of friends and neighbors that Jesus was a mysterious Child set for the redemption and for the fall of many. And yet St. Luke relates the whole history of these eighteen years in a few simple words: "He was subject to His parents;" "His mother kept all these words pondering them in her heart;" "and Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and grace with God and men." These few words give us a perfect and touching picture of the Holy Family. 1. THE FAITHFUL FATHER "A faithful man shall be much praised, and he that is the keeper of his master shall be glorified." Thus sings the Church on St. Joseph's day. He was the head of the Holy Family. Mother and Son were entrusted to his care and protection; by the labor of his hand he was to clothe and feed them, guard them against want and danger, and shield them from evil and misfortune. A valuable treasure was placed in his charge, a priceless jewel entrusted to his keeping. How his heart must have throbbed with reverential love! How fervently he must have thanked God for being permitted to call Jesus and Mary his own! How cheerfully did he devote every hour of that life to their welfare, by giving the sweat of his brow, the toil of his arm, the strength of his body, and the powers of his mind. The apostle Paul had not yet spoken, nor presented to the Christian house-father that great model, Jesus Christ, nor required of the faithful husband, that he should sacrifice himself for his wife and children, as Christ had sacrificed Himself for His spouse, the Church. St. Joseph discharged the duties of his state from the natural promptings, so to speak, of his pure and noble heart, and he discharged them with perseverance and assiduity day after day for a long period of years. He knew that he had the Son of God under his roof, and yet he did not look to God for any worldly wealth, he did not murmur against Providence, he looked for no miracle in his own behalf, he did not wish to leave to the angels the duty of feeding their Lord and his. Oh no; St. Joseph considered it an honor and a sacred privilege to be entrusted with this proud duty. While he depended upon God's protection and assistance, he applied his hands industriously to his work and gave his soul to prayer. Work and prayer, and both united in love. Such is the story of the every-day life in the happy home at Nazareth. And in order to discharge his duties toward his spouse and Child, as head of the house, as representative of our Father in heaven, St. Joseph assumes the government, direction, and support of his little household. He commands, but not that his will, but the will of God, should be done. He governs his household, not according to his own whim and fancy, but in accordance with God's law. 2. THE AFFECTIONATE MOTHER The foster-father, St. Joseph, is the head of the Holy Family, but Mary is the heart. And what do we find in this heart? St. Luke tells us: "Mary kept all these words pondering them in her heart;" in that heart which, on a previous occasion, had poured itself out in the words: "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." From her youth upward, first in the temple at Jerusalem and afterward in her quiet home at Nazareth, Mary's heart abounded in charity, her mind was ever occupied with the divine words and promises, and her soul ever sighing for the coming of her Lord. But now, when her eyes are feasting day after day upon the beauteous person of the Word made flesh; when her ear is charmed with the sweet tones of His confiding voice; when the acts and omissions of Jesus form the constant subject of her wondering reflections; now indeed does she keep every word of His, every incident and circumstance of His life, as a precious jewel in the casket of her heart. But this busy and grateful heart of Mary does not impede her in the discharge of her household duties, for Jesus occupies both her heart and her hands. 3. THE OBEDIENT SON 'And Jesus was subject to them." He who was the King of kings lived eighteen years in the simple cottage, under the lowly roof of the Carpenter of Nazareth. And He Himself was a carpenter's Son, a willing and laborious helper of His aged foster-father and a thoughtful and untiring servant of His virgin-mother. Yes, Jesus was obedient for eighteen years in the solitude of a cottage in a mountain-village, and He has been obedient for nineteen centuries in the solitude of His tabernacle upon our altar." PART IV Jesus in His Sacred Office of Teacher I IMMEDIATE PREPARATION CHAPTER I ST. JOHN PREACHING PENANCE "IN THE fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip, his brother, being tetrarch of Iturea and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina, under the high-priests Annas and Caiphas: the word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary, in the desert. And he came into all the country about the Jordan, baptizing and preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins, and saying: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. As it was written in the book of the sayings of Isaias the prophet: Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare the way before thee. A voice of one crying in the desert, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be brought low and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough ways plain and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. : : "And the same John had his garment of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins: and his meat was locusts and wild honey. And there went out to him all the country of Judea, and all they of Jerusalem, and all the country about the Jordan; and were baptized by him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. "And seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them: Ye brood of vipers, who hath showed you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance. And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father. For I tell you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down and cast into the fire. "And the people asked him, saying: What then shall we do? And he answering, said to them: He that hath two coats let him give to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do in like manner. And the publicans also came to be baptized and said to him: Master, what shall we do? But he said to them: Do nothing more than that which is appointed you. And the soldiers also asked him, saying: And what shall we do? And he said to them: Do violence to no man, neither calumniate any man; and be content with your pay. "And as the people was of opinion, and all were thinking in their hearts of John, that perhaps he might be the Christ, John answered, saying unto all: I indeed baptize you with water unto penance; but there shall come one mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to stoop down and loose: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Whose fan is in His hand, and He will purge His floor; and will gather the wheat into His barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire. And many other things exhorting did he preach to the people." Here, then, on the very threshold of our Saviour's public life we meet St. John the Baptist. Distinguished for his great simplicity of life and close union with God, he was deemed worthy by the eternal Father to be the precursor of His divine Son. From early youth he had dwelt in the solitude of the desert "until the day of his manifestation to Israel." When thirty years old he made his appearance on the banks of the river Jordan. All were astonished; for, not having been previously seen or heard of, and his origin and birthplace being unknown, his coming was like the apparition of a spirit from heaven. But the prophet Malachy's words were fulfilled: "Behold I send My angel, and he shall prepare the way before My face" (Mal. iii. 1). John prepared the way for Christ's coming, and discharged his duties as precursor in a threefold manner: by preaching penance, by his baptism, and by the testimony which he bore to Jesus of Nazareth, as the promised Messias who had now really and truly come upon earth. 1. EXHORTATIONS TO PENANCE What is penance? It is contrite acknowledgment of our sins, a willingness as far as we are able to abandon them, and an humble yearning for that Mediator in whom and through whom alone such an abandonment is possible. Without such a repentance, the redemption of mankind would not have been possible. Heaven could not relent until earth, conscious of its awful guilt, should sign for the mediation of its Redeemer. Hence God had, during 4000 years, been awakening mankind to this acknowledgment, and inciting him to this expectation and desire. Now, in the fullness of time, He sends the greatest of all the prophets, John the Baptist, who, uniting the exhortations, warnings, and threats of all previous prophets in one grand warning and threat of wrath to come, completes their work and makes men ripe for salvation. Sadducees and Pharisees came out to the Jordan to hear this mysterious preacher. Preventing grace had enabled the "brood of vipers" to find through John the way to salvation, that is, to Christ. And the Baptist earnestly warns them to co-operate faithfully with this preventing grace by repentance, and not to depend upon being of the race of Abraham. St. John, while preaching penance in stirring and forcible language, preaches it much more forcibly by the example of his own penitential life. His dwelling is a bleak cavern, his garments the skins of wild beasts, his food locusts and wild honey, his drink the water of the river Jordan. His occupation by day is to preach penance to men, his occupation at night is prayer and watching. 2. "JOHN'S BAPTISM" As an outward manifestation of interior penance, St. John added the ceremony of baptism. As a man, in washing his person, makes the double admission, first, that he is soiled, and second, that he desires to be cleansed, so each individual baptized in the Jordan confessed thereby that he stood in need of inward cleansing from the stain of sin, and that he ardently desired his soul to be thus purified by the saving power of Christ's grace, just as he would wish his body to be cleansed by the waters of baptism. And this is the deep meaning of John's baptism. It is a confession of guilt and at the same time the expression of an interior longing after purity and salvation. It was, therefore, a very seasonable and effectual |