Nicole Berlucchi, Writer on a Mission

Image used with permission of Tribe of Many Arrows.
Check them out on Etsy: TribeofManyArrows – Etsy.

For the month of October the “That We May Imitate What They Contain and Obtain What They Promise” series will take a daily look at one mystery of the Rosary and how we have the opportunity to imitate it and rejoice in what it promises us.

Today, we look at the fifth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary: the Finding of Jesus in the Temple.

Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding 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 all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. 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 advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man. Luke 2:41-52 (NABRE)

This mystery has a pretty glaring form of imitation—searching for Jesus, but there are more opportunities to imitate this mystery than meets the eye. Let’s look at the dynamics happening here and what we can take away from this mystery in Jesus’ life.

1. Go in search of Jesus. Mary and Joseph walked for a day thinking Jesus was with them amongst the busy crowd of travelers who were relatives and friends, but then realizing He was not, they went back to where they came from to find Him. Sometimes our search for Jesus will cause us to backtrack. Often in life we are forging ahead, keeping to our busy schedule, that we forget to make sure we are including Jesus in our plans, that He should be with us, that He should be a priority. When we do this, we might find ourselves rethinking a decision we made, putting some plans on hold, or even taking a completely new direction than we had planned. The point is that in doing those things, it’s so we reorient ourselves to Jesus. We are trying to get back to Him. We’ve lost Him along the way and the redirection serves the purpose of finding Him so that we are journeying with Him rather than without Him.
2. Converse with spiritual leaders to learn and understand more about God and scripture. If Jesus took time to talk with teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, we certainly should be doing the same. Whether our listening and asking questions is for us to learn or whether it is for others to learn, God is always working in holy conversations that seek to understand Him. These conversations can be in prayer, conversing with great saints, after reading some of their writings about God’s love, Jesus’ life and sacrifice, the Holy Spirit, virtues and so much more. These conversations can also be within our local or extended faith community. We can never cease learning about God. He is infinite. Our lifetimes are too short to learn all there is to know about God, and so there will never be a time in our lives when we cease to learn. Join a book study, start one, jump into a virtual course on a doctor of the Church, go to Mass, go to a Catholic speaker…there are so many opportunities to learn more about God from others and for them, in turn, to learn from you.
3. Have conversation with the Lord to experience His understanding and His answers. Nothing beats conversation with our Lord. These teachers were astounded at Jesus’ understanding and answers as He asked questions of them. What is the Lord asking of you? Where do you seek answers from Him? Scripture is a great place to seek answers from the Lord. A single passage can sometimes mean one thing at one point in your life and another thing years later when facing a completely different circumstance. Reading scripture and then inviting the Lord to illuminate what He wants you to learn that day is a great conversation to have with the Lord. Time in Adoration is equally wonderful, finding Him in Church is exactly where He says to expect He will be. We know as Catholics He is present always in the Tabernacle. Don’t be afraid to go and sit with Him so that He can open your heart to what He wants to do in your life or show you.
4. Ask the hard questions because Jesus is always about the Father’s business. Mary does not hold back her hard questions about how anxious she felt not knowing where Jesus was over the last few days. We all have experienced valleys in our lives where we feel like Jesus has abandoned us. We know because He has told us He will never abandon us—He is with us until the end of time. In this mystery, He reminds us where He is always waiting for us, ready for our questions, ready to be found—in His Father’s House. When we feel far from the Lord, when we feel we’ve gone too far without Him, when we feel He unexpectedly left us to go ahead alone, we must remember to find Him and talk with Him. Get your ”why” off your chest. But also remember that He will remind you He never left and He is always at work, whether we feel He is near or not, we are the ones who must remember to look for Him always. Don’t take His presence for granted. He is always about His Father’s business even when it doesn’t feel that way. We must trust that we can always approach Him with our questions even when we’ve left Him behind. He will be there, knowing we will return.
5. Never cease thinking about all God is working in your life and in your search for Him. Mary once again ponders this exchange in her heart. Not being able to find Jesus, searching for Him, finding Him with teachers in the Temple, astounding people with His answers, telling her He is about His Father’s business, and then returning home obedient to them. She does not take one piece of what Jesus does for granted. She wants to understand Him and what this means about who He is as a Savior—scholarly enough to sit among educated teachers in the Temple, humble enough to be obedient to them at home, bold enough to stay behind in the Temple without them, focused enough to understand His mission at a young age. Mary is both pondering what His life means and what it means to her. In herself, she recognized littleness that this teen boy would address her anxiety without worry, and refer to God the Father and His business. She did not allow this to rattle her, but instead allowed it to think more deeply about how all God does communicates something to us, something about Him, something about ourselves and our own mission.

The fruit of this mystery is conversion. As we imitate this mystery, we cannot help but turn our hearts toward God. These are all ways to think about Him, to develop a deeper relationship with Him, to learn more about Him, to celebrate Him. These are ways our hearts are more deeply converted to living a life for Him, united to His will for our lives.

Visit Tribe of Many Arrows on Etsy. These images are used with their permission, and I am grateful for these beautiful creations accompanying my reflections this month.

If you missed this week’s earlier reflections, catch them here: Annunciation, Visitation, Birth of Jesus, and the Presentation.