January 2, 2022: The Second Sunday after Christmas Day
“God’s Love in Relationship”
Jeremiah 31: 7-10
Psalm 84
Ephesians 1: 3-6
Luke 2: 41-52
Bishop Ariel P. Santos
We continue our celebration of the Christmas Season. God being with us, pitching His tent, tabernacling among us, and staying with us permanently. Whatever we face, we don’t have to face life alone.
The gospel today talks about the family of Jesus going to Jerusalem to the annual Feast of the Passover. It is the biggest feast in the Jewish calendar. Realize this: it takes one week, on a one-way travel from Nazareth to Jerusalem. If the family had to stay one week at Jerusalem, and it would take them one-week to travel to and from Nazareth to Jerusalem and vice versa, this would take them three weeks out of their regular routine – without trade and commerce.
When the family went to Jerusalem, Jesus Christ was twelve years old. At twelve, He stayed behind Jerusalem before He was found by His parents. It was a daring thing for Him to do this. Jerusalem during the Feast was very crowded with thousands of people gathered. Imagine how hard it is to find Jesus in such a scenario. His parents found Him at the temple after three days with the rabbis, listening and asking questions. At this time, Jesus’ parents could have been so anxious, upset and afraid where to look for Jesus. When they found Him at the temple, Jesus told His parents, “Why are you looking for Me? Don’t you know that I had to be in My Father’s house? I had to be concerned with His affairs and taking care of His business.”
In the gospel, thinking that Jesus was in the caravan, the family started off to go to Nazareth and went their way. Sometimes, we think that God is with us in our journey, and at times, we think that He is not with us. We also have this exclusivity like what we had in the history of our Church. We were born-again Christians that we thought that only us had Christ in our midst, and that we are the only ones that can be saved and the only one who know God’s ways. We thought we had Christ, and the other denominations didn’t have Him with them. Beware of having an exclusive claim on Jesus Christ because no one has the monopoly of Him and His blessings. God has a way to reach out to all of us. God found us; we didn’t find Him. God chose us; we didn’t choose Him.
When the family of Jesus found out that He was not with them, they started seeking Him. In our lives, sometimes, we feel that God is not with us. Christmas’ message is that God decided on His own to be with us permanently. He doesn’t leave us; we are the ones that leave Him. They left Jesus in Jerusalem where He should be, in His Father’s house, implicating that this is where the family should be was well, taking care of God’s business. They looked everywhere before they went to the house of God.
When looking for God, always begin at His house. When people are losing hope or in despair, sometimes, their tendency is to actually stay away from Church, when that is the first place they should be going and seeking God.
When Jesus’ parents saw Him in His Father’s house, they were astonished. Jesus told them, “Didn’t you know I must be in My Father’s house, to take care of His business? This is where you should be looking for Me. Where I am, this is also where you should be.”
God is with us. He is Omnipresent, but we can live as if He doesn’t exist. We can try to leave His presence or try to and suffer anxiety, fear, and panic and all kinds of physical, emotional, psychological problems. We don’t have to do this to ourselves. If we are looking for God, begin at His house.
Jesus’ parents found Him in the temple where Jesus expected them to find Him. Don’t look for Jesus in the doctor’s office, in the hospital. in the pharmacy, in the casino or in the bank. Sometimes, our hope are in these things thinking they will give the solutions to our problems. Where do we find Jesus? In His Father’s house. Like Jesus, we should have an awareness of our mission to be in God’s house and take care of His business.
Although Jesus was God, He also was a human being. Scriptures says that He grew in wisdom and stature. He grew physically, but He also grew in wisdom. At twelve years old, He became aware of His mission in life – that He was the Messiah. In my mind, I was thinking of what was He asking the rabbis. I am sure one of the questions He was asking was: what do the Scriptures say about the Messiah? Probably, this was where He learned in quoting Isaiah, the prophet, “The Spirit of God is upon Me to heal the broken-hearted, to free those who are bound by oppression, to set the captives free, and to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” Like Jesus, we must have an awareness as well of our mission in life and the zeal to fulfill it.
In His Father’s house, Jesus was in fellowship with God. He was face to face with Him. Pope Benedict defined adoration coming from the Latin Word ad oratio, which means mouth to mouth, face to face, intimate close relationship. This is how we adore our God – in close, intimate relationship with Him.
When Jesus resurrected and entered the room that where His disciples locked themselves in, the first thing that He said was, “Peace be with you,” and then He breathed the Holy Spirit into them. During this pandemic, we know that our breath can reach until 6 feet, that is why there is a need for social distancing. The farther we are, the lesser we get the breath which is true of Covid and other diseases.
I am also thinking that this is true of the Holy Spirit as well. If Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit, we should not go far from Him. If we are far from Jesus, we won’t get the anointing of the Holy Spirit; if we are near Him, we will be “infected” with the Holy Spirit. Why distance ourselves or leave the presence of Jesus if the Holy Spirit is for our good. Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into us. We should be within breathing distance of Him. There should be no social distancing with God. Be where Jesus is present – in the house of God.
In Psalm 84:1-4, 10, “How lovely are Your dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. The bird also has found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, Even Your altars, O Lord, of hosts, My King and my God. How blessed are those who dwell in Your House! They are ever praising You.” In verse 10, “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God.”
This is why I hate Covid19. This prevents us from dwelling in the house of God. God meant for us to be dwelling in His house. Scriptures says, “Behold how pleasant and good it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” We understand that we should be cautious now, but I am looking forward to that day when we can freely fellowship together. God created us to fellowship with each other. We are relational and social creatures. We are not meant to be social distancing. We are meant to be interdependent and interactive with each other because we enjoy the presence of Christ in each of us. Don’t leave God’s presence. Covid is an enemy, an impediment to what God wills for us.
In the Song of Zechariah, in Luke 1:73-75, it says, “The oath which He swore to Abraham our father, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.” God’s will for us is to serve Him without fear and anxiety. Serve Him with all our hearts. With our offerings, give freely; don’t be afraid to give. God wants us to worship Him with all that we have freely. During this time, we act wisely. Be careful but not fearful for fear is not of God.
Jesus, went He was 30 years old, left Nazareth to go to John the Baptist to be baptized. Then, He went to the wilderness for forty days. After this, He did not go back to Nazareth. What He did was to set up His headquarters in Capernaum calling His disciples. When He was teaching in Capernaum, His mother and His family came and asked the disciples to tell Jesus that they were there. Jesus responded, “Who is My mother? Who is My father? Who are My brothers and sisters? They are those who listen to the will of God and do it.” Mary may have been confused about His reply, but the thing about her is that she treasured all these things in her heart even without fully understanding Jesus’ mission then.
Sometimes there are things we don’t understand. We go through pain and suffering, and we don’t understand why. Treasure these things in our hearts because one day, God will show us the answer and we will be happy to have kept these things in our heart, just like Mary did.
Jesus returned to Nazareth with them and He was subject to His parents and was obedient, He kept growing. Our Collect for this day says, “God wonderfully created us and yet more wonderfully restored the dignity of human nature.” How did Jesus restore the dignity of humanity? By being human, just like the rest of us. Jesus needed to be swaddled when He was born; Jesus needed to grow; Jesus need to obey His parents. He might be God and might be knowledgeable than His parents, but yet He obeyed His parents. He had to go through all of these things, to experience a painful death because this was how He restored our human dignity.
God created us to be wonderful, but when He restored us, the process was more awesome. Jesus humbled Himself to do this. St. Paul said, “We must have the same attitude in us of humility, like Jesus did.” If Jesus had to grow, we have to grow. We don’t know all things. If Jesus had to learn obedience, which was not easy, we also have to learn obedience. Hebrews 5:8 said, “Jesus Christ, just like any man, learned obedience through the things suffering.” He did not learn it in the classroom, or from a homily. Jesus learned when His parents told Him to do something and He did not want to do it. Jesus learned obedience when in the Garden of Gethsemane, He asked the Father, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup passed over Me.” Even if He will suffer, He said, “Let Your will be done.”
We may encounter these with our parents, with our teachers, with our boss, with our ministry leaders, with our Bishop, with our Pastor; and we may have to learn obedience through struggle and suffering. In all, have humility, which was Jesus’ example to us. Jesus showed us how to live the fullness of life. Look to the man, Jesus Christ, as He shows us how to live the fullness of God’s eternal and abundant life. Jesus also shows us the way it is in the kingdom of our God.
