Presence of God – I beg the Blessed Virgin Mary to allow me to enter in spirit the humble home at Nazareth, to contemplate Jesus’ most admirable life there.
Meditation
1. On this day for the last time in the cycle of the liturgical year, the
Church invites us to contemplate the mystery of Jesus’ humble, hidden life. A
feeling of close intimacy and tenderness characterizes this Feast and is
expressed in the liturgy of the day: “ . . . it is good for us to recall the
little home at Nazareth and the humble life of those who lived there . . . . In
it, Jesus learned Joseph’s humble trade, and grew in age, and was happy sharing
the work of a carpenter: ‘Let the sweat,’ He seemed to say, ‘trickle over My
limbs before they are drenched with the torrent of My Blood, and the pain of
this labor shall go to atone for the sins of men!’” (RB). Let us enter
the little house; in the presence of such
humility, which conceals Jesus’ infinite Majesty, let us repeat
the words of the sacred text: “Thou art indeed a hidden King, O God the Savior,
King of Israel” (ibid.).
Today’s liturgy particularly emphasizes one typical
aspect of the humble life of this hidden God: obedience. “
Although He was the Son of God . . . He learned to obey; He humbled himself,
becoming obedient even unto death” (ibid.). From Bethlehem to Calvary obedience
was His companion. The Gospel (Lk 2, 42-52) stresses this obedience of Jesus at
Nazareth in words which carry for all time the strength of their first
utterance, “He was subject to them.” Let us ask ourselves with St. Bernard, “Who
obeyed? Whom did He obey?” The Saint replies, “God obeyed man! Yes, the
God to whom the angels are subject . . . was subject to
Mary, and not only to Mary, but also to
Joseph. For God to obey a woman is humility without parallel . . . .
Learn then, man, to obey; learn, O earth, to be submissive. God subjected
Himself to men; and do you, desiring to rule others, place yourself above your
Creator?”
2. “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s
business?” Jesus, who was so humble and submissive, did not hesitate to make
this reply to Mary when she gently questioned Him about having remained behind
in the Temple without her or Joseph’s knowledge, while they in anguish had been
seeking Him for three days.
These are the first words of
Jesus which we find recorded in the Gospel. He spoke
them in order to declare his mission and to affirm the primacy of the rights of
God. When hardly an adolescent, Jesus taught us that God and the things
of God must always come first. He must hold the first
place in our lives, and we must obey Him regardless of all
other considerations, even if it means sacrificing the rights of nature and of
blood. Yielding to relatives and friends is no longer a virtue—and may even be
sinful—if it leads us away from the will of God or hinders its
fulfillment.
Giving precedence to the rights of God does not
imply that we neglect our duties toward our neighbor.
Today’s Feast calls our attention to these obligations, and especially to those
concerning our family, natural or religious, inviting us to follow the example
of the Holy Family of Nazareth. To this end, the Epistle (Col 3 ,12-17) shows us
the virtues we should practice: “Clothe yourself . . . with mercy, benignity,
humility, modesty, and patience, bearing with one another, and forgiving one
another.”