My How the Times Have Changed

Guest blogger: Jay

I remember as a small child riding in the back seat of my dad’s Dodge Dart Convertible, sitting on the top of the back seat (actually the trunk area . . . not in the seat . . . not buckled in) with my four sisters . . . arms waving in the air . . . as we traveled down one of the main roads in my small Indiana home town, at a relatively high speed, not a care in the world.

Years later, I would make sure that my child was buckled in at all times. This was progress. However, compared to today, I was still neglectful at times. I remember one time going into a Walgreens and, thoughtfully leaving the car in park, the air conditioning running, and my daughter (age 2) strapped into her car seat . . . going in for just a few things. I would be gone for just a few minutes (no foul no harm). When I came out of the store, a lawyer buddy of mine was standing by the car. He smiled and said that he just wanted to keep an eye on Elle while I was gone. He said that it made him nervous . . . a small baby, car engine running, locked in a car on a Florida morning, all alone. Obviously, we had framed the situation differently that morning, but the fact that he was not being judgmental, even jovial while sharing his perspective, I thought about it the rest of my day and never repeated that situation.

In today’s Gospel (Luke 2:41-51), Jesus was missing for an entire day before Mary and Joseph became really concerned. Imagine what was going through their minds, finally finding Jesus three days later. Putting all of these stories into perspective, all of them would not have been the atrocities in their day as  they may appear today.

In Jesus’ day, we’re told that it was not unusual for the children to spend time traveling with other families, still part of a very long caravan. The Gospel today tells a beautiful story about two human parents (very much aware that their son was the Son of God) and yet, overwhelmed with the same human emotions any other parents would feel, having thought they had lost their child.

Each year Jesus’ 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 that 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.

In Volume One, Jesus calls us back to Him whenever we feel lost:

Lay apostles, have you ever left a child behind or lost a child temporarily in a crowd? Have you ever been left behind or lost? Many have had the momentary feelings of fear or panic. In the readings, we are told that fear is not of God. Fear is a lack of trust and yet we see the parents of God experiencing the human emotion of fear. The readings demonstrate that we are neither good nor bad because we experience certain emotions (fear, panic, etc.), but that it is important to know where those emotions emanate and how, with God’s help, we can deal most effectively with them. In the end, we see that Jesus never suffered the same emotions. In His mind, He was at peace with all that was transpiring. He was just going about doing the work of His Father.

Lord, thank you for the improvements each generation contribute to the next. Help us to see that people come from different backgrounds, different cultures, and different families. Help us to be open to new ways of looking at things as long as they do not violate our morals and ethics. Thank you for teaching us that fear no longer has to be an emotion we need to suffer long term, just experience and deal with from time to time. Thank you, Lord, for the times that we have lost someone and the times that we have been lost. And for teaching us that in the end, You were and have always been there.

In humility and gratitude,

Jay