Today we are invited to contemplate the Holy Family – Jesus, Mary and Joseph – in the scene from St Luke’s Gospel when for three days Mary and Joseph lose Jesus only to find him again in the Temple in Jerusalem.
Discovering his absence we can imagine that not wanting to delay a second longer, Mary and Joseph began the return to Jerusalem probably with night approaching illumined by the waning Paschal moon. They arrive in Jerusalem, not knowing where to look, where to begin, and then finally, surely led by the Holy Spirit as the old man Simeon was years before at the Presentation, they to go to the Temple. Their anguish gives way to amazement, relief and questioning.
That their suffering was great we know as Mary says to Jesus “Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress”. No doubt the suffering of the last three days is etched on their faces. Yet despite their anguish and suffering at no point during their search would Mary and Joseph have given into panic, mutual recrimination or despair. Mary and Joseph did not react in such a way – instead they would have responded to this trial with great patience, never losing hope and full of compassion for each other’s suffering.
It was a response born of their life together since their betrothal, a life of poverty and simplicity, where nothing was wasted especially of that most precious commodity which we often feel the lack of and yet waste, in as much as we seek other things apart from God: that precious commodity which is called time.
Mary and Joseph were patient, they knew how to live in and with time.
Yes – Mary and Joseph with Jesus would have observed the times of the great Jewish feasts and made pilgrimage to Jerusalem just as we heard today – they were faithful to the Law.
But more than that. Within the walls of the holy house of Nazareth time was treasured, at its densest, not a second was wasted.
“All time belongs to him and all the ages” the priest says of Christ as he cuts the numerals into the Paschal candle at the Easter Vigil. Within the holy house of Nazareth, within the Holy Family, all time belonged to Christ, was devoted to the love of Christ, nothing was preferred to Christ, to the one who was to fulfil the Law.
Moment by moment Mary and Joseph grew in holiness - in faith, hope and love. In His obedience to Mary and Joseph, Jesus anticipated the obedience to His heavenly Father at His Passion. For thirty out of the thirty three years of his life Jesus was obedient to the Father through his obedience to Mary and Joseph. In the words of a Benedictine nun: “Oh slow days of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, rich, overflowing with the same gestures, accomplished in humility and performed for the Father in heaven… This God who came to dwell among us, who knew the same servitude we ourselves know… may He deign to lighten for us the use we must make of time… ”.
This nun, Mother Marie des Douleurs, knew how heavily time can weigh on us. The Benedictine Congregation she founded was for women who were too infirmed to enter regular religious life. She was well aware how suffering can make time heavy for us. Later in her life she would especially pray for religious and priests who refused to repent of their sinfulness. She knew how much sin can weigh heavily on time.
Well - on Christmas Eve in Rome, Pope Francis opened the Jubilee Year of 2025. A jubilee year is a special time of grace to experience the mercy and love of God, an opportunity to lighten time, remove any heaviness, fill it with joy, redemption, take away its weight. Today at St Mary’s Cathedral in Aberdeen Bishop Hugh will open the Jubilee in the diocese. The theme of the Jubilee Year chosen by Pope Francis is Pilgrims of Hope. We are invited to cultivate the virtue of hope, to sow seeds of hope, that, like Mary and Joseph, amidst our trials and through them to enkindle the hope that we will find Jesus. Two young saints will be canonised in April – Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati. In the words of Mother Marie “There are enough people who bury every budding hope. You, you be the one who brings hope out into the light.” Saints are the ones who do this. Pope Francis has given the Church a prayer for this year to lift our hope to when all be well with the coming of God’s kingdom so let us pray:
Father in heaven, may the faith you have given us in your son,
Jesus Christ, our brother,
and the flame of charity enkindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
reawaken in us the blessed hope for the coming of your Kingdom.
May your grace transform us
into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel.
May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos
in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth,
when, with the powers of Evil vanquished, your glory will shine eternally.
May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope,
a yearning for the treasures of heaven.
May that same grace spread the joy and peace of our Redeemer
throughout the earth.
To you our God, eternally blessed, be glory and praise for ever.
Amen