Footnotes

1. Luke 2:41 In the village where Jesus spends his apprenticeship as a human being and grows “in wisdom and in age and in grace with God and men (v. 52),” this favor of God did not prevent him from sharing the life lived by everyone else. Then a significant event interrupted the course of everyday life.
   Jesus had reached the age when a Jewish boy had completed his religious instruction and was beginning to observe the precepts of the Law; he was recognized as religiously mature. Therefore, he joined his parents in the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
   In this passage we find him in the temple in open discussion with those charged with teaching the Law. What he has to say reveals an extraordinary religious vision. In acting as he does, he claims a freedom that surprises his parents.
   Thus, at his first encounter with Judaism and its religious center, at the moment when he speaks for the first time, Jesus declares himself Son of God and is aware of his own mystery and of his mission. That is what Luke wants to bring out in this story.
   Mary and Joseph are now informed of the boy’s uncommon destiny, but the unexpected thunderbolt of Jesus’ statement confuses them; it utters a mystery that is beyond them.
   The Lord is not done with surprising even believers, indeed believers first of all! There are days when we must draw inspiration from the attitude of Mary as she meditates on what God has done.