“But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.”
Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends — the one day of travel before the search communicates the reasonable assumption: in a group of Galilean pilgrims traveling home, a twelve-year-old boy was presumed to be somewhere in the caravan. The relatives and friends search establishes that the family network is the first place to look before the return to Jerusalem.
Church Fathers on Luke 2:44
The Evangelist having said before that the Child grew and waxed strong, verifies his own words when he relates, that Jesus with the holy Virgin went up to Jerusalem; as it is said, And when he was twelve years old, &c.
His indication of wisdom did not exceed the measure of His age, but at the time that with us the powers of discernment are generally perfected, the wisdom of Christ shows itself.
Or the twelfth year was the commencement of our Lord’s disputation with the doctors, for this was the number of the Evangelists necessary to preach the faith.
Read all 27 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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