Christ in the Temple.

WHAT are these two people doing? Theyseem to be in great trouble as they
go from tent to tent among their friends outside the walls of Jerusalem, and then,
passing through the gates of the city, walk up and down the streets. What can be the
matter? Listen to what they are saying to the people they meet on the way. They are
asking whether any one has seen their child. Yes, they have lost Him, and, seek as they
will, they cannot find Him.

- 5 A lost child! Whata sad.sound the words have, whether lost in the great forest
where men cannot find their way, or in the mazy streets of the crowded city. No

 

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wonder Mary His mother and Joseph search for Jesus so anxiously, wondering what has
become of Him.

But what are they doing in Jerusalem? Their home is at Nazareth, a great way off,
Why should the village carpenter come with his wife and her child such a long journey?

They have come to keep the Feast of the Passover at Jerusalem. We are not

surprised that Joseph is there, for all the Jewish men were commanded by the Law of
Moses to go up to Jerusalem three times a year in order to keep the Feasts of Passover,
Pentecost, and Tabernacles, and, unless they were too old or sick, they were obliged to
obey the law. But why is the Blessed Virgin Mary there too? The command was for
the men, not for the women. But although they were not commanded, many of the
Jewish women used to go up with their husbands at the time -of the Great Passover, that
they too might, at least once in a year, worship God in His beautiful Temple at Jerusalem.