How Jesus teaches us to be honest with him and with our loved ones

‘[Mary and Joseph] did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.’ (Luke 2:50) In Sunday’s Gospel for the Holy Family, Mary did not understand her son. But she ‘treasured up all these things in her heart’: prayer illuminates the shadows of our lives. She realised that he had disappeared not simply to teach The post How Jesus teaches us to be honest with him and with our loved ones first appeared on Catholic Herald. The post How Jesus teaches us to be honest with him and with our loved ones appeared first on Catholic Herald.

Jan 1, 2025 - 04:00

‘[Mary and Joseph] did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.’ (Luke 2:50)

In Sunday’s Gospel for the Holy Family, Mary did not understand her son. But she ‘treasured up all these things in her heart’: prayer illuminates the shadows of our lives.

She realised that he had disappeared not simply to teach the doctors in the Temple, but to teach her to trust him. Jesus was missing for three days, which foreshadowed the three days he spent in the tomb when Mary had to trust that he was again ‘busy with his Father’s affairs’, bringing about our redemption.

We need to reflect on moments in our lives when we have lost Jesus, to find out what God was doing for us in those trials, what he was teaching us, what he was preparing us for. God’s plan for us includes all the suffering in our past – he can use it all for our good!

Mary had been honest, and said what she really felt: ‘Son, why have you treated us so?’ Jesus wants us to speak to him like that and we should not be ashamed to do so, if sinless Mary did.

We also need to be honest with our loved ones. Correction, done with love, is necessary sometimes, even if it turns out the other person was not at fault – as Jesus was innocent here.

This openness will nurture Jesus’ growth within us, as he ‘increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man’, in his family. Fr Garrigou-Lagrange, the doctoral supervisor of St John Paul II, thought that Jesus’ growth ‘in favour’ could refer to the development of his human virtues. We are all called to grow in virtue in our family life, and Jesus’ example can help us rely on grace, rather than simply will-power, to do so.

Let’s ask Mary and Joseph to intercede for us; as Jesus was ‘submissive’ to them on earth, so he will obey them now in heaven and grant their prayers.

(The Holy Family by Juan Simón Gutiérrez)