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Writer's pictureSarah Raad

Teachers

“Everyone who heard Him was amazed at His understanding and His answers.” (Luke 2:47).

Jesus Among the Doctors (Albrecht Durer)

I have been meditating upon the fifth joyful mystery of the Most Blessed Rosary, which is the finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple…


In this mystery of the Rosary, we commemorate the time when after being lost for three days, the Child Jesus was FOUND in the temple, speaking to the teachers there…


“Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When He was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. After the festival was over, while His parents were returning home, the Boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking He was in their company, they travelled on for a day. Then they began looking for Him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find Him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for Him. After three days they found Him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard Him was amazed at His understanding and His answers. When His parents saw Him, they were astonished. His mother said to Him, ‘Son, why have You treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for You.’ ‘Why were you searching for Me?’ He asked. ‘Didn’t you know I had to be in My Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what He was saying to them.” (Luke 2:41-50).


Previously, when I have considered this mystery of the Rosary, I have thought very much about Christ Himself – alone in Jerusalem. I have thought too about the Blessed Virgin, His Holy Mother, and her distress at having “lost” the Son of God for three days. Last year – after completing a consecration to Saint Joseph – I have thought very often about how Saint Joseph must have suffered during that search over three days that must have felt eternal to him…

Today, when I have considered this mystery of the Rosary, it was not Christ Himself, or His Blessed Mother, or His Holy Foster Father, who consumed my mind… It was the teachers to whom Christ was speaking. Today, I can see those teachers so clearly in my mind…

I wonder how Christ got their attention? Was it a casual question asked after listening so attentively to what they had to say? Did He surprise them with His wisdom? Did first one teacher stop and engage with Him and then another and another and another until at last the teachers in the Temple were crowded around Him, talking to Him and asking Him questions…? Until, at last, when He was found, “Everyone who heard Him was amazed at His understanding and His answers.” (Luke 2:47).


And I have been reflecting on that amazement of the teachers and how that must have changed the world itself. You see, each of those teachers who stood amazed at Christ, would have learned from Him. Each of them would have carried His words within their hearts. Each of them would have returned home thinking about what He said. Did they talk about Him in later years? Did they mention the wise little boy who spoke to them in the Temple that time? Did they repeat some of the things that He taught them when they were teaching others? Did Christ use those souls too to save other souls? Did some of those men recognise the face of God in the visage of that little Boy? Did He change their lives?


And what of the teachers who did not stop to listen? What of them? Later, when they observed the changes in their peers, did they regret the decision that they made that day? Did they worry about what they had missed out on? Did they ask their friends to explain? Could they understand that experience?


Or were they a little bit like me?...


Did they walk away from God Himself – oblivious – even after He left everything to come and find them?


For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.

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