Homilies on Luke — Homily 20 (Luke 2:49–51)
Latin source: Origen's Greek homilies on Luke, surviving only in Jerome's Latin translation (c. 391), from the reading text of M. Rauer (ed.), Origenes Werke IX (GCS 35, Leipzig, 1930). This English translation is released into the public domain.On what is written: "Why is it that you were seeking me?" up to the place where it says: "Mary kept all these words in her heart".
Mary and Joseph were seeking Jesus "among their kinsfolk" and did not find him; they were seeking him "in the company" and could not find him. They sought him "in the temple", and not simply "in the temple", but with the teachers, and "in the midst of the instructors" they find him. Wherever the teachers may be, there "in the midst of the teachers" Jesus is found, if only the teacher sits "in the temple" and never departs from it. Jesus profited his own teachers, and those whom he seemed to be questioning he taught, speaking "in their midst", and in a certain way he stirred them up to seek out the things they did not know, and to investigate the things which, up to that point, they were unable to know—whether they knew them or were ignorant of them. Jesus, then, is found "in the midst of the teachers", and once found he says to those who sought him: "Why is it that you were seeking me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" First, understanding this simply, let us arm ourselves against the impious heretics who say that the Creator is not the Father of Christ Jesus, nor the God of the Law and the prophets. Behold, the Father of Christ is asserted to be the God of the temple. Let the Valentinians blush when they hear Jesus saying: "I must be in my Father's house". Let all the heretics blush who receive the Gospel according to Luke and yet despise the things that are written in it. Let these things, as I said, be understood in the simpler sense. But since it is added: "they, however, did not understand the saying", let us more diligently sift out the meaning of the Scripture.
Were they so foolish and senseless that they did not know what he was saying—whether this, which he says, "I must be in my Father's house", signified "in the temple", or whether it signifies something else more profound, and something that edifies the hearers more? Each one of us, if he is good and perfect, is a possession of God the Father. Generally, therefore, concerning all, the Savior taught that he ought not to be anywhere except among those who are the Father's. If any one of you belongs to God the Father, he has Jesus in his midst. Let us indeed believe the one who says: "I must be in my Father's house". And I suspect that this is the more rational and living and true temple of God, rather than that one which was built typologically by an earthly work. Hence, as he was in that temple typologically, so also typologically he withdrew from it. For he "went out of the temple" that was earthly, saying: "Behold, your house shall be left to you desolate", and leaving that house he came to the possession of God the Father—the churches scattered throughout the whole world—and says: "I must be in my Father's house". Then, therefore, "they did not understand the word which he spoke to them". And at the same time attend to this: that, as long as he was in the possession of his Father, he was above. And because Joseph and Mary did not yet have full faith, for that reason they could not remain above with him, but he is said to have come down with them. Frequently Jesus comes down with his disciples, nor is he always dwelling on the mountain, nor without end does he hold to sublime things. On the mountain he is with Peter, with James, with John, and again in another place with the rest of the disciples. Further, because those who labored under various sicknesses were not able to ascend the mountain, therefore he "came down and came" to those who were below. Now also it is written: "he came down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject to them". Let us learn, children, to be subject to our parents: the greater is subject to the lesser. He, because he saw that Joseph was greater in age, therefore honored him with the honor due to a parent, giving to all sons an example, that they should be subject to their fathers and, if they have no fathers, that they should be subject to those who are of a father's age. Why do I speak of parents and children? If Jesus the Son of God is subject to Joseph and Mary, shall I not be subject to the bishop, who has been appointed by God as a father to me? Shall I not be subject to the presbyter, who by the Lord's condescension has been set over me? I think that Joseph understood that Jesus, who was subject to him, was greater than he; and knowing that the greater one was subject, he tempered his authority with awe. Let each one, then, see that often an inferior is set over better people, and it sometimes happens that the one who is subject is better than the one who seems to be set over him. When one who is higher in dignity understands this, he will not be lifted up with pride because he is greater, but he will know that a better one is subject to him, just as Jesus too was subject to Joseph. Then it follows: "But Mary kept all these words in her heart". She surmised something more than about a man; hence also she "kept all his words in her heart", not as the words of a boy who was twelve years old, but of him who had been conceived of the Holy Spirit, whom she saw "advancing in wisdom and grace with God and men". Jesus "advanced in wisdom" and appeared wiser through each successive age. Was he not wise, that he should become wiser? Or was it that, since he had "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant", he was taking up again what he had laid down, and being filled again with the virtues which, a little before, upon assuming a body, he had seemed to relinquish? He "advanced", therefore, not only "in wisdom", but also "in age". There is also an advancement of age. Two ages are spoken of in the Scriptures: one of the body, which is not in our power but in the law of nature; the other of the soul, which properly lies within us, and according to which, if we will, we daily grow and come to its summit, "so that we may be no longer little children, tossed about and carried around by every wind of doctrine", but, ceasing to be "little children", may begin to be "men" and may say: "when I became a man, I destroyed the things that belonged to a little child". Of this age, as I said, the advancement, which is the increase of the soul, is in our power. But if this testimony is not enough, let us take yet another example from Paul: "until we all attain", he says, "to a perfect man, to the measure of the age of the fullness of the body of Christ". It is in us, therefore, that we should "attain to the measure of the age of the body of Christ"; and, if it is in us, let us strive with all effort to lay aside the little child and to destroy him and to come to the remaining ages, so that we too may be able to hear: "but you shall go to your fathers in peace, nourished in a good old age"—a spiritual old age, surely, which is truly a good old age, growing gray and coming through to the very end in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.