This feast focuses on the holy family as a group, not as its individual members Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. Jesus was completely indebted to them. Thanks to Joseph, Jesus is a king in the line of David. Jesus’s parents undoubtedly instructed their son according to the family ethics taught by the famous Jerusalem sage, Ben Sira whose book is excerpted in the first reading. Though we are accustomed to think of Jesus as a teacher, in his youth Jesus was the object of teaching, taught not only by his parents but also by his “kin,” a web of aunts, uncles, and cousins, and by his village in accord with the adage, “It takes a village.” Parents trusted other families in the village with their children. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus’s parents kept journeying home from Jerusalem for three whole days trusting that their twelve-year-old son was safe with another family. Perhaps that trust in others was the reason why Jesus could entrust himself to the Twelve apostles and his other disciples! At any rate, Jesus must have been convinced that trust and affection are at the heart of any movement including his own.
The second reading, from St. Paul’s Letter of the Colossians, mentions something else that Jesus would have learned growing up – reaching an age when he could dress himself for the day ahead. Ancient literature is full of description of people dressing themselves in garments appropriate to the important task they are to perform. Warriors donned armor before going out to battle. Biblical ordination ceremonies describe the ordination rite as liturgical officiants clothing the priest with priestly garments. In the Catholic ritual for ordaining deacons and priests today the priest is clothed with priestly vestments and entrusted with a copy of the gospels and rituals. It should not then come as a surprise that St. Paul’s letter imagines the follower of Christ dressing for the day ahead, “putting on” kindness and humility, and, in a final gesture, putting on love.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus steals away from his parents at the age of twelve, the age for young Jews taking on the responsibilities of an adult, then as now, difficult for both parents and child. In fact, Jesus seems annoyed at his parents’ understandable concern, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” [a different translation than the Lectionary “in my Father’s house”]. Mary and Jesus use “father” in two different senses. For Mary, it is her husband, but for Jesus it is his heavenly Father. This is one of the moments when a sword pierces Mary’s spirit (2:35). For a second time in the Gospel, we are told that Mary kept all these things in her heart (2:19). She will have to learn to surrender her son to his divine mission. This temple scene is only the beginning of her journey and our own as well.