And it came to pass that after three days they found Him in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His wisdom and His answers. And He went down with Mary and Joseph and came to Nazareth; and was subject to them. And Mary His mother kept all these words in her heart. - Luke 2:6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13
The law was fulfilled by the presentation in the temple, Jesus offered Himself to His divine Father in the name and in favour of humanity; and now He enters into the humble and obscure dwelling of Nazareth, where He increases in years and in strength, and is filled with wisdom, 'for the grace of God is in Him.'
Twelve years of silence and obscurity pass quickly by, after which we find Him, when it was supposed He was lost in the excitement of a great festival, among the doctors of the law, hearing them and asking them questions.
O marvel! These men, who have grown grey in study and in learning, who almost know the number of letters contained in the Sacred Writings, who scrutinize the mysteries and reduce to a nicety the interpretation of the law - these wise; men of Israel, whose grave and learned word had the greatest weight in the land, have found their Master. They have found him in a child of twelve years! Their humbled pride is astonished at the profundity of His teaching and at the wisdom of His answers. It was the first wound it received, and its sting will continue to rankle in their hearts until the time of His public preaching shall have come. The people simply give away to ecstasies of admiration: 'And all that heard Him were astonished at His wisdom and His answers' (Luke 2:47).
Dear and adorable Child! I know who Thou art. Divine Word, infinite Wisdom, Thou art come from the 'mouth of the most high God.' In God Thou hadst subsisted before the birth of time, and in Him Thou wilt subsist when time shall be no more. Hear His inspired word in the eighth chapter of the Book of Proverbs: 'When He prepared the heavens I was present; when with a certain law and compass He enclosed the depths; when He established the sky above, and poised the fountains of waters; when He compassed the sea with its bounds, and set a law to the waters that they should not pass their limits; when He balanced the foundations of the earth, I was with Him, forming all things, and was delighted every day, playing before Him at all times: playing in the world; and my delights were to be with the children of men.' Thou knowest, O Lord! all secrets, even the most profound secrets of the Divinity. What thou hast revealed to men is no more than a drop from the ocean of Thy infinite knowledge. The Sacred Scriptures, full of Thee, have been written by Thy inspiration. Who, then, can so well explain them as Thyself? Therefore, I am not astonished that questions and answers should fall from Thy lips which confounded the learned doctors of the law. I wonder not, but rather cry out in my simple ignorance, with the prophet Isaias: 'Behold I have given Him for a witness to the people, for a leader and a master to the gentiles' (55:4).
Speak, O Master! speak. It is Thy right and Thy function. Is it not right, and even necessary, that Thou shouldst be 'engaged in the business of Thy Father,' Who, by Thy teaching, has deigned to instruct us in the mysteries of eternity?
Speak, O Jesus! to the great and powerful, too often surfeited with empty grandeur; speak to the worldly-wise of our day, whose proud reason too often vanishes in the delirium of folly; speak to the worldly-prudent, who, in their presumption, pretend to have no other rule of life than common honesty. Show them that nothing is truly great which does not lead up to a participation in the divine Sonship; that human science must submit itself to the science of heaven; that the wisdom of the world, from the moment it refuses to enter upon the heroic way of Christian virtue, is supremest folly.
Speak to the poor, the ignorant, the humble, to raise them from their abject state; teach them the mysteries which no human reason can fathom; and conduct them by humble and despised pathways to the dwelling-place of life eternal.
Speak to me, O my Jesus! I listen to Thee, and I wish to receive no other promises than Thine, no doctrine but Thine, no law but Thine. For me it is not necessary to behold Thee with the eyes of the flesh to submit to Thy teaching. It is enough for me to read Thy books in which Thy words are engraven; to hear the Church, the guardian of Thy truth and of Thy commandments; to feel within me the mysterious attractions of Thy holy grace.
O adorable Jesus! speak to me especially by Thy grace. Speak to my mind and to my heart. Let my thoughts, desires, affections, discourses, and acts be regulated by Thy internal word. Speak to me as Thou didst in the temple, with the sweetness and amiability of a child; but if my obdurate heart refuses to be moved by Thy loving words, speak to me with authority and with the just severity of an offended Master. Press, insist, rebuke, reproach, threaten, disturb, and torment me. I am prepared to submit to Thy rigours. Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.
- text taken from Jesus in the Rosary, by Father Jacques-Marie Louis Monsabre, O.P.