Mary searches for Jesus in Jerusalem, Mary: Day 233

Mary searches for Jesus in Jerusalem

St. Alphonsus ponders the anxiety Mary must have felt when she was search- ing for three days before she found young Jesus in the temple.

In the second chapter of his Gospel, St. Luke tells us that every year at the Passover feast, the Blessed Virgin used to visit the temple with her spouse, St. Joseph, and Jesus. When her Son was twelve years of age, she went as usual, and when she returned, Jesus remained in Jerusalem. Mary didn’t at once realize it, thinking he was traveling in the company of others.

When she reached Nazareth, we may imagine, she asked around for her Son. But since she didn’t find him, she immediately returned to Jerusalem to look for him. She found him only after three days.
Now let’s imagine what anxiety this afflicted mother must have experienced in those three days when she was searching everywhere for her Son and asking for him, like the spouse in the Song of Songs: “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?” (Sg 3:3). But she learned nothing of his whereabouts.

The Old Testament patriarch Reuben once said about his brother Joseph: “The lad is gone; and I, where shall I go?” (Gn 37:30). Consider how far greater must have been the tenderness with which Mary could have repeated those words, overcome by fatigue, yet without having found her beloved Son! “My Jesus is gone, and I no longer know what to do to find him; but where shall I go without my treasure?”

Weeping continually, with how much truth could she have repeated with King David, during those three days, “My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me continually, ‘Where is your God?’” (Ps 42:3). —St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
If Mary knows what it’s like to suffer such anxiety, surely she can understand why I also struggle with anxiety at times. Have I asked her to help me find peace in the midst of those struggles?

CLOSING PRAYER
“Have mercy on me, O God. . . . When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust without fear” (Ps 56:1, 3–4).

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