By Fr. Sheldon Tabile, O.Carm.

Day 6

July 12

Mary, The Soul who perpetually Desire for God

Gospel Reading: The Finding in the Temple (Lk 2: 41-52)

Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced wisdom and age and favor before God and man.

Points for Reflection

Mary looking for Jesus in the temple is not just any ordinary searching for a boy lost in the crowd. It is a searching for God’s will in her life.
The one who truly search ponders the events of one’s life from the lens of one’s relation with God. This is the meaning of “keeping all these things in her heart.”
Lord, here I am. What do you want me to do? Here are the words of someone who truly keep things in one’s heart.

Fr. Sheldon is Assistant Parish Priest of San Isidro Labrador Parish in Bagong Silangan, Quezon City. He is currently a Fellow at the Titus Brandsma Institute in Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.