Mary's search for Jesus reflects every Christian's journey, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Despite her distress at losing the 12-year-old Jesus, Mary’s search for her son is a model of every Christian’s journey to deepen their relationship with Christ, Pope Francis said in a prepared message.

In the catechesis prepared for his general audience March 5, the pope reflected on the episode from St. Luke’s Gospel in which Mary and Joseph lose Jesus during a pilgrimage and search anxiously for him for three days before finding him in the Temple engaged in discussion with the elders.

“Throughout this journey, the Virgin is a pilgrim of hope, in the strong sense that she becomes the ‘daughter of her son,’ the first of his disciples,” the pope’s text said, emphasizing that Mary, though chosen as the mother of God, had to undertake her own journey of faith.

During the Holy Year 2025, Pope Francis’ general audience talks have been focusing on “Jesus Christ our hope,” starting with a look at the Bible stories of Jesus’ infancy and childhood.

Pope Francis has been hospitalized for treatment of bilateral pneumonia since Feb. 14, but the Vatican has continued to publish the texts prepared for his general audience each Wednesday.

The text for March 5 reflected on how Mary’s understanding of Jesus grew gradually, through moments of joy but also through hardship: She carried Jesus while pregnant to Bethlehem, fled with her family to Egypt to protect her son and ultimately stood by him at the foot of the cross.

“Mary brought Jesus into the world, the hope of humanity; she nourished him, made him grow, followed him, letting herself be the first to be shaped by the Word of God,” the pope’s message said. Yet “this unique communion with the Word of God does not however save her the effort of a demanding ‘apprenticeship.'”

Even after years of accompanying Jesus, Mary and Joseph struggled to understand him fully, the pope’s text said. When they found him in the Temple after three days of anxious searching, his response puzzled them: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

“The mystery of God-made-child exceeds their intelligence,” Pope Francis’ message said. “The parents want to protect that precious son under the wings of their love; instead, Jesus wants to live his vocation as the son of the Father who is at his service and lives immersed in his word.”

The pope’s catechesis urged Christians to imitate Mary and Joseph and “set out in the footsteps of the Lord, who does not allow himself to be contained by our precepts and allows himself to be found not so much in a place, but in the loving response to the tender divine fatherhood.”