Seventeenth Day
The sorrow of this event consisted mainly in the fact that Mary and Joseph had lost, perhaps through their own fault, the Child Jesus. They did not know whether it would be according to divine Providence that He would ever return to them; they thought that perhaps He had gone to the desert, as had St. John. This separation caused Mary terrible agony. It shows us how hard it is to lose Jesus, Our Lord, because He is absolutely necessary to us. By sin we lose Jesus; by love we regain Him, and the danger that we may again lose Him is enough to make us feel very sad. Mary’s great suffering in this separation makes us understand the magnitude of the evil of losing Jesus. But how little do we feel that separation, especially when it is caused by our sins! It is always our own fault when Jesus goes away from us. He would not leave us, only that we force Him from us, and the means we use to conquer God, to make Him capitulate, is sin. To bring Him back again we must be active in our search, regret the evil we have done, and weep tears of real sorrow. Thus we invite our friend Jesus back again into our soul.
Prayer.
O Heart of Mary, I offer, etc., etc.