"I MUST BE IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE."

Homily for June 28^th, 2014: Luke 2:41-51.

          ADid you not know that I must be in my Father=s house?@ Jesus asks his worried parents, worn out from a frantic three-day search for their twelve-year-old son. The words are the first Jesus speaks in Luke=s gospel. He speaks them in the building which, for all believing Jews of that day, including Jesus himself, was the earthly dwelling place of God.

With Jesus= coming, however, God was creating a new dwelling place on earth: the living flesh of the twelve-year-old boy who stood in that building and spoke of his need to be Ain my Father=s house.” He knew already that God was his Father, not Joseph. 

          This flash of youthful insight (if that is what it was) is immediately followed, however, by what looks like an anticlimax. Jesus does not remain in his Father=s house at Jerusalem. He returns to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph, to resume the normal life of a Jewish boy of his day. The great moment passes. Jesus surprises us. He would continue to surprise people throughout his earthly life. He remains the master of surprise today.

          One of those surprised by Jesus was his own mother. Luke tells us that she and Joseph Adid not understand@ their son=s words about having to be Ain my Father=s house.@ Mary would never fully understand her Son. Even for the woman who was closer to Jesus than anyone else on earth, Jesus remained shrouded in mystery. Like every human being before and since, Mary had to walk by faith, not by sight.

Jesus= brief moment of bright vision in the Temple was followed by the years of hidden labor in the carpenter=s shop at Nazareth. And it was there, in accepting the burdens, duties, and frustrations of a very ordinary and outwardly uninteresting life, that Jesus Aadvanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man,@ as Luke tells us at immediately after today=s gospel.

Do you want to advance, as Jesus did? Which of us does not? We advance in age whether we wish it or not. Advancing in wisdom and favor before God and others, however, requires doing what Jesus did. We must be willing to let go of life=s great experiences, no matter how beautiful they may be. We must accept the challenges, the duties, and the burdens which each day brings us. Don’t look back. Look forward. The late Archbishop Fulton Sheen used to say: AThere are no plains in the spiritual life; either we are going up, or we are going down.@ And in that Fulton Sheen was right.