St

St. George Maronite Catholic Church

SUNDAY OF FINDING JESUS IN THE TEMPLE
Liturgical Notes:

Finding in the Temple

We know little about the childhood of our Lord except for the incident which is celebrated in Liturgy today. Jesus, as a boy, joined his parents in going up to Jerusalem and the Temple for the feast of Passover. After fulfilling the requirements of Jewish law, Joseph and Mary set out for home, presuming that Jesus was traveling with relatives. In reality, he had remained in Jerusalem where Mary and Joseph found him in the Temple listening to the teachers and asking them questions. Luke's account of the incident ends with the note that Jesus was subject to his parents.
In today's feast two points become clear to us: Jesus fulfills the law of Moses in his own life, and he does so as one who humbled himself to become like us in all things, but sin.
On the feast of the Circumcision we were reminded that Jesus was subject to the requirements of the Mosaic law and today we are again reminded that Jesus fulfilled the spiritual responsibilities of a member of God's chosen people; for he prayed in the Temple and celebrated the Passover with his family, he who was both the true Temple and the Passover sacrificed for us. We are thus reminded that through our participation in the sacrifice of Christ's body we became living temples of the Lord.
Jesus listened to the teachers of the law and amazed them by his questions. He who was the teacher of Israel would establish a new law which would not be written on tablets of stone, but rather upon our hearts.
Christ our Passover and Teacher comes among us with the humility and simplicity of a child. He who was the eternal Son of God abandoned his prerogatives and taught us by his obedience to his parents that we are subject to our Father in heaven, the Father's will must be our will, the Father's care and concern must be manifested in our love for his children.