The Fruit of the Finding of Jesus in the Temple: Joy in Finding Jesus
There are so many directions one could take in unpacking the Fifth Joyful Mystery, but with Christmas approaching, I’d like to turn our attention to the path of evangelization. Stores are in-gear for shopping sprees, our eyes catch the twinkling of Christmas lights, and holiday jingles reach our ears…but how many of our neighbours are preparing their hearts for the arrival of the Christ-child?
Upon realizing that they had lost Jesus on the journey home from Jerusalem, Mary and Joseph retrace their steps with great anxiety. They know that they have lost the treasure of their lives – the Son of God – and they are determined to reclaim Him at any cost. The grown Jesus would one day instruct His followers, “seek, and you will find” (Matthew 7:7). Our Lady and St. Joseph do seek, and they do find: Jesus was in the temple, astonishing the teachers with his understanding and his answers (Luke 2:46-47). In the three days before finding Him, Mary and Joseph were in anguish, feeling the void of His presence in their lives. The pain of that void propelled them go forward in their search until at last, the Light of the World was found.
But what of our society today? We have lost Jesus as we travel the road of secularism and moral relativism. There is no question that the absence of God has left a void in Canadian life: without the Light of the World, people are in darkness and in pain, groping in the shadows for meaning and purpose in a truthless – and ruthless – culture. The mental illness and addiction epidemics are markers of the existential misery that plagues so many of our brothers and sisters… yet is our collective pain propelling us to retrace our steps until we reclaim the Jesus who gives peace and joy to our hearts?
Sadly, the loss of Jesus in our culture has happened progressively, over the span of a few generations. In failing to hand down the knowledge of Christ, many people today are unaware that the rejection of God is the reason for their misery. Tragic as this reality may be, it offers us believers a tremendous opportunity. The brokenness and despair of contemporary culture is fertile soil for the announcement of a Saviour. In their pain, people are searching for avenues of self-help, but in their ignorance of Christ, their search is leading them towards Eastern, New Age, and even Occult spiritualities. What if faithful Christians began to witness to the Truth fearlessly and beautifully? What if we began to proclaim, with joyful enthusiasm, the great things that God has done for us? The first letter of Peter instructs us, “Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:5). Are we prepared to explain our hope to the unchurched, the confused and the misguided? What if, when our brothers and sisters come to us with their stories of hurt and disillusionment, we listen attentively to them with love, and gently open a door to Christ and the healing that He offers?
This is the work of the “New Evangelization” – the missionary program given to the Church for the third millennium. Simply put, the New Evangelization is the work of re-proposing the Faith in lands where it is nearly lost. Our society is a post-Christian society having a pagan culture – mission territory in need of fervent apostles. Those apostles are none other than ordinary Christians: you and me. As Pope St. John Paul II, the Father of the New Evangelization, encouraged the youth of the world, “Do not be afraid to go out into the streets and into public places like the first apostles who preached Christ and the good news of salvation in the squares of cities, towns and villages” (World Youth Day, Denver, 1993). The Holy Spirit has entrusted to us the task of reviving the hearts of our brothers and sisters by leading them to Christ. We can do this by tapping into their desire for more and directing it to the “temple” – the Holy Catholic Church – where Jesus can be found.
May our love for Jesus burn as brightly as the Star that first Christmas, that beholding our light, our neighbours may be led to retrace their steps, seeking – and finding – the Saviour they have lost. When they do, they too will know the JOY of finding Jesus!
