NOTES for Luk 2:49

Twelve years old Jesus who remained behind in the temple of Jerusalem speaks about the House of His Father in answer to the lugubrious question of His holy Mother. It is in this House that He is going to live. This thought has may be served as base for the revelation of the book of proverbs: "Wisdom built His house ". The evangelist highlights two scenes: teachers and scribes are surprised by Jesus’ wisdom on one hand, and on the other hand His parents in disarray look for Him in the entire city. His answer to His mother look like an enigma: where can a little boy be again, if it is not in the house of His father? A Person should live in his own house. Jesus already begins here to open to people His origin and His vocation: He is the God of Wisdom and the Son of God.

There is another important aspect of this event. The Lord speaks about the House, belonging to His Celestial Father - it is indeed what is called in our language "homeland". Don't we have to ask the question: where is our homeland, by reading that the Homeland of Jesus is in the sky? We don't speak about the territory where our ancestors lived and where we live today; we talk about the homeland in a wider sense. Where are we from and where is the house which we could call our eternal house? When we try to find the answer to this question, we understand that the homeland of the Son of God becomes ours and through Him we find the eternal house thanks to His Incarnation.