It was at the time of the feast of the Passover and Mary and Joseph and Jesus went up to Jerusalem with a bunch of relatives. When they were heading home, Mary and Joseph realized that Jesus was not with them. They returned to Jerusalem to find Jesus and found him talking with the rabbis in the Temple.
When I was down in New Orleans, I had the opportunity to talk with this lady who is from Guatemala. She spoke a little English, I spoke some Spanish, so we mostly conversed in Spanish. We talked a bit about God and faith, and I noted that she referred to the building that she went to (as a baptist) as “templo”. I could not help but think again about how we refer to the building in which the congregation assembles in English; we refer to people and building as “church”. I wonder about the etymology and all that, and tend to be dissatisfied with calling the building “church”, but this is customary.
I was reflecting on the finding of Jesus in the Temple and remembered those conversations. How often do we “find Jesus” when we return to the “temple”? I know God is present wherever we go, but Jesus is present in a very special way inside the building where mass is celebrated. There we offer the sacrifice of the Eucharist. There we here the words of God and are taught, we hope, from the scripture.
If you start to think of “going to church” or going to mass” as boring or a bother or not all that important, maybe think about who you are going to meet—not the other people, but Jesus himself. He is the one we go to worship. We are gathering in his name. The God of the universe invites you to come and eat and be filled with him.
Pray, also, that we follow the Christ child's example and early be about our heavenly Father's business.
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