The Book of the Holy Rosary: Part I, Chapter X. The Finding of Jesus in the Temple
The Holy Scripture Narrative
“And His parents went every year to Jerusalem, at the solemn day of the Pasch. And when he was twelve years old, they going up into Jerusalem, according to the custom of the feast, and having fulfilled the days, when they returned the Child Jesus remained in Jerusalem, and His parents knew it not. And thinking that He was in the company, they came a day’s journey, and sought Him among their kinsfolks and acquaintance, and not finding Him, they returned into Jerusalem, seeking Him. And it came to pass, that, after three days, they found Him in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His wisdom and His answers. And seeing Him, they wondered. And His mother said to Him: Son, why hast Thou done so to us? Behold, Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing. And He said unto them: How is it that you sought Me? did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business? And they understood not the words that He spoke unto them. And He went down with them and came into Nazareth, and was subject to them. And His mother kept all these words in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age, and in grace with God and men” (St Luke ii. 41, 52).
Before entering upon any consideration of the Fifth and last Joyful Mystery, we shall do well to pause for a moment to take a brief retrospect of the steady progressive unfolding of the Divine plan which we have hitherto witnessed.
The one great mystery which is the groundwork of the entire fifteen mysteries of the Rosary is the Incarnation of God, namely, God manifest in the flesh. And the fifteen mysteries are but so many steps or stages in the unfolding of the one supreme Divine Mystery, the “Incarnation of God.”
The progress of the Divine plan then has been as follows, as we have witnessed it:—The first of all human creatures who is conscious of this supreme mystery is the Blessed Mary herself. As she alone of all the daughters of Eve is chosen for the dignity of being both Virgin and Mother, so there is a time when she alone of the whole race of Adam is chosen as witness of the accomplishment of the Divine counsel that was pre-ordained from all eternity to be accomplished in her. God has in the world one solitary human voice to bear testimony to the truth of His promises, and this one chosen and elect witness is the Blessed Virgin and Mother Mary. This is the First Mystery of the Holy Rosary, and the first stage of the Divine plan.
But the designs of God do not stand still, for who can say to Him, “What doest Thou?” Others beside Mary must be brought to bear their testimony. Mary, therefore, by a Divine inspiration, goes in haste to the house of her cousin Elizabeth, who, on seeing her, is filled with the Holy Ghost, and together with the infant Baptist in her womb, becomes a new witness to the work of God. This is the Second Joyful Mystery, and the second stage of the accomplishment of the plan of God.
God, then, is now incarnate in the womb of one who is both Virgin and Mother, and the days will be accomplished when He must be born. He is born, and His Mother still retains the honour and privilege of her virginity. There must now be new voices to bear fresh witness to the work of God, and to proclaim who it is that is born. God, therefore, sends His own angels to bear witness to His work, and the angels pass on their testimony to shepherds, who kept their flocks by night, who come and present themselves and bear their witness that God has fulfilled His word. This is the Third Joyful Mystery, and the third stage of the Divine plan.
But there must be other witnesses besides the heavenly angels and the unlearned shepherds. The temple of Jerusalem must bear its testimony, and therefore Mary again, by a Divine inspiration, and not because she is obliged by the Law, which does not apply to her case, goes to Jerusalem, to the house of the Lord, to present her Divine Son in the temple, and to offer for Him the sacrifices prescribed by the Law. Here the aged prophet Simeon, and Anna, the. widowed prophetess, neither of whom departed from the temple, serving God night and day, come forward and bear their testimony. This is the Fourth Joyful Mystery, and the fourth stage of the accomplishment of the Divine plan.
Then follow, in order, as we may learn from the evangelist, the testimony borne by the adoration of the wise men of the East; next, the testimony of Herod’s bloodthirsty jealousy and malice, which plunged the mothers of Bethlehem in mourning; next, the testimony of the idols of the land of Egypt, which like Dagon heretofore in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant, fell prostrate before the Christ of the Lord, as His Mother, accompanied by St Joseph, carried Him into the land of Egypt. Something, however, is yet wanting to follow on in the natural order of the Divine plan which is by its sovereign wisdom to challenge the captious understandings of men, and to impress the conviction of its simple reality and truth upon the mind of the observer. This is some irresistible public testimony that God has really become the Son of Mary, in which Mary gives proof of her being His Mother by being publicly seen to assume and to exercise over Him the rightful jurisdiction and authority of the mother over the son. God may possibly have not gone beyond merely making use of Mary as no more than a simple instrument from whom to assume His sacred Humanity, and may never have intended to place one of His own creatures in a position to exercise authority and control over Himself. If, however, He really has done this, and if He has truly placed Himself under subjection to the control of His mother, nothing seems more conformable to the Divine plan than that there should be some public manifestation before a competent assembly of witnesses, that the Divine Person of the ever blessed Trinity, who has assumed our humanity, owns the control of His Mother Mary as being her Son. And if there is in the gospel history any such public manifestation of the subjection of the Divine Son to the authority of the human Mother, this will be at once the most joyful of all possible testimony to the marvellous truth of the Divine maternity of Mary, and it will form the Fifth most Joyful Mystery or stage in the fulfilment of the Divine plan of the manifestation of God in the flesh, the true and veritable Son, of the Holy Virgin who was promised to crush the serpent’s head.
This is precisely what does form the subject of the Fifth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary, viz., the finding of Jesus in the temple in the midst of the doctors of the law, when this very public manifestation was made before them all, and when they all became witnesses of the authority which Mary exercised over her Son. Here there is no ambiguity or faltering, but the plain and simple assertion of the authority of the Mother over the Son. Mary, in nothing like the mothers who spoil their children by over-indulgence, falls into no lavish display of her tenderness before the doctors of the law. She allows no immediate signs to appear of her being overjoyed at finding Him again after her sorrowing search of three days. There is nothing in what takes place in the temple that in the remotest manner gives rise to any other thought than that of the authority of the mother. With the calm and conscious dignity of one who is fully aware of her rights, she says in their presence to the Divine Youth of twelve years of age, whose wisdom and answers had filled the minds of the doctors of the law with amazement, “Son! why hast Thou done so to us? behold, I and Thy father have sought Thee sorrowing.”
Let St Bernard be heard on the subject of this mystery. “But there is something greater still, at which you may be filled with wonder in Mary—Maternity united to Virginity. For, since the beginning of the world, it has never been heard of that one should be both mother and virgin. And oh, if you will but attend, whither will not your wonder at her exalted dignity lead you? Will it not bring you to the conviction that you cannot wonder enough? Is not she, who has God for her Son, to be deemed in your judgment—yea, rather in the judgment of truth itself—exalted above all the choirs of the angels? Does not Mary boldly call God and the Lord of the angels, Son? saying to Him, ‘Son, why hast Thou done so to us?’ Which of the angels would have dared to do this? It is enough for them, and they esteem it a great thing, that being spirits by creation, they have been called and made angels by grace, as holy David bears witness:
‘He maketh His spirits angels’ (Ps. ciii. 4). But Mary, conscious that she is Mother, with the greatest confidence calls the very Majesty whom they serve Son. Nor does God object to be called what He has not abhorred to become. For a little afterwards the Evangelist adds, ‘And He was subject to them.’ Who subject? and to whom? God to man! God, I say, to whom the angels are subject, and whom the powers and principalities obey, was subject to Mary, and not only to Mary, but also to Joseph, for the sake of Mary. Wonder therefore at either, and choose at which of the two you will wonder most, whether at the most gentle condescension of the Son, or at the most excellent dignity of the Mother. On either side there is wonder and marvel; humility without a parallel in that God should be obedient to a woman; and sublimity without a rival in that a woman should impose her will upon God. In the praises of virgins it is sung as a mark of their especial honour that they follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. But of what praise, I pray you, is she to be held worthy who goes before Him?” (St Bernard, Fourth Homily on the Praises of the Blessed Virgin.)
What communicates additional force still to this public manifestation of the authority of Mary as Mother over her Son, and therefore the more joyfully confirms the truth of God being in very deed incarnate as the Son of Mary, is the answer of the Son to His Mother, and what followed thereupon. The Son asks “How is it that you sought Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Here the same St Bernard observes: “Have ye not read in the Gospels what kind of an example Jesus gives to holy children? For, when He had remained behind in Jerusalem, and had pleaded that He was in duty bound to be occupied with the business of His Eternal Father, finding that His earthly parents would not consent, He did not despise to follow them to Nazareth. The Master was subject to the disciples! God to man! the Eternal Word and the uncreated Wisdom to an artisan and to a woman! For what does the sacred history go on to say? ‘And He was subject to them.’ How long then will you be thus wise in your own eyes? God intrusts and subjects Himself to mortal creatures, and will you continue to walk in ways of your own?” (Nineteenth Sermon on the Canticles.)
The very business of the Eternal Father Himself is postponed to the voice of the mortal Mother, recalling her Son to the domestic home of Nazareth. “O humility indeed, without a parallel! O exaltation, without equal! Mary is Mother of very truth, and the Eternal Son of God is become of a truth Mary’s Son.”
“Thee, the God of worlds foreseeing, In thy dignity supreme, Loved thee, chose thee, gave thee being, Set thee in salvation’s scheme;
Then with all perfections decked As His Mother pre-elect.
“Thine shall be a lot surpassing All that is of glory known, In the earth, or in the heavens, Thine, but not for thee alone.
God, in whom thy life began Made thee for Himself and man.”
— Mosque of Mary, Caswall.