2015/12/27 - Homily - Holly Family
Lost and found.
The first time I realized that a child could be lost, I was very young, I guess about five. A brother of mine had gone away very far from home. Was he looking after something? But he was without any possibility to find his way back. Finally he was found. And our parents had kept the incident in mind for a certain time. Such a story is not only a story in my own family, it is a very common one for many families. When I was a seminarian, I walked as a pilgrim to the shrine of Czestochowa in Poland, others were crossing the forest. And on the roadside I found a little boy who was crying, but his parents were no very far, and I was moved by their joy when they saw their kid.
Jesus was lost; he was only twelve. We can imagine the fear of his parents. Three days passed before he could be found. Three days like those when Jesus was in the TOMB before his rising again to life. But for him he was at the right place in his father’s house. The parents of Jesus were very afraid for him, even more, they were scared to death. It was so normal for them to react like this. But Jesus told them something rather strange: “Don’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house”? For sure, saint Luc noticed that at that time Jesus had a real conscience of his own divinity. Marie and Joseph, his parents knew it, but their fearing for his son was greater, a typical reaction of loving parents.
We can meditate upon this story keeping in mind those who had lost a child. For a short time, or forever. Dead or alive, but without the possibility to see them. And we can also think of parents who have to live without the love of their children but nevertheless continue to love them though in deep sorrow. Those who lost their children love and continue their lives` way in the deep sorrow.
We can also evoke those who have lost their way out of the spiritual meaning of life and so have to live so far from the true joy and the truth which brings freedom. Let us pray for those who have lost the filling of God’s presence and have to cope in the dry land of their horizon where they can just wander from one thing to another, and who have to live with, in darkness and coldness.
When Jesus is alive into our hearts, he is going to make our lives lighter and warmer. On this day of feast let us pray for our own families and for all the families in the world. Let us pray especially for those who are suffering from fear and anguish without forgetting all those who could be lost in any way.
