Origen draws a moral lesson from these words of Mary:
"In the company of the many my Jesus cannot be found. Learn where those who seek may find Him, that thou too, seeking with Joseph and Mary, mayest find Him. . . . Not without purpose is it written : Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing. He who seeks Jesus must not seek Him negligently, nor indolently, nor as though in passing, as some seek and so cannot find Him. . . . Sorrowing they sought for the Son of God. . . . Where do they find Him ? In the Temple. For there the Son of God is found. Wouldest thou too seek the Son of God, seek first in the Temple ; haste thither. There wilt thou find Christ, the Word and Wisdom, that is, the Son of God." (Hom. XVIII. et XIX., In Luc.)
We have already meditated on the Word of Mary : Son, why hast Thou done so to us ? " when contemplating the Second Dolour. I would only add here that it finds its analogue in Christ's own cry of desolation from the Cross : " My God, My God, why hast Thou abandoned Me ?" We must always remember that our Lord was substantially One Being—of One Nature with His Father, whereas the relation between Mary and her Son though an identity of Nature, was that of two distinct Beings—the one human, the other Divine; we must also remember that the Agony of the Incarnate Word of God was on altogether a different plane from the sorrow of any creature—still, whilst bearing these truths steadily in mind, it remains true that the dispositions of our Lord's Soul were reflected, so far as such reflection was possible, in His Mother's heart. In these two mysteries, then, however disparate in themselves—the mystery of the cry of Mary in the Temple of Jerusalem and the mystery of the cry of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary—we learn of the cloud of darkness which was permitted by God for a short while to obscure the Face of the Beloved, or rather to hide from the wearied imagination His intimate Presence. In both these mysteries we are taught that, provided the surrender to the Divine Will be absolute, such loving plaint, far from being displeasing to God, is actually well-pleasing in His Sight. In each case the answer soon was to be granted to the heart-broken appeal, to which in neither case could an immediate response be audible, for the trial was not yet finished. The Dereliction on the Cross lingered awhile, but in a moment it had passed for ever, as the Son yielded His Soul into His Father's Hands. Mary was to lay up difficult words of mystery in her aching heart, before her sob of pain could give place to joy and all be made clear to her vision, but soon Jesus was with her once again, and the wound inflicted by her three days' Loss received its balm and healing during many years in the fields of peaceful Nazareth.
Thus would our Lady teach us that we need never fear to ask our difficult questions, if only we do so in reverent spirit, and be not impatient for the answer, that shall be given one day, but only when it is well for us—in God's appointed manner and in His chosen time.
