The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. Luke
Ver. 40. — And the child grew , and waxed strong in spirit. The Greek, Syriac, and Arabic add “in spirit,” and Euthymius explains it that Christ did not receive greater spiritual strength inwardly day by day, since He was full of grace and the Holy Ghost from the first moment of His conception, but that He exhibited this strength more and more outwardly by word and work. The Latin version, the Latin fathers, and the interpreter reject “in spirit,” as also Origen and Titus among the Greeks.
Filled with wisdom . The Greek πληρούμενον means both to be being filled and to be fully filled, so as to be equivalent to “filled.” The Arabic renders “was being filled again with wisdom,” the Syriac “was being filled with wisdom.” So also Origen, Theophylact, Euthymius, and Titus on this passage, and S. Ambrose (de Incarn . Dom . Sacr. cap. vii.). Theophylact explains — Not acquiring wisdom (for what could be more perfect than He who was perfect from the beginning?) but discovering it little by little. For had He manifested all His wisdom whilst he was small in stature, He would have appeared, as it were, monstrous, and as though not really a child, but a phantasm of a child.
And the Grace of God was upon Him. In the Greek ἐπ’ αὐτό. All the favour, goodwill, care, and love of God the Father towards the Child Jesus, as His Son, brooded, as it were, over Him from out of the heavens, to adorn Him with gifts and graces, to guide and dispose Him in all His actions, that all might see that He was ruled, and in all things directed by God, and that His actions were not so much human as Divine. So says Euthymius. In a similar manner it is said of John the Baptist, “ And the hand of the Lord was with him,” Luke i. 66.
Ver. 41. — Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. God had commanded that every man should go to the Tabernacle or Temple three times a year, there to adore God publicly and offer Him sacrifices, Exod. xxiii. 14 and Deut. xvi. 16. The Blessed Virgin, although not bound by the law, still, out of devotion, after her return from Egypt, joined her husband, and took her son with her to the Temple, that she might teach mothers to bring their children, from their tender years, to the Temple, and to worship God. So say Bede, Maldonatus, Jansenius, Francis Lucas, and others. Nor did she fear Archelaus the son of the Infanticide Herod, both because she thought with good reason that, in so large a concourse of Jews, they would be able to escape observation for a few days, and also because she knew that God, for whose honour she underwent this risk, had her in His mind and in His keeping. So says S. Augustine (de Consens. Evang ., lib. ii. cap x.), and S. Luke implies as much in the next two verses. Some, however, think, with some probability, that Jesus only went up to Jerusalem in the twelfth year of His age, for in that year Archelaus was exiled by Augustus.
Ver. 42. — And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. The Syriac has “as they had been accustomed on the feast” — namely, of the Passover.
Ver. 43. — And when they had fulfilled the days , as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem. In the Greek, after they had finished , or gone through , the days — namely, of the Passover ; for this feast was kept for seven days, and S. Luke here implies that Mary and Joseph kept all these days at Jerusalem, though they were not bound by the law to remain so long — tarried behind in Jerusalem, there to shed some little ray of His wisdom and Divinity, as though longing to begin the ministry for which His Father had sent Him. For at the age of twelve childhood ends, and youth and perfect judgment begin. So says Bede.
And Joseph and his mother knew not of it , because Jesus asked leave of His parents, who were lingering a little in Jerusalem from motives of devotion or business, to visit His relations, as if he were about to go on with them, and, having obtained permission, went to them, but soon withdrew quietly to the Temple — God so directing—in order that His parents, though at other times always solicitous about Him, should be unaware of this, and think that He was in the company of His kinsfolk.
Ver. 44. — But they , supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey, and they sought Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance , who had gone on, and with whom Mary and Joseph, who were about to follow a little later, would that evening lodge and, as they thought, there find Jesus.
Ver. 45. — And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking Him. Jesus having been seen by none of His kinsfolk on the way, His parents understood that He must have remained in Jerusalem ; and so they sought Him there with great anxiety. Origen gives the reason, and Theophylact and Titus follow him. “ But did they seek Him so anxiously ? Did they imagine that the Child had been lost, or had wandered from the way ? ” Far otherwise, “ For this would not have been characteristic of Mary's wisdom (she knew that Jesus was full of wisdom, yea, that He was God), and they could never have thought that the Child was lost, when they knew that He was Divine, but they sought Him lest by any means He might have gone away from them ; lest perchance He had left them ; ” lest He should wish to remain not with them at Nazareth, but with others in Jerusalem, that He might there make haste to begin the ministry of teaching for which He had been sent by God. Origen adds, “They sought Him, lest perchance He might have gone away from them, lest He might have left them and betaken Himself elsewhere — or as seems most probable — lest He might have returned to heaven, to descend from thence when it should please Him . . . but she mourned because she was a mother, and the mother of a Son worthy of her immeasurable love — because He had departed without her knowledge, and quite contrary to her expectation.”
S. Antoninus adds that the mother of Jesus feared lest He might have fallen into the hands of Archelaus, the son of Herod the Infanticide, who would slay Him. Euthymius and Francis Lucas think she feared lest Christ might have wandered from the road, since He did not thoroughly know all the way. For, though He knew its turns and windings by His Divine and infused wisdom, yet, according to the experimental knowledge which He, as a child, was following, He did not know it. Whether this be correct I leave to theologians to decide.
‸Ver. 46. — And it came to pass , that after three days they found Him in the Temple , sitting in the midst of the doctors , both hearing them and asking them questions. After three days , that is, on the third day. The first day was that on which they left Jerusalem ; the second, that on which, not finding Him at the inn, they returned ;
and the third, when they sought and found the Holy Child in the Holy Temple. So S. Ambrose, Euthymius, and others. Just as we read in ver. 21, “When the eight days were accomplished ” — that is, on the eighth day — Jesus was circumcised. And in S. Mark viii. 31, “The Son of Man must suffer many things . . . after three days (that is, on the third day) to rise again.”
In the Temple — For the place of God Incarnate is in the Temple. There is He to be sought, there shall He be found — not in the market-place, not in the tavern, not in the theatre. S. Basil and S. Gregory Nazianzen imitated Christ, for they, according to Ruffinus, when they were studying at Athens, knew but two streets in the city— one led to the church and the other to the school.
The whole of these three days, then, Jesus spent in praying and hearing and answering the doctors in the Temple; His food He received from the doctors, who, being present, and admiring His wisdom, invited Him. Others, with less probability, think that He lived by begging from door to door; such is the opinion of S. Bernard (Hom. infra Oct. Epiphan.), Bonaventura, Alensis, and others. S. Thomas, in the Summa, favours this view, proving that Christ did sometimes beg, from the words of Ps. xl. 17, “But I am poor and needy.” On the other hand, Nicholas de Lyra, Dionysius the Carthusian, John the Greater, commenting on this passage, and John of Avila, on S. Matt. xvii., hold that Christ never begged, begging having been unlawful among the Jews. “There shall be no poor among you,” Deut. xv. 4. However , these words are not a precept, but a promise of riches, if they obey the Law of God.
Sitting in the midst of the doctors . A Hebraism — among the doctors, but in a lowly position like a disciple, in order that He might rouse them to think and inquire about the advent of the Messiah, which was now nigh at hand, because the sceptre had departed from Judah, and the seventy weeks of Daniel and other oracles of the prophets were now fulfilled. It is very probable that Christ questioned the doctors about the coming of the Messiah, so that His manifestation might not be unexpected, but that, afterwards, when preaching and working miracles, He might the more readily be received by them as the Messiah, from these same indications which now flashed out like sparks upon them.