Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, 2018

The German Dominican mystic, Meister Eckhart, taught that preaching was giving birth to the Word in the world. Before this can be done, the Word must first be born in us. The Gospel presents for us today the story of the Finding of Jesus in the Temple. Eckhart believed that this story mystically presented what ought to happen in our souls so that we find Christ, the Word, born there.

Mary and Joseph had to leave the crowd behind in order to find Him in His Father’s House. Eckhart suggests that to seek the Divine Birth interiorly, we must also return to the source. We must set aside “the crowd,” all distractions, imagination, even our preconceived knowledge and learning, and humbly return to the pursuit of holiness, which is how God roots Himself in the soul by grace. This is where God the Father speaks his Word to us, communicating His very own life, making us partakers of the divine nature. Everything that we do henceforth is an effect of this.

We also see that the Lord was found in the Temple “sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions,” and as they went away, Mary “kept all these things in her heart” in deep reflection. The Divine Birth of the Word in the soul continually unfolds through the careful elucidation of divine truths through study and prayerful contemplation. Only after this can we emulate Our Holy Father Dominic by doing as the Blessed Virgin Mary did: humbly bring the Divine Word to birth in the world through holy preaching.