're all journeying together as this community. And so they're with their kinsfolk, they're with their friends, their acquaintances. So the idea of Jesus not traveling with Mary and Joseph like intimately for the day, like it's not a surprise.

This is an ordinary normal thing. What's not ordinary or normal is that at the end of the night, Jesus isn't to be found. That's when they start to worry. And the three days is just quite simple. So there's a day of journey away from the temple, finding that Jesus wasn't there, a day of journey back to the temple,

and then finding Him on the third day. Of course, in this losing and finding of three days, we're also going to have a foreshadowing of Mary's losing Jesus at Calvary, and then finding Him, receiving Him again on the third day when He is risen from the dead. And of course, when finding Jesus, Mary says, Son, why have you treated as so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously. And Jesus responds, How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's

house? So first of all, what we see here is kind of Jesus offering a bit of a correction. Like Mary says, your father and I, and Jesus kind of corrects her by saying, didn't you know that I must be in my father's house, referring to God the father. And what Pope Benedict points out is really profound is his emphasis on this word must. Jesus says, did you not know that I must be

in my father's house, which is the same must that Jesus uses when he says like, the son of man must suffer greatly, must be rejected and be killed. What Pope Benedict's pointing out is that this must is the must of filial obedience. And so it's out of filial obedience, not rebellion, that Jesus remained in the temple.

And it's the same obedience that's gonna take him to the cross and to the resurrection. So here we get at the principle theological point of the fifth Joyful Mystery, the finding of Jesus in the temple according to Pope Benedict, is that Jesus comes not to abolish, but to complete or to fulfill the law. So Jesus is, yes, he's bringing a new dimension of human intimacy with God. He's revealing to us the freedom of the Son. It's the freedom of the truly devout person, not the freedom of somebody who totally shrugs the law, who has no obligations.

But it's the freedom of Jesus, Jesus who is totally united with his father's will and who helps mankind attain the freedom of inner oneness with God. And that's a quote from Pope Benedict. In closing, he just says this, the link between radical newness and equally radical faithfulness rooted in Jesus' sonship is the actual theological content

that this story is intended to convey. And so my brothers and sisters, how do we pray with this? I do think there's a really beautiful and deep invitation to join Mary in our own pilgrimage of faith, continuing to ponder the mysteries of life in our heart that we don't understand or see at all. We too remain a pilgrim people. And also, this is a joyful reminder, an invitation to great joy that in Christ, we are all we don't understand or see it all. We too remain a pilgrim people. And also there's this joyful reminder,

an invitation to great joy, that in Christ we are all brought into this radical new dimension of intimacy with God. And so as we pray with this fifth joyful mystery, let's pray for a greater share in Jesus' own freedom. A freedom which again, doesn't push back, doesn't fight against our moral obligations, doesn't fight against our moral obligations, doesn't fight against the law. But understands these as both a means and

an expression of the freedom that we experience as sons and daughters in the Son, Jesus Christ. Let us pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen. and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right. Thanks for joining me, praying with me again today.

I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow, Pilgrim people. Poco a poco, friends. Bye now.