{"id":24499,"date":"2024-12-31T21:15:17","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T01:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/?p=24499"},"modified":"2024-12-31T21:15:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T01:15:17","slug":"when-mary-lost-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2024\/12\/when-mary-lost-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"When Mary Lost Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke:<\/p>\n

Each year Jesus\u2019 parents went to Jerusalem for the feast<\/em>
\nof Passover,\u00a0<\/em>
\nand when he was twelve years old,\u00a0<\/em>
\nthey went up according to festival custom.<\/em>
\nAfter they had completed its days, as they were returning,\u00a0<\/em>
\nthe boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem,\u00a0<\/em>
\nbut his parents did not know it.<\/em>
\nThinking that he was in the caravan,<\/em>
\nthey journeyed for a day<\/em>
\nand looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances,\u00a0<\/em>
\nbut not finding him,<\/em>
\nthey returned to Jerusalem to look for him.<\/em>
\nAfter three days they found him in the temple,\u00a0<\/em>
\nsitting in the midst of the teachers,\u00a0<\/em>
\nlistening to them and asking them questions,\u00a0<\/em>
\nand all who heard him were astounded\u00a0<\/em>
\nat his understanding and his answers.<\/em>
\nWhen his parents saw him,<\/em>
\nthey were astonished,\u00a0<\/em>
\nand his mother said to him,\u00a0<\/em>
\n\u201cSon, why have you done this to us?<\/em>
\nYour father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.\u201d<\/em>
\nAnd he said to them,<\/em>
\n\u201cWhy were you looking for me?<\/em>
\nDid you not know that I must be in my Father\u2019s house?\u201d<\/em>
\nBut they did not understand what he said to them.<\/em>
\nHe went down with them and came to Nazareth,<\/em>
\nand was obedient to them;\u00a0<\/em>
\nand his mother kept all these things in her heart.<\/em>
\nAnd Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor<\/em>
\nbefore God and man.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a sin to make a mistake.<\/p>\n

This we know, because we know, through the Church, that Mary never sinned\u2013 but we also know, through the Gospels, that Mary assumed her Son was with his stepfather, and Saint Joseph in turn assumed that He was with his mother, and the two ended up accidentally leaving their only child in Jerusalem. They left him to his own devices for an entire day. They looked like the worst parents in the world.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a sin to lose Jesus.<\/p>\n

This we know, because Mary, who never sinned, lost Jesus.<\/h3>\n

She was such a holy woman that she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. The angel greeted her with \u201cAve!\u201d and the wife of the priest prophesied in her presence. But Mary lost Jesus for the day when she thought He was with His father, and then she couldn\u2019t find Him for three days more. Here was a person so highly favored by God that an archangel greeted her with \u201cAve, full of grace!\u201d and yet she lost Jesus.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a sin to not know where to look for Jesus.<\/p>\n

Of this we can be sure, because Mary looked for Jesus for three whole days, and didn\u2019t find Him. I don\u2019t know where she was looking. I don\u2019t know why she didn\u2019t think to go to the temple first. Maybe she did go to the temple, but not to that part. But Mary, who had never done a single thing wrong on purpose, could not find Jesus for seventy-two hours. That is something that will happen in your spiritual life, whether you\u2019re good or not.<\/p>\n

And then she found Him again.<\/p>\n

He was sitting in the midst of the teachers, asking them questions.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s never wrong to ask people questions and learn from them. In fact, it\u2019s God the Father\u2019s business. We know this because Jesus, who was truly God and knew everything, was about the Father\u2019s business, asking teachers questions and hearing the wisdom they had to offer. That is what you are supposed to do. That is one way the Father reveals Himself. And besides, if you\u2019re a teacher like Jesus, asking people questions and learning what they have to say is an excellent way to teach.<\/p>\n

Mother Mary was not amused. She was astonished. \u201cSon, why have you done this to us?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a sin to yell at Jesus, \u201cWhy did you do this to me?\u201d You\u2019re only praying like the Blessed Virgin did if you yell at Jesus.<\/h3>\n

\u201cYour father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety!\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a sin to have anxiety\u2013 not the mental illness known as anxiety, and not the everyday emotion known as anxiety either. Neither are wrong. Fear is not a lack of trust in God; Mary trusted perfectly. Fear is not a sign of pride and thinking it all depended on you; Mary was perfectly humble and knew it all depended on God. Fear is not a failure of any kind. Fear is a feeling, and feelings aren\u2019t sins. But they do hurt sometimes.<\/p>\n

The sword of sorrow pierced Mary\u2019s heart, and this wasn\u2019t wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father\u2019s house?\u201d But they did not understand what he said to them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a sin to misunderstand what Jesus says to you. Even the Virgin Mary did.<\/h3>\n

Sin is something else all together.<\/p>\n

He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them;\u00a0 and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.<\/p>\n

Eventually she would lose Him again, in an even worse and more terrible way, and on the third day she would find Him again.<\/p>\n

And so will we.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Mary Pezzulo is the author of\u00a0Meditations on the Way of the Cross,\u00a0<\/a>The Sorrows an<\/a>d Joys of Mary<\/a>, and\u00a0Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Steel Magnificat operates almost entirely on tips. To tip the author, donate to \u201cThe Little Portion\u201d on\u00a0paypal<\/a>\u00a0or Mary Pezzulo on\u00a0venmo<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke: Each year Jesus\u2019 parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,\u00a0 and when he was twelve years old,\u00a0 they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning,\u00a0 the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem,\u00a0 but his parents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2694,"featured_media":24502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,1217],"tags":[15766,3324,64,4284,194],"class_list":["post-24499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-story","category-gospel","tag-finding-in-the-temple","tag-holy-family","tag-jesus","tag-joseph","tag-mary"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Mary Lost Jesus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's not a sin to yell at Jesus, "Why did you do this to me?" You're only praying like the Blessed Virgin did if you yell at Jesus.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2024\/12\/when-mary-lost-jesus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Mary Lost Jesus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It's not a sin to yell at Jesus, "Why did you do this to me?" You're only praying like the Blessed Virgin did if you yell at Jesus.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2024\/12\/when-mary-lost-jesus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Steel Magnificat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-01T01:15:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/664\/2024\/12\/sculpture-3353071_640.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"427\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mary Pezzulo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mary Pezzulo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2024\/12\/when-mary-lost-jesus\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2024\/12\/when-mary-lost-jesus\/\",\"name\":\"When Mary Lost Jesus\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-01T01:15:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-01T01:15:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/eefd606fd6f98b01cd46b38fcead458b\"},\"description\":\"It's not a sin to yell at Jesus, \\\"Why did you do this to me?\\\" You're only praying like the Blessed Virgin did if you yell at Jesus.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2024\/12\/when-mary-lost-jesus\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2024\/12\/when-mary-lost-jesus\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2024\/12\/when-mary-lost-jesus\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"When Mary Lost Jesus\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/\",\"name\":\"Steel Magnificat\",\"description\":\"Everything is grace\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/eefd606fd6f98b01cd46b38fcead458b\",\"name\":\"Mary Pezzulo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b65a50a237f24be80481c3e40cdc1c15?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b65a50a237f24be80481c3e40cdc1c15?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mary Pezzulo\"},\"description\":\"Mary Pezzulo received her BA in English at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. She came to Steubenville to earn a Master's degree in philosophy and Catholic bioethics from Franciscan University and had finished most of her course work before she suffered a chronic illness that derailed her university career. Since then, she's been learning from the school of hard knocks. Her essays on politics, faith, religious trauma, and life in Northern Appalachia, have been published in the Catholic Herald, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Convivium Journal, and the Feinschwarz theology blog. She has delivered lectures on the Uncanny in the field of aesthetics at the Power of Beauty Conference at Franciscan University, and the Terra Incognita Literary Gathering. Mary is the author of Stumbling into Grace: How We meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy, published by Ave Maria Press, which was awarded second place in Catholic Social Teaching from the Catholic Media Awards. She has also written Meditations on the Way of the Cross and The Sorrows and Joys of Mary for Apocryphile Press.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/author\/mpezzulo\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When Mary Lost Jesus","description":"It's not a sin to yell at Jesus, \"Why did you do this to me?\" You're only praying like the Blessed Virgin did if you yell at Jesus.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2024\/12\/when-mary-lost-jesus\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When Mary Lost Jesus","og_description":"It's not a sin to yell at Jesus, \"Why did you do this to me?\" You're only praying like the Blessed Virgin did if you yell at Jesus.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2024\/12\/when-mary-lost-jesus\/","og_site_name":"Steel Magnificat","article_published_time":"2025-01-01T01:15:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":427,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/664\/2024\/12\/sculpture-3353071_640.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mary Pezzulo","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mary Pezzulo","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2024\/12\/when-mary-lost-jesus\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2024\/12\/when-mary-lost-jesus\/","name":"When Mary Lost Jesus","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-01-01T01:15:17+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-01T01:15:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/eefd606fd6f98b01cd46b38fcead458b"},"description":"It's not a sin to yell at Jesus, \"Why did you do this to me?\" You're only praying like the Blessed Virgin did if you yell at Jesus.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2024\/12\/when-mary-lost-jesus\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2024\/12\/when-mary-lost-jesus\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2024\/12\/when-mary-lost-jesus\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When Mary Lost Jesus"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/","name":"Steel Magnificat","description":"Everything is grace","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/eefd606fd6f98b01cd46b38fcead458b","name":"Mary Pezzulo","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b65a50a237f24be80481c3e40cdc1c15?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b65a50a237f24be80481c3e40cdc1c15?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Mary Pezzulo"},"description":"Mary Pezzulo received her BA in English at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. She came to Steubenville to earn a Master's degree in philosophy and Catholic bioethics from Franciscan University and had finished most of her course work before she suffered a chronic illness that derailed her university career. Since then, she's been learning from the school of hard knocks. Her essays on politics, faith, religious trauma, and life in Northern Appalachia, have been published in the Catholic Herald, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Convivium Journal, and the Feinschwarz theology blog. She has delivered lectures on the Uncanny in the field of aesthetics at the Power of Beauty Conference at Franciscan University, and the Terra Incognita Literary Gathering. Mary is the author of Stumbling into Grace: How We meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy, published by Ave Maria Press, which was awarded second place in Catholic Social Teaching from the Catholic Media Awards. She has also written Meditations on the Way of the Cross and The Sorrows and Joys of Mary for Apocryphile Press.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/author\/mpezzulo\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2694"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}