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that it might be fulfilled which was said by the prophets: He shall be called a Nazarite."

(a) "Meantime the child full of wisdom grew and waxed strong, and the grace of God was in him. His parents went every year to Jerusalem at the solemn day of the pasch. And when he was twelve years old, they going up unto Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast, having fulfilled the days, when they returned, the child Jesus remained in Jerusalem, and his parents knew it not. Thinking that he was in the company, they came a day's journey, and sought him among their kinsfolks and acquaintances; not finding him, they returned into Jerusalem seeking him. After three days they found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his wisdom and his answers. Seeing him they wondered, and his mother said to him: Son, why hast thou done so to us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.

(a) St. Luke, ii. 40–52.

expect to find there. Or if Joseph were to have established himself elsewhere than at Nazareth, where else could that be than at Bethlehem, whence he originated, and where he might presume that God, who made his son be there born, should wish him to be there educated; the more so, inasmuch as the birth of the Messiah at Bethlehem, which would be better known if he continued to dwell there, was one of the marks that should serve to make him known. This observation led us to fancy an arrangement differing from what has just been seen. After the purification, which must be placed before the Epiphany, Joseph returns with Mary and the infant to Nazareth, as stated by Saint Luke; but he only returns there to settle his affairs, and to have his effects brought to Bethlehem, where he was going to establish himself and his family. The Magi arrive, and find at Bethlehem the infant and his mother; not a few days, but several months after his birth, as many interpreters have thought. For it struck them, that the order given by Herod, to kill all male children in Bethlehem and the environs, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men, could not be otherwise explained. Thus every thing is arranged, and all harmonized. The purification took place after the forty days prescribed by the law of Moses; the holy family return immediately to Nazareth, conformably to Saint Luke's recital, and at Bethlehem, as Saint Matthew states, directly after the departure of the Magi, Joseph receives orders to fly into Egypt. For this view, the supposition of the establishment of the holy family at Bethlehem is quite enough-a supposition the more likely, inasmuch as Joseph, on his return from Egypt, would naturally, and of his own accord, return to the spot where he was established before his departure. Yet as all this is only conjecture, I did not think it a sufficient reason to change the common arrangement.

How is it that you sought me? said he to them;

did you not know

And they under

that I must be about my Father's business (19)? stood not the word that he spoke unto them. He then went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them (20). As to his mother, she kept all these words in her heart (21). And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and grace with God and man (22)."

CHAPTER V.

MANIFESTATION OF JOHN THE BAPTIST AND HIS PREACHING.-BAPTISM OF JESUS CHRIST.-FASTING AND TEMPTATION OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE DESERT.-TESTIMONY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.-ANDREW AND PETER CALLED FOR THE FIRST TIME.VOCATION OF PHILIP AND NATHANIEL.

JESUS thus dwelt concealed until nearly his thirtieth year. His precursor being six months older than he, might have completed that term. We have seen that John, from his infancy, inhabited the desert, whither divine inspiration had conducted him. Destined for a ministry the most sublime to which mortal man had yet been called, God disposed him for it by retirement and austerity of

(19) The will of the Heavenly Father should be preferred to all human considerations and to all the ties of blood. The apparent rigor which Jesus Christ here displays might be designed to impress us with this great lesson. If to Mary a subject of mortification, she was well indemnified for this moment by thirty years of the most tender and submissive respect.

(20) These words comprise the history of thirty years of the most precious of all lives. Rejoice, ye humble who cherish obscurity, and exult in your lowliness.

(21) Mary did not at first conceive his meaning, but she treasured up the saying in her memory. It is written that she kept all these words in her heart: undoubtedly she succeeded in getting at their meaning. She was led to understand them by meditation; by what other means can we venture to hope for proper understanding?

(22) All the treasures of grace, as well as those of wisdom and science, were shut up in Jesus Christ, so as to be concealed. As he advanced in years he disclosed them in a way proportioned to the age he attained. The indications of them he gave at twenty years of age were, therefore, as different from those he evinced at twelve of years age, as the difference which exists between both these ages. The saying here, he advanced in wisdom and age, conveys both these meanings.

life. (a) “He had his garment of camel's hair, a leathern girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts (1) and wild honey." Thus he awaited, and no doubt he hastened by his aspirations the day of his manifestation, which was to be, as it were, the dawn of the great luminary that was about to enlighten the world. This moment so longed after arrived, and whilst heaven and earth were in expectation of the wonders which God was going to bring about, at last (b)" in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of Iturea and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina, under the high priests Annas and Caiphas (2), the word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary, in the desert, (c) as it is written in Isaias the prophet: I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare the way before thee. John commenced, therefore, in the desert of Judea, and (d) he came into all the country about the Jordan baptizing (3) and preaching the baptism (e) of penance for the remis sion of sins, saying: Do penance; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (4). For this is he that was spoken of by Isaias the prophet, saying: A voice shall be heard of one crying in the wilderness: (f) Pre

(a) St. Matthew, iii. 4.

(b) St. Luke, iii. 1, 2.

(c) St. Mark, i. 2-4.

(d) St. Luke, iii. 3.

(e) St. Mark, i. 4; St. Matt. iii. 2, 3. (f) St. Luke, iii. 3, 5, 6.

(1) Pliny and other ancient authors speak of a species of locusts which the lower orders among Eastern nations used for food.

(2) Annas and Caiphas his son-in-law exercised by turns the sovereign pontificate, each during one year, by an agreement seemingly approved of by the Romans, who at that time had the control of every thing in Judea. This explanation is confirmed by the expression of Saint John when speaking of Caiphas, who was the high priest of that year, ch. xviii. ver. 13.

(3) The baptism of John was a religious ceremony by which a profession of penance was embraced. It did not confer the remission of sins; but disposed towards the remission by penance which should ensue, and which became the next disposition to the baptism of Jesus Christ, in which alone is to be found the remission of sins. John's baptism preceded penance; the baptism of Jesus Christ followed penance. Do penance, and be baptized every one of you-Peter, Acts ii. 38. The first, properly speaking, belonged neither to the ancient law nor the new law; a medium between both; this baptism participated of both one and the other, as twilight participates of both day and night.

(4) Heaven, closed until this hour, is now to be thrown open. Saint John begins by disabusing the Jews of the prejudice about a temporal kingdom.

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