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I Reading:
1 Sam 1:20-22, 24-28
II Reading: 1 Jn 3:1-2, 21-24
Gospel: Lk.: 2:41-52
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Timothy Radcliffe recognises that when we teach our
children to walk, we give them the chance to walk away.
At
supper with friends, I asked where was their
sixteen-year-old daughter. The mother replied, 'We do
not know. She is with her friends, but we do not know
what they do. We used to be so close, like sisters. We
could say anything to each other. And now she is like a
stranger.'
There
is much preoccupation for the young. Who are they? What
will become of them? But today's Gospel tells us that we
can be confident. God is with them. They are in his
hands. Jesus's mother also endured pain for her son. He
disappeared for three days. 'Child, why have you treated
us like this? Look, your father and I have been
searching for you with great anxiety.' Jesus replies,
but they do not understand.
Jesus
was born into a typical modern family. A single child;
the man in the household was not his father; tradition
says that he lived at home until he was thirty. And then
it became worse. He ended up in disgrace and failure on
a cross. If God made his home in such a family, then he
can be present in ours too and we may trust in God's
providence for our children.
In my
room in London I had a picture by Van Gogh of a mother
and father teaching their child to walk. The mother is
holding up the child, while on the other side of the
picture the father has his arms stretched beckoning the
child to dare to walk to him. And the child's face is
filled with pleasure, eager for the adventure. One of
the first courageous acts we learn is to walk. We will
fall flat on our faces, and have to get up and try
again. Mary and Joseph also had to teach Jesus the
courage to walk. Even though he was God, I am sure that
he fell on his face! All moral training is training
people to be strong enough to stand on their feet and
walk.
But if
you teach a child to walk, then one day he or she may
walk in a direction that you did not expect or wish. You
are giving them the freedom to walk away from you. Deep
love does not hold on to us. It lets us go. The beauty
and the pain of true love is that it frees another to
love someone else even more than us.
When
the child Jesus leaves his family circle and stays
behind in the Temple, he is being courageous. 'How is it
that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in
my father's house?' He had been formed by two brave
people who prepared him for this. Mary had dared to say
'Yes' to the angel's invitation to be mother of our
Saviour, even though it would turn her life upside down.
Joseph had been brave enough to marry Mary, even though
she was pregnant from causes he could not understand. So
they had raised a child who had the courage to one day
do something that they could not then understand.
Billy Elliot
is a film about a family from the north of England. They
are miners. They live with the threat of unemployment.
They are strong, aggressive people. The son of the
family is called Billy, and he discovers that he hates
boxing, the family sport. He wants to be a ballet
dancer. It is a scandal. Real men do not become dancers.
Finally the father sees his son dance, and he
understands that this is Billy's life. It is a story
about courage. There is the courage of the miners, who
fight for their jobs. There is the courage of Billy, who
dares to be different. Finally the greatest courage is
that of his father, who embraces his son and lets him go
and live a life he cannot understand.
Jesus
escapes from the little world of his family, and then he
comes back offering them the vast home of the Kingdom.
May he give us the grace to let go of those whom we
love, keeping the door open for their return, trusting
that they will come back with gifts we could not have
imagined.
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