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Illustration: William Holman Hunt, The Finding of the Savior in the Temple 1860
Pope Francis’ catechesis for the general audience of 5 March 2025
Jubilee 2025. Jesus Christ our Hope. I. The Infancy of Jesus. 8
The finding of Jesus in the Temple
Wednesday, 5 March 2025
“Son, why have you done this to us?” (Lk 2:49).
Luke 2:41-51
Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve 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 a 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.
Dear brothers and sisters,
In this last catechesis dedicated to the infancy of Jesus, we are inspired by the episode in which, at the age of twelve, he stayed in the Temple without telling his parents, who anxiously searched for Him and found Him after three days. The story presents us with a very interesting dialogue between Mary and Jesus, which helps us to reflect on the journey of the mother of Jesus, a journey that certainly was not easy. In fact, Mary followed a spiritual itinerary along which she advanced in her understanding of the mystery of her Son.
Let us think about the various stages of this journey.
At the beginning of her pregnancy, Mary visited Elizabeth and stayed with her for three months, until the birth of little John.
Then, when she is now in her ninth month, because of the census she goes with Joseph to Bethlehem, where she gives birth to Jesus.
After forty days they go to Jerusalem for the presentation of the child; and they every year return on a pilgrimage to the Temple.
But with Jesus still small they took refuge in Egypt for a long time to protect Him from Herod, and only after the death of the king did they settle again in Nazareth.
When Jesus, now an adult, begins his ministry, Mary is present and is the protagonist at the wedding at Cana; then she follows him “at a distance”, until the last journey to Jerusalem, until the passion and death.
After the Resurrection, Mary remained in Jerusalem, as Mother of the disciples, sustaining their faith in expectation of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Throughout this journey, the Virgin is a pilgrim of hope, in the profound sense that she becomes the “daughter of her Son”, his first disciples. Mary brought into the world Jesus, the hope of humanity.
She nourished him, made him grow, followed him, allowing herself to be the first to be shaped by the Word of God. In this, as Benedict XVI said, Mary “is truly at home, she comes out of it and enters it naturally. Throughout this journey, the Virgin is a pilgrim of hope, in the profound sense that she becomes the “daughter of her Son,” his first disciple. Mary brought Jesus into the world, the hope of humanity: she nourished him, made him grow, followed him, allowing herself to be shaped, the first, by the Word of God. She speaks and thinks with the Word of God […]. Thus it is revealed, moreover, that her thoughts are in harmony with God’s thoughts, that her will is a will together with God. Being intimately imbued with the word of God, she can become the mother of the Word incarnate” (Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, 41). This unique communion with the Word of God does not spare her, however, the effort of a demanding “apprenticeship”.
The experience of the loss of Jesus, who was twelve years old, during the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem, frightens Mary to the point that she becomes Joseph’s spokesperson when she rebukes her son: “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I, in anguish, were looking for you” (Lk 2:48).
Mary and Joseph felt the pain of parents who lose a child. They both believed that Jesus was in the caravan with the relatives. But not seeing him for a whole day, they begin the search that will lead them to turn back. On returning to the Temple, they discover that Jesus, who until recently was for them a child to protect, has suddenly grown up, and was now capable of engaging in discussions about the Scriptures. He was in discussions with the teachers of the Law.
Faced with His mother’s rebuke, Jesus answers with disarming simplicity: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”(Lk 2:49).
Mary and Joseph did not understand: the mystery of the ‘God made child’ exceeded their intelligence.
The parents wanted to protect that precious son under the wings of their love.
Jesus, on the other hand, wanted to live his vocation as the Son of the Father.
He was at the Father’s service and lived immersed in His Word.
Luke’s infancy narratives thus close with Mary’s last words, which recall Joseph’s fatherhood towards Jesus, and with Jesus’ first words, which recognize how this fatherhood has its origin in that of his heavenly Father, whose undisputed primacy he acknowledges.
Dear brothers and sisters, like Mary and Joseph, full of hope, let us too set out in the footsteps of the Lord, who does not allow himself to be enclosed in our schemes and allows himself to be found not so much in one place, but in the response of love to the tender divine fatherhood, the response of love that is filial life.
