First reading: 1 Sm. 1:20–22,24–28

In those days Hannah conceived, and at the end of her term bore a son whom she called Samuel, since she had asked the LORD for him. 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, Hannah did not go, explaining to her husband, “Once the child is weaned, I will take him to appear before the LORD and to remain there forever; I will offer him as a perpetual nazirite.”

Once Samuel was weaned, Hannah 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 temple of the LORD in Shiloh. After the boy’s father had sacrificed the young bull, Hannah, his mother, approached Eli and said: “Pardon, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood near you here, praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD granted my request. Now I, in turn, give him to the LORD; as long as he lives, he shall be dedicated to the LORD.” Hannah left Samuel there.

Second reading: 1 Jn. 3:1–2,21–24

Beloved: 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. 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.

Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in God and receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 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. 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.

Gospel: Lk. 2:41–52

Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.

Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers.

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.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

But they did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.

In other words

by Fr. Pio Estepa, SVD (Divine Word Seminary, Tagaytay City)

A terse joke goes: “I broke up with my vegan girlfriend. Yesterday I was served a vegan sandwich. I ate it crying, not because I missed her—but because it was vegan.” The punchline reveals not only why the guy was in tears, but also why he dumped her.

“Sandwiching” is a literary device subtly yet often used by the four evangelists. Failing to notice the “sandwiching” events can make the gospel reader miss the deeper meaning of the sandwiched episode. In this Sunday’s Gospel, for instance, St. Luke situates the finding of Jesus in the Temple between two bracketing narratives. The first is about the angel Gabriel who says to Mary: “Behold, you… will bear a son… [who] will be called Son of the Most High” (1:31–32). The second is a celestial voice that addresses the grown-up Jesus at the river Jordan: “You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (3:22).

In between those two annunciations are two presentations. In the first one, Joseph and Mary go to the Temple of Jerusalem in keeping with Mosaic Law to redeem the infant Jesus as their male firstborn. In the second one, the same parents accompany Jesus as an adolescent pilgrim to the same holy place. There a subtle comic twist happens. Frantic parents go back to Jerusalem in search of a “lost” son—who calmly tells them to have “found” his identity in the Temple. Thus, the finders in today’s Gospel are not Joseph and Mary, but the precocious Jesus who declares his divine sonship with a question: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s work?”

By way of story, the Gospel of today’s feast sums up our twofold Christian conviction about parenthood as the vital foundation of family living. Firstly, parents are made to understand that—amid and despite the sinful mess engulfing our present world—every newborn child is God’s gift of ongoing and promising ‘yes’ to mortal humankind. Thus, and secondly, for us Christians parenthood foremost consists not in imposing authority but in offering hospitality. For children are God-sent guests sojourning in familial homes. They need all the caring welcome that parents can give. But as they mature through youth, a God-instilled voice will awaken their inner drive for creative freedom and guide their minds and hearts beyond the comfort of home. So, with the same love that parents fostered their coming of age, parents must next learn to set their sons and daughters responsibly free “to be about (their and our) Father’s work.”