Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor.
By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor
There is an apt expression for the moment in time when a person or a people are at the start of something new and important: “We are on the threshold.”
One such moment was at and after the landing on the moon. But mankind was at such a threshold when Christ entered our lives in the person of Jesus.
Paul explains it beautifully in his second letter to the Corinthians: “For even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet we now know him so no longer.”
Then he speaks about the “old order” passing away and about how we live in a “new creation” through Christ.
Through all of this we are transformed and we become known as “ambassadors for Christ.”
Through him we have become the “righteousness of God“
+ Then, as if it is the only proper response, Psalm 103 gushes out line after line in a litany of praise for God because of his great kindness and mercy.
+ How interesting that the Gospel chosen would focus on a heartbreaking and illuminating story.
Passover in Jerusalem, Mary and Joseph.
After celebrating the Passover in Jerusalem, Mary and Joseph began their return home, each believing their son Jesus was in the returning caravan.
But upon searching for him they discovered that he was not.
Panic!
Distress!
They searched for him for three days and eventually found him in the temple as he astounded the elders by his questions and comments.
When Mary questioned Jesus, “Son, why have you done this to us?”
And as if he did not hear their anxiety and pain he simply answered, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
Or in other translations, “Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?”
In either case, not only was he declaring his relationship to God his Father and his responsibility to the Father, he could also be saying, “I have not done this to you, but for you.”
And that, too, is said to us.
Mary, and presumably, “took all of this to heart” and kept it all there in her heart.
What a story! What a revelation!
It put all of us “on the threshold” of the journey to new and everlasting life through Christ.
And through his word, and through his cross and resurrection, we could never be the same!
Father Perry D. Leiker is the 13th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at pleiker@stbernard-church.com. Follow Father Perry on Twitter: @MrDeano76.
