recover the sense of amazement: Feast of the Holy Family C

Why is today’s gospel, the lost and finding of the Child Jesus in the temple categorized as part of the joyful mysteries, instead of, let’s say, the sorrowful mysteries?  I mean losing a twelve year old child for three days, is that your definition of joy?  And even if I focus on the finding instead of the losing, I would react differently from the rosary.  Probably the moment I see him, I would run and grab him by the neck and choke him for what he did and how he made everyone anxious and scared out of their wits for the last three days.  What do you think?  What would you do?  Kakita ka sang nanay nga nadula bata niya for a mere thirty minutes - ay terrible.  Indi na kami makapangita sang bata kay sia na iya ang natabangan.  And you know how it ended?  The child found us.

And this is exactly the reaction of Jesus.  It was as if Mary and Joseph were the ones who got lost for three days, when he said to them “Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?”

Strange, very strange.  But that is what Christmas is all about - strange things happening all around, things people could not understand.  Mary could not understand; Joseph could not understand; Zechariah in his disbelief protested and became mute; Elizabeth shouted in joy; the child in her womb leapt for joy; three wise men following the star to a stable to adore the king of the Jews bringing gifts of incense, myrrh and gold to a mother and father who could not understand these unusual visitors bearing unusual gifts; Herod too could not understand he went into a murderous spree that have made all of Bethlehem weep; and shepherds too did not understand but nevertheless they came to satisfy their curiosity and be dumbfounded.  And today, Mary and Joseph were once more confronted with this dumbfounding, confounding and amazing event, an event which, again, and it had become quite often now, and again, she kept these things in her heart.  Again Mary simply swallowed her saliva and with Joseph took her child home by the hand.  Mary, even beneath the cross would become so used to this - to just simply behold the mystery, to just simply allow oneself to go through this confusion of ones life, to embrace the reality that there are things beyond her understanding, beyond her control, beyond her meticulous calculations, even, beyond her expectations and predictions.  Joseph would go through the same difficulty, many times, or at least twice, things in his life were settled by dreams.

We are a people who know a lot of things.  Our children are even more knowledgeable than us.  We have grown up in a world that can explain almost everything in our lives.  Now even ghosts are explained away as electrical charges in an electrical field.  We may have lost our fear but we have also lost our sense of awe and wonder, our capacity to just simply accept the unexplainable in our lives. 

One day a mother came to me complaining, “Father what kind of teachers are they having in our schools today.  Yesterday they told my 6 year old son that the real Santa Claus is his mom and dad.”  And then she looked really mad.  “Of course the real Santa Claus is mom and Dad, of course there is no real Santa Claus with reindeers, but do you have to teach that in school, can’t we just allow them to find that out for themselves?  Do we have to explain everything to them at the age of six?  Why are they robbing him this early of the sense of wonder?” 

Well, I don’t know how to react to that.  But its an interesting observation, and truly I am afraid of this attitude of trying to find an explanation for everything, as if everything has a reason that can be known and must be known?  Yes we can dissect typhoons nowadays, or study the anatomy of an earthquake.  Pag-asa can even predict the amount of rainfall - of course with the usual more or less.  But not all things in life can be explained.  Not all things are reasonable, not all things are predictable, not all things are within our control.   Sometimes we say, everything happens for a reason, everything for a purpose.  Frankly I don’t know, because if indeed there is a reason and purpose for everything, many times I myself am left in the dark.

I believe if I am to ask the couples here tonight if they were really one hundred percent sure of who and what they are marrying, many of them would rather opt to say 80 percent sure, 85 percent sure, 90 percent sure, some would even say 70 percent sure.  You have to admit that at a certain point knowing stops, at a certain point we just have to admit that the data is not enough, and then you just simply leap for it.  Am I not correct? Now, ngaa ang bata ko amo sini, ngaa ang isa lain gid iya.  Where did I go wrong? Ginhimo ko man ang tanan?

I delayed for a year in asking for ordination because I was afraid, I was not ready.  If I continued to entertain that fear, that lack of readiness in my mind, then I would not have been a priest even now. But I know that at a certain point I have to close my eyes and leap.

Recover the sense of amazement at the things happening around us.  Recover the wow of things.  Embrace the unknowing.  Embrace the mysteries of life.  Not everything can be explained, not all reasons and purposes can be grasped. There are things that are better left unexplained and there are things that cannot be fully understood.

So why is the losing and finding of Jesus in the temple part of the joyful and not of the sorrowful mysteries?  It is because Mary and Joseph chose to look at this event in their lives in amazement and in wonder.

PS.  You will go through a lot of new year traditions that are actually nothing more but an attempt to seek control, an attempt to control its outcome - round fruits, fung shui, horoscopes, palupok.  But ask yourself, can you really control the outcome?  Can we?  My advice is at 12 midnight grab a lounge chair, sit down, look at the sky, listen to the sounds and just be amazed.  Recover the sense of amazement and wonder in your life. Then say deep in your heart - Jesus, I trust in you.