This Sunday’s celebration of the Feast of the Holy Family
begins with a reading from the First Book of Samuel, in which Hannah, who
prayed for a son and was blessed with Samuel, prefigures the maternal figure of
Mary. Samuel’s is a kind of “miraculous
birth” because he is born to a woman who has been deemed to be sterile. Hannah’s hymn glorifying God begins, My heart exults in the Lord, and it is
possible that Mary knew this prayer (or was inspired by the Holy Spirit to
recall it) when she prayed the Magnificat, My
soul magnifies the Lord. In Sunday’s
reading, Hannah dedicates her son to the Lord’s service, and Samuel subsequently
will grow in the presence of the Lord.
Likewise, Jesus, in this week’s Gospel reading from Luke,
finds his place in the temple of the Lord, so much so that he stays behind
after his parents have completed their celebration of Passover, causing Mary
and Joseph great anguish by his disappearance.
Yet Jesus knows his place is with his Father, dedicated to the service
of the Lord. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.
We, too, are called to dedicate ourselves to God, to
recognize God as Father, to recognize ourselves as children of God (1 John).
Faithful to that dedication – be it Samuel’s, or Jesus’, or our own – we
know that we remain in Him, and He in us: Jesus, Emmanuel, God incarnate, present to
us, present in us. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways! (Psalm 128)
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