3rd Prelude. Ask grace to understand the wonderful lessons of sanctity here taught, and to grow in the love and imitation of your Redeemer.
POINT I. Consider the words: “He went down with them and came to Nazareth.” He might have moved in the midst of the world, as He had done for three days when lost in Jerusalem, but He wished to give an example which people generally could imitate. Nearly all persons must lead a private life during the greater portion, if not the whole of their career. Restlessness to be abroad is very injurious to virtue. But the inner life, needed to attain perfection, is favored by retirement from the world. Hence all founders of religious orders require a retired novitiate, and the Church strictly prescribes enclosure, which law has not been relaxed except where charity to the neighbor demands it. It is not the spirit of God that makes some priests aspire to conspicuous offices and functions. Nazareth was good enough for Christ, though it was so obscure a town that Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (St. John i, 46). It is a bad sign when a religious is displeased because applied to obscure duties.
POINT II. Consider the words, “And He was subject to them”; that is, Jesus was subject to Mary and Joseph. This is the chief lesson Christ chose to teach the world during the first thirty years of His life. It must then be of the utmost importance. St. Gregory says of it: “Obedience is a virtue which, by itself alone, plants all other virtues in the mind and preserves them after they are once planted” (L. 35 Mor. c. 10). St. Ignatius, in his “Epistle on Obedience,” quoted these words with emphatic approbation; and he has made this the characteristic virtue of his Society. In fact the vow of obedience belongs to the essence of the religious life, and some orders comprise all the obligation of their members under the one vow of “obedience according to their rule.” My perfection as a religious depends chiefly on the perfection of my obedience.
Consider besides, in meditating on Christ’s private life, who was the Person that obeyed; namely God Himself in His human nature. Whom did He obey? His own creatures infinitely beneath Him in every respect. In what did He obey?
In all the details of His life; in working for instance, under the direction of Joseph, after the unskilful manner of that time. How perfectly do I obey my superiors? I must make myself like unto Christ, not in working miracles, but in submitting to my superiors.
POINT III. Christ spent His private life in humble labor. Such a career is intended by the Lord for the vast majority of mankind. It is the sentence pronounced upon our race: “In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread till thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken” (Gen. iii, 19). Such labor fosters devotion. It has always been fondly cherished in learned religious bodies. During his voyage to India which lasted thirteen months, St. Francis Xavier used to wash his soiled linen in the sight of his fellow-passengers, while bearing the dignity of Apostolic Nuncio, and he would never consent to be waited on by others (Life, Bartholi and Maffei, p. 74).
POINT IV. “And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age, and grace with God and men.” It is by the faithful and steady exercise of the virtues taught by our Divine model that Christians ever grow in sanctity; for sanctity consists in this. And thus there are thousands to-day, as in every period of the Church, of whom it can be said with truth, as is here said of the Blessed Saviour, that they are growing in wisdom as they are advancing in age; and as a consequence they grow in grace with God; and meanwhile they also become daily more perfect subjects of edification to their fellow-men.
That young religious are expected to resemble Christ in steady progress in virtue is of course understood by all. But this should not be confined to young religious. Older religious must persevere in this imitation of Christ; their own welfare requires it, and the welfare of the younger generation, who are naturally much influenced by the example of their elders. All who profess to follow Christ should therefore grow constantly in wisdom and obedience, in humility and generosity, in charity and devotion, and in all the virtues, of which He has given such bright examples.
Colloquy with our Divine Lord, asking earnestly that we may know Him more intimately, love Him more ardently and follow Him more faithfully; and that we may correct the faults we have discovered in us during this meditation.