Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
THE FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY (Cycle C)
Readings:
Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14 or
1 Samuel 1:20-22, 24-28
Psalm 128:1-5 or
84:2-3, 5-6, 9-10
Colossians 3:12-21 or 3:12-17 or 1 John 3:1-2, 21-24
Luke 2:41-52
Abbreviations: NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition), NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), and LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name, YHWH (Yahweh).
God revealed His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments; therefore, we read and relive the events of salvation history in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Theme of the Readings: The Perfection of the Human Family
Reflected in the Holy Family
God instituted marriage and the family when He created the first man and woman
(Gen 1:27; 2:21-24). He blessed marriage and the family and endowed both with their necessary function
for its members' common good and society's benefit, giving us the family as a
refuge in a hostile world.
Both marriage and family have an essential role in God's plan for humanity's salvation. Throughout salvation history, marriage and family protected the "promised seed" of Genesis 3:15, from which the Redeemer-Messiah was destined to rescue humanity from sin and death. The line flourished in the families of the descendants of Seth, son of Adam and Eve, and his descendant Abraham and his wife, Sarah. Their son Isaac continued the "promised seed" line in his marriage to Rebekah, as God continued the Abrahamic covenant through their son Jacob-Israel. St. Matthew and St. Luke traced that family line in Jesus's genealogy through Joseph and Mary in the Gospels of Matthew (1:1-18) and Luke (3:23-38). The line culminated in the Holy Family of Joseph and Mary of Nazareth, and Mary's son, conceived by the Holy Spirit, the "promised seed" sent to undo the work of Satan (1 Jn 3:8), the Redeemer-Messiah, Jesus Christ.
We experience the Christian family in the ecclesial community, constituting a specific revelation and realization of the "domestic Church." The Christian family is a communion of persons in the Body of Christ, "a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit" (CCC 2205). In procreating and raising children in the Christian family, we reflect the Father's work of creation and become His partners in the flow of salvation history. The spiritually reborn children of God in the Christian family continue to have a mission to fulfill in salvation history. God calls every Christian family to partake in the prayer and sacrifice of Jesus Christ and complete His mission to evangelize within our families and outside our families to other families across the world.
In the First Reading, the message focuses on the relationship between children and their parents, guided by the fourth command of the Ten Commandments to honor one's father and mother. God will not forget the honor and respect one shows to parents. He promises the blessing of a long life and that acts of kindness to parents will serve as reparation for sins.
The alternate reading recounts the story of a mother honoring her pledge to God. Because of Hannah's faith and obedience, God accepted the gift of her son, called him to divine service as a holy prophet, and used him to move forward His divine plan for humanity.
In the Responsorial Psalm, the psalmist declares that children are a gift from God and describes blessings based on happiness in the family. The psalm ends with a blessing formula involving the Lord God in His Temple on Mt. Zion, where the families of the covenant people come to worship the Lord and receive His blessings.
The Alternate Psalm Reading recounts the psalmist's desire to go to God's dwelling place, the holy Jerusalem Temple. He writes that God will bless those who make a pilgrimage to the Jerusalem Temple and praise God in the liturgy of worship. The psalmist offers a prayer for himself and Israel's king. He invokes Yahweh as the covenant people's divine protector (shield) because His protection comes to the people through His anointed Davidic king. Jesus is the final and eternal Davidic King who shields and saves His people and is Himself the Living Temple of God.
The Second Reading is from St. Paul's letter to the Christians of Colossus in Greece. He urges them to take on a total transformation in body and soul. The interior change begins with a spiritual conversion in the Sacrament of Baptism by which the Christian receives the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. The life-altering step calls for the resolution to pattern one's life, imitating the life of the Savior, Jesus Christ. That commitment leads to an exterior transformation in relationships with families, friends, and strangers.
In the Alternate Second Reading, St. John contemplates the wonderful gift of divine sonship (filiation) that makes baptized Christians children of God. When John mentions "the world," he refers to those who do not belong to Christ but belong to the world that is opposed to God's plan for saving humanity through the sacrifice of Christ. The world did not "know" or understand Jesus, and so we must accept that the "world" cannot "know" or understand us. We are in the world, but we are not part of the world (Jn 15:18-19).
The Gospel Reading recounts the story of twelve-year-old Jesus teaching the priests and scholars of Mosaic Law in the Jerusalem Temple, who were astonished at His knowledge and understanding. As time passed since His birth and Jesus grew up like any other child, His parents may have begun to take His promised mission for granted. This episode reminded them that their son was God's Son and that He knew His true identity and destiny. This event is the first manifestation that Jesus was conscious of being "God the Son" as He confirmed to His parents that Yahweh was His Father.
The First Reading Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14 ~ Duties Toward Parents
2 For the LORD sets a father in honor over his children and confirms a mother's
authority over her sons. 3 Those who honor their father atone for sins; 4 they
store up riches who respect their mother. 5 Those who honor their father will
have joy in their own children, and when they pray, they are heard. 6 Those who
respect their father will live a long life; those who obey the LORD honor their
mother. [...] 12 My son, be steadfast in honoring your father; do not grieve him
as long as he lives. 13 Even if his mind fails, be considerate with him; do not
revile him because you are in your prime. 14 Kindness to a father will not be
forgotten; it will serve as a sin offering--it will take lasting root.
The focus of the inspired writer of the Book of Sirach in this passage is the relationship between children and parents based on the fourth of the Ten Commandments to honor one's father and mother (Ex 20:12; Dt 5:16). It is the only one of the Ten Commandments that contains a blessing and an implied warning. Sirach lists the blessings that belong to those who fear offending God by honoring their parents. He affirms that God gives parents authority over their children (verse 2). The blessings in verses 3-6 and 14 for showing honor and respect to one's parents include:
12 My son, take care of your father when he is old; grieve him not as long as he
lives. 13 Even if his mind fails, be considerate with him; revile him not in
the fullness of your strength. 14 For kindness to a father will not be
forgotten, it will serve as a sin offering; it will take lasting root.
Jesus recalled these duties of gratitude to parents in Mark 7:10-12. The Church
teaches: "The divine fatherhood is the source of human fatherhood; this is the
foundation of the honor owed to parents. The respect of children, whether
minors or adults, for their father and mother, is nourished by the natural
affection born of the bond uniting them. It is required by God's commandment
(CCC 2214; also see 2215-19). In Sirach 7:27-28, the inspired writer admonishes
his readers: With all your heart, honor your father, and do not forget the
birth pangs of your mother. Remember that through your parents, you were born,
what can you give back to them that equals their gift to you?
Alternate First Reading 1 Samuel 1:20-22, 24-28 ~ The Dedication
of the Child Samuel to God
20 Hannah conceived and at the end of her pregnancy, bore a son,
whom she named Samuel, "Because I asked Yahweh for him." 21 The next time her
husband Elkanah was going up with the rest of his household to offer the customary
sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vows, 22 Hannah did not go, explaining
to her husband, "Once the child is weaned, I will take him to appear before the
LORD, and leave him there forever." [...] 24 Once he was weaned, she brought him
up with her, along with a three-year-old bull*, an ephah of flour, and a skin
of wine, and presented him at the house of the LORD in Shiloh. 25 After they
had slaughtered the bull, they brought the child to Eli. 26 Then Hannah spoke
up: "Excuse me, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here
near you praying to the LORD. 27 I prayed for this child, and the LORD granted
my request. 28 Now, I, in turn, give him to the LORD; as long as he lives, he
shall be dedicated to the LORD." Then they worshiped there before the
LORD.
*or "three bulls."
Hannah was barren after many years of marriage. When she accompanied her husband to God's Sanctuary at Shiloh, she made a vow: "O LORD of hosts, if you look with pity on the hardship of your servant, if you remember me and do not forget me, if you give your handmaid a male child, I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life. No razor shall ever touch his head" (1 Sam 1:11). As a result of Hannah's vow to dedicate her son as a lifetime Nazirite (Num 6:1-21), the LORD gave her a son. She named him "Samuel," which verse 20 suggests derives from Hannah asking God to provide her with a son.
In Hebrew, Samuel means "name of God." While the verb sha'al/sha'ul will occur several times in the narrative, including the name of the first man Samuel will anoint as Israel's king, Samuel's name derives from shem-el, "name of God" or "God's name." Hannah kept her promise to give up her son to God after she weaned him. According to Mosaic Law, a husband was responsible for confirming his wife's oath (Num 30:13), which Hannah's husband, Elkanah, did. He also agreed to her decision to wait until the child's weaning to fulfill the vow.
Samuel's parents offered an expensive sacrifice at his dedication. An individual's whole burnt offering (entirely consumed on the altar fire) was usually selected according to one's wealth. It could be an unblemished male animal from the herd or flock (bull, lamb, or goat) or, if he was poor, a turtledove or young pigeon could be offered as in Joseph and Mary's offering at Jesus's Temple dedication when He was forty days old (Lk 2:22-24).
The animal presented for sacrifice at Samuel's dedication ceremony at the Shiloh Sanctuary was a three-year-old bull, or possibly three bulls. The Hebrew phrase can be translated either way. If there were three bulls, only one was sacrificed (verse 25), and the other two were given as gifts to the Sanctuary, probably to offset the expense of the priests who would take on the responsibility of raising Samuel. Nevertheless, the sacrifice was generous, suggesting the wealth of Samuel's father. The offering of flour was also generous. One ephah of flour is about three-fifths bushel (about 2 liters). The priestly regulations for accompanying grain offerings specify one-tenth ephah for each lamb sacrificed (Lev 14:10, 21; Num 15:4; 28:4-9), but three-tenths for each bull (Num 15:9; 28:12, 20, 28). The prescribed grain offering for three bulls would then be nine-tenths ephah, which was slightly less than what Hannah and her husband offered.
Samuel's parents took him to the Lord's Sanctuary after his weaning. A child was usually weaned at age three (2 Mac 7:27). Hannah reminded Eli, the priest, of her vow almost for years earlier and then placed her child into his care to be raised as a lifelong Nazirite and servant of God. Samuel's parents worshipped Yahweh as they sacrificed at the Altar of Burnt Offerings and participated in the daily liturgical worship service. Years later, the adult prophet Samuel would anoint young David of Bethlehem to become the God-chosen king of Israel. David became the ancestor of Jesus of Nazareth, God's Son and Supreme Prophet (1 Sam 16:1, 13; Mt 1:1; Lk 1:32-33).
Responsorial Psalm 128:1-5 ~ Blessing on the Faithful: A Son of Ascents
Response: Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
1 Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways! 2
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork; blessed shall you be, and
favored.
Response:
3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home; your children like olive plants around your table.
Response:
4 Behold, thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD. 5 The LORD
bless you from Zion: may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of
your life.
Response:
Verse 5 suggests pilgrims sang this psalm on their journey to the Jerusalem Temple, where a priest welcomed and blessed them. Zion is the symbolic name for the Church of the Sinai Covenant. This psalm is then concerned with instructions and blessings for the covenant people making a religious pilgrimage to the Temple of the LORD.
Fearing the Lord in verse 4 is the same as the desire to please God by obedience to His commandments (Ps 1:1). St. Hilary of Portieres wrote: "For us, fear of the Lord is part of love, and its expression in the practice of perfect charity: obey the counselor of God, hold fast to his commandments, trust in his promises" (Tractatus super Psalmos, 128.1-3).
The psalmist declared that children are a gift from God, and in verses 2-4, he describes blessings based on happiness in the family. The psalm reading ends with a blessing formula involving the Lord God in His Temple on Mt. Zion, where the families of the covenant people come to worship the Lord God (verse 5).
OR:
Responsorial Psalm 84:2-3, 5-6, 9-10 ~ A Pilgrimage Song
Response: Blessed are they who dwell in your house, O Lord (cf. 5a).
2 How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! 3 My soul
yearns and pines for the courts of the LORD. My heart and my flesh cry out for
the living God.
Response:
5 Blessed are those who dwell in your house! They never cease to
praise you. Happy the men whose strength you are! Their hearts are set upon the
pilgrimage.
Response:
6 Blessed the man who finds refuge in you; in their hearts are
pilgrim roads.
Response:
9 LORD of hosts, hear our prayer; harken, O God of Jacob! 10 O
God, watch over our shield; look upon the face of your anointed.
Response:
The psalmist writes of his desire to go to God's dwelling place, the holy Jerusalem Temple, because God blesses those who make the pilgrimage and sing praises to the Lord in the liturgy of worship (verses 2 and 4).
The Greek Septuagint and New Vulgate translate verse 5: "Blessed is he who in his heart resolves to go on pilgrimage to Zion." Zion is the symbolic name for the faithful community of the Old Covenant Church. The inference is that the joy or blessedness begins with the commitment to pilgrimage (verse 5). Having made the pilgrimage and participated in the daily Temple liturgy, the psalmist prayed for himself and the king. God is invoked as the covenant people's divine protector (shield) because His anointed Davidic king gives His protection to His people. Jesus is the final and eternal Davidic King who shields and saves His covenant people and who is Himself the Living Temple of God.
Second Reading Colossians 3:12-21 or 3:12-17 ~ General Rules for
Christian Behavior
12 Put on as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt
compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one
another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as
the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. 14 And over all these put on
love, that is, the bond of perfection. 15 And let the peace of Christ control
your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be
thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you
teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with
gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do
everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father
through him. 18 Wives, be subordinate to your husbands, as is proper in the
Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and avoid any bitterness toward them. 20 Children,
obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord. 21 Fathers,
do not provoke your children, so they may not become discouraged.
In this passage, St. Paul calls upon Christians to take on a total transformation in body and soul in imitation of the life of Jesus Christ. The interior change begins with a spiritual conversion of submission to the Sacrament of Baptism, an act of obedience that Jesus declared was necessary for salvation (Mk 16:16). Baptism, in which the Christian dies to the world and receives the new life of the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, calls for the resolution to lead a life that imitates the life of Christ. That commitment leads to an exterior transformation in dealing with families, friends, and strangers.
The virtues of the new life in Christ that Paul lists are all expressions in one form or another of charity or "love in action." Love becomes the glue that binds everything together in perfect harmony (verse 14). The other virtues would fall apart without love, and the supernatural gift of charity/active love could not survive. The realization then comes to us that these acts of love we perform are not ours alone but works generated by Christ through us.
In verses 18-21, Paul addresses the family relationship that begins with the bond of love and respect between husband and wife. He has already taught that they are equal in their relationship with God (Gal 3:28). What Paul wrote was a revolutionary statement when women had few legal rights and were considered inferior to their husbands. In verse 18, Paul asked that wives acknowledge the leadership role of their husbands. However, he also defined their mutual respect by placing a more significant burden on the husband's part because God calls the man to put his wife first and demonstrate his love for her through his actions.
Paul called children to be obedient to their parents in every way. Their demonstration of love through obedience is pleasing to God, the Divine Father, who also expects obedience from His human children. Finally, Paul urged fathers not to use their leadership in the family to bully their children but to encourage them. His advice remains as sound today as when Paul taught the Christian community at Colossus in the 1st century AD.
OR:
1 John 3:1-2, 21-24 ~ Living as God's Children
1 See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children
of God. And so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not
know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet
been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed, we shall be like him, for
we shall see him as he is. [...] 21 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we
have confidence in God 22 and receive from him whatever we ask because we keep
his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And his commandment is this: we
should believe in the name of his Son. Jesus Christ, and love one another just
as he commanded us. 24 Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in
them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he gave us.
In Chapter 3, St. John contemplates the wonderful gift of divine sonship (filiation) that makes baptized Christians children of God. When John mentions "the world," he refers to those who do not belong to Christ but to the world that opposes God's plan for saving humanity through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The world did not "know" or understand Jesus, and so we must accept that the "world" cannot "know" or understand us. We are in the world, but we are not part of the world (Jn 15:18-19).
The children of Israel were collectively sons and daughters of God through their covenant relationship with Yahweh ratified at Mt. Sinai (Ex Chapter 24). However, Christians are uniquely sons and daughters in a way that was unavailable under the Old Sinai Covenant. Under the Sinai Covenant, the Israelites remained children in the family of Adam, who were banned from entrance to Heaven because of the original sin they inherited from their original parents (CCC 390, 397, 416-17, 536, 1026). They were, however, the firstborn sons and daughters in rank among the children of the nations in Adam's family because of their covenant union with God (Ex 4:22). They were the means God chose to preserve the "promised seed" (Gen 3:15) through which He would bring about humanity's redemption through an Israelite mother and her son. However, unlike the created sons and daughters of the old covenants before Christ, in the Sacrament of Christian Baptism, we are reborn, "born again" or "born from above" by water and the Spirit (Jn 3:3-5). Christians are "begotten" (1 Pt 1:3; 1 Jn 5:1, 18), not created like other creatures, by God as His sons and daughters infused with His divine life (2 Pt 1:4). Being a divine son/daughter of God is an essential aspect of a Christian's life and a supernatural dignity that results in an indefinable intimacy with God as our Divine Father.
St. Paul wrote of this divine sonship in terms of adoption: For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, "Abba, Father!" The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him (Rom 8:14-17).
Christians cannot fully experience this gift of divine filiation until reaching its final expression when we are united with the Most Holy Trinity in eternal life. Then, we shall see Him as He is—face to face (1 Jn 3:2; 1 Cor 13:12). As St. John wrote in his Gospel from Jesus's final prayer to the Father during His Last Supper Discourse when He said: "Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ" (Jn 17:3). In the meantime, our Christian duty as sons and daughters of God is to keep ourselves pure and free of sin just as He is pure in preparation for that final transition into the life of the Most Holy Trinity.
In verse 21, St. John wrote that if we obey God's commandments, we should reflect our confidence in Him in our prayer life. Jesus promised, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you" (Jn 15:7). Jesus summed up God's commandments in the Old Testament in terms of love (cf. Mt 22:37-40; Mk 12:28-31; Lk 10:25-28), and at the Last Supper discourse, He commanded the disciples, "I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (Jn 13:34-35). Jesus's command at the Last Supper is St. John's message in verses 22-23.
In verse 24, St. John used the verb menei/meno, meaning "to remain, abide or live." It is the same Greek verb that appears in the Bread of Life Discourse in John 6:56, where Jesus said: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains [menei] in me and I in him," and seven times in Jesus's True Vine Discourse in John 15:4-7, where He said, "Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me."
St. John summed up the commandments in terms of love for Jesus and love for our brothers and sisters in the community of faith. St. Bede wrote: "We cannot rightly love one another unless we believe in Christ, no can we truly believe in the name of Jesus Christ without brotherly love" (In 1 Epist. St. Ioannis). Faith and love cannot be separated (Gal 5:6). Jesus Himself said the disciples' love for one another would mark them as His, as He abides/remains in them and they in Him (Jn 13:34-35).
Luke 2:41-52 ~ Jesus Among the Doctors of the Law
41 Each year, Jesus's parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, 42 and
when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. 43
After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus
remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. 44 Thinking that
he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their
relatives and acquaintances, 45 but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem
to look for him. 46 After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in
the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, 47 and
all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. 48 When
his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, "Son,
why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with
great anxiety." 49 And he said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Did you
not know that I must be in my Father's house?" 50 But they did not understand what
he said to them. 51 He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was
obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. 52 And
Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.
The Feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread took place during eight days in the early spring. The festivals were God-ordained memorials of the Exodus redemption (Ex Chapter 12; Lev 23:4-14; Num 28:16-25). The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15-21) began at sundown on the day of the Passover sacrifice. It was one of the three "pilgrim feasts" when every man of the covenant who was thirteen years and older was required to appear before God's altar with his sacrifices at the Jerusalem Temple (Ex 23:14-17; 34:18-23; Dt 16:16-17; 1 Chron 8:13). In the first century AD, the two feasts were celebrated as one feast lasting eight days and referred to simply as "the Passover." It was a joyous celebration, and many families journeyed to Jerusalem, like the Holy Family on this occasion.
Jesus was twelve when He journeyed with His family (verse 41). Biblical scholar Joachim Jeremias wrote: "... the Talmud speaks of thirteen years as the borderline for the fulfillment of the law. Luke 2:42 is not in contradiction with this rule; the twelve-year-olds were brought on the pilgrimage in order to get them used to the event which would become a duty the next year" (Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus, page 76).
After the festival, Joseph and Mary began their return to Nazareth, probably in a caravan with other Galilean families. At first, they did not miss the twelve-year-old Jesus, probably assuming He was with the other youngsters. When they realized that He was missing, they returned to Jerusalem to look for Him. Jesus was missing for three days, as He will be missing in Jerusalem, three days between His crucifixion and Resurrection years later in c. AD 30. Finding Jesus on the third day prefigures the events of Easter Sunday when Jesus was "missing" in the tomb but resurrected on the third day and appeared to His disciples (as the ancients counted without the concept of a zero place-value, but two days as we count today).
After three days, Joseph and Mary found Jesus at the Temple conversing with the teachers of the Law, who were astonished at His knowledge and understanding. As time had passed since His birth, and Jesus grew up like any child, his parents may have begun to take His promised mission for granted. This episode reminded them that their son was indeed the Son of God, and He knew His true identity and destiny when, in verse 49, He said: "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" This event was the first manifestation that Jesus was conscious of being "God the Son" as He confirmed in Joseph's presence that God was His Father.
51 He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his
mother kept all these things in her heart.
Jesus was obedient to the commandment to honor His earthly parents
(Ex 20:12). That Mary kept these events in her heart probably means she did so
by contemplating what was revealed to her in the past and what was likely to
unfold in the future, according to the prophecy she received and the teaching
of the prophets in Sacred Scripture (Lk 2:19). Her continuing thoughtful
contemplation reflects her appreciation for God's divine plan and her part in it.
52 And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.
This verse echoes 2:40, where Luke wrote that Jesus "grew to
maturity" and "he was filled with wisdom, and God's favor was with him."
Throughout salvation history, women have played a vital role in God's divine
plan for humanity. In the Old Testament covenants, the mission of many holy
women prepared the way for Mary of Nazareth. "Against all human expectation,
God chooses those who were considered powerless and weak to show forth his
faithfulness to his promises: Hannah, the mother of Samuel; Deborah; Ruth;
Judith and Esther; and many other women" CCC 489).
Catechism references:
Sirach 3:2-6 (CCC 2218);
3:12 (CCC 2218)
1 Samuel 1 (CCC 489)
Psalm 84:3 (CCC 1770)
Colossians 3:14 (CCC 815, 1827, 1844);
3:16-17 (CCC 1156, 2633);
3:16 (CCC 2641);
3:18-21 (CCC 2204);
3:20 (CCC 2217);
3:21 (CCC 2286)
1 John 3:1-2 (CCC 425)
Catechism references for Luke 2:41-52 (* indicates Scripture is quoted or paraphrased in the citation):
| 2:41-52 | 534* |
| 2:41 | 583* |
| 2:46-49 | 583* |
| 2:48-49 | 503* |
| 2:49 | 2599 |
| 2:51-52 | 531 |
| 2:51 | 517*, 2196, 2599* |
| 2:52 | 472 |
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2013; revised 2024 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.