THE FIFTH DAY
1stPrelude.Recall the facts, as narrated bySt.Matthewii, 13-19.
2ndPrelude.SeeSt.Joseph quietly asleep in the night, and the Angel standing before him to deliver his message.
3rdPrelude.Ask the grace to understand the lessons taught in this mystery by Jesus, Mary and Joseph, so as to know your King more intimately, love Him more ardently and follow Him more faithfully.
PointI.Consider the message of the Angel, noticing particularly the persons, their words and their actions.
1.The persons.The Angel is a faithful messenger, a model of exactitude when a task is entrusted to us. He addresses Joseph because he is the head of the family. So God usually directs us through our superiors, even if these should be less able, even as Joseph was less gifted than the others. Jesus and Mary are not visited: “Take the child and his mother.”
2. Consider thewordsspoken: “Arise and take the child and his mother, and fly into Egypt, and be there until I shall tell thee; for it will come to pass thatHerod will seek the child to destroy him.” The action required implies many great difficulties; first a very long journey of hundreds of miles, and that through a wild country, where savage animals and robbers roamed. The parable of the Good Samaritan shows that robbers infested those regions, and the watch kept by the shepherds points to the presence of wolves, bears, etc. Then they are to leave at once, with no provisions for so long a journey: “Arise, and take, etc.” They are not even to say a kind farewell to the neighbors who had befriended them, but must leave in secret like criminals. And the motive assigned by the Angel is unsatisfactory to human reason: “Herod will seek the child to destroy him.” Were there not a thousand easier ways to prevent this? Was not God wise and powerful enough to save His Divine Son in Bethlehem? Or could they not have gone to Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, where young John the Baptist was living in security? Perhaps we might have been self-opiniated enough to find such objections; but Jesus, Mary and Joseph did not criticize.
3.The Actionsof these exhibit a prompt, cheerful and perfect obedience. These are our models. Have we always acted thus? Is it our habit now to do so?
POINTII.Consider the exile itself.How the Holy Family was supported during the many weeks their travel must have lasted, we cannot imagine. They may have suffered many severe hardships; most probably they did, since Christ had come to give the example of patience under sufferings. But God’s Providence watched over every step of theirs, andsupplied all their wants as far as was conformable to His designs.
He did not do so only on account of their privileged personalities, but He ever does the same for all who trust in Him. “I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on—for after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek you therefore first the Kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you” (St.Matth.vi, 25-33).
We can especially trust in God’s assistance when we are obeying His commands, as was the Holy Family at that time. Therefore we should love to be directed by our superiors, who make known God’s will to us. And again, works done under obedience with a willing mind have a special blessing on them. “An obedient man shall speak of victory” (Prov.xxi, 28). The heroic virtues practised in later ages by the solitaries in those deserts may well have been the fruit of the obedience then practised by the Holy Family.
Their stay in Egypt for several years among strangers is best appreciated by those persons who have themselves experienced the bitterness of exile. Christ knew that many of His followers would endure those ills, and He wished to leave them a most consoling example.
POINTIII. Consider the massacre of the Innocents.All its cruelty was meant for Christ, and cruel persecution has been continued against His followers throughout the ages, and is so to the present day. Hehad foretold it: “The disciple is not above the master, nor the servant above his lord. If they have called the good-man of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household” (St.Matth.x, 24-25). We must then be patient under any kind of molestation, though of course we may use all honest means to prevent it.
The persecution works the good of them who properly endure it. See this exemplified in the massacre of the innocents. It was very wickedly done, a cruel injustice and bitter suffering to the little ones, and a still more dreadful affliction to their mothers; but it resulted in eternal glory for the children. When a priest blesses an article of devotion, he makes a cross over it; so the Lord bestows His blessings with a cross. Every sorrow comes from the hand of our loving Lord, and is meant for the good of those who love Him: “To them that love God all things work together unto good” (Rom.viii,28).
Colloquy.With Jesus and Mary, begging for constant fidelity in the imitation of my Divine Model amid all trials, with a firm confidence in His loving providence: “Know ye that no one hath hoped in the Lord and hath been confounded” (Ecclus.ii, 11).
1stPrelude.Recall the few verses in which Holy Writ records the history of the eighteen years of Christ’s private life, from His loss in the temple to Hisentrance on His public life: “And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth; and was subject to them. And his mother kept all these words in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age, and grace with God and men” (St.Lukeii, 51-52), “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” (St.Matth.xiii, 55).
2ndPrelude.Imagine you see the modest cottage of the Holy Family at Nazareth, where Mary is preparing a meal, while Joseph and the youthful Saviour are working in the adjacent carpenter shop.
3rdPrelude.Ask grace to understand the wonderful lessons of sanctity here taught, and to grow in the love and imitation of your Redeemer.
POINTI.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.Johni, 46). It is abad sign when a religious is displeased because applied to obscure duties.
POINTII.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.
POINTIII. 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 pronouncedupon 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).
POINTIV.“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.
Colloquywith 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.
Since most of our progress in virtue is to be effected by our imitation of Christ’s private life, it is worth while adding to the meditation we have made on that subject some further appropriate considerations. Let us examine in what exactly lay the excellence of that great model.
It did not consist in the use of extraordinary austerities, such as were practised bySt.John the Baptist, whose holiness was so highly extolled by the Saviour Himself. That would not have been a suitable model of imitation for mankind generally. Christ’s sanctity was of course infinitely superior; and it is the pattern on which our virtue must be modeled.
In fact Christ’s private life was not distinguished from the common lives of men by unusual bodily hardships. Millions of men and women in our day, and in civilized lands, toil harder and enjoy fewer material comforts than did the Holy Family. See how hard isthe lot of vast numbers of our laboring classes. See them going to their work at early morning, carrying their cold lunches in their baskets, their only support for the toils of the day. Their labor is fatiguing and protracted, often quite exhausting, as is manifested by the bent forms and wasted frames of so many of them. All day they hear rebukes, harsh and gross language; and with their best efforts very many can scarcely earn enough to keep up their strength. And when they return at night, exhausted and begrimed with dirt, they have no comfortable cottage to rest their wearied limbs; only some room in a tenement house, or in a garret or cellar, crowded together with their wives and children, amidst a rude and often vicious crowd of associates. Compared to their life that of the Holy Family was one of decent comfort.
What then made the life of Christ so very holy and so very meritorious? Especially two qualities.
1. Of course His Divine Person gave infinite merit to every act performed by Him in His human nature. Now it is a great consolation for us to remember that, by the gracious dispensation of the Lord, we too are children of God, adopted brothers of Christ, as long as we live in the state of grace; and, by the aid of the Holy spirit, who is diffused in our hearts, we can make our acts worthy of supernatural reward. And all this merit keeps on accumulating throughout our conscious life, unless it be lost by mortal sin. Our principal fearought ever to be lest we thus foolishly lose it, and our bitterest regret if we have done so.
2. The second source of holiness in Christ wasthe perfection of his intention, ever aiming purely at the glory of His Heavenly Father. This also we can and we ought to imitate, with the help of grace offered us for this purpose. Here lies in fact the principal means of improving our resemblance to Christ. And we can do so constantly, even in our commonest actions, as the Apostle teaches us saying: “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (ICor.x, 31).
It is a very appropriate occupation for the time of the yearly retreat to examine carefully to what extent we act habitually for a supernatural intention, one resting on the faith, and not merely directed to some natural advantage. It is the intention that determines the true value of every human act. Whatever is done for some temporal good alone can only claim a temporal reward. What am I habitually working for? Is it only for some material or intellectual success? Or am I actuated to a great extent by a merely natural impulse? Even though such impulse be not sinful, not opposed to reason, still it is so much time and energy wasted on the things of earth, and cannot add to my eternal happiness. To act thus, as far as supernatural reward is concerned, is without result, as one would waste his time and labor who would spend hours in sewing without thread, or writing without ink in his pen.
People do not act so foolishly in the affairs of this life; but very many do so in the things of eternity. Is not a great portion of my own life thus habitually wasted by the want of a supernatural intention? What improvement can I make in this matter?
We are explicitly warned by our Blessed Saviour againsttwo copious sources of waste of time and labor.
1. The first regards actions which appear to be very reasonable and virtuous; for instance the exercises of kindness to our friends and relatives, or the practice of any other natural virtues in human intercourse. Of all these Christ said: “If you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you do more? Do not also the heathens this?” (St.Matth.v, 46-47). We ought to love our friends for God’s sake.
2. The second source of waste is a very copious one among men, even among religious; namely doing what is quite proper, but only to gain the esteem of others.
This regard for the good opinion of our fellow-men is not sinful in itself, as is erroneously supposed by some pious writers, who would have penitents accuse themselves in Confession of vanity when they have said or done anything to attract favorable attention or gain praise. Every sin is essentially a violation of a law of God. But there is no law of God forbidding us to seek the approbation of sensible persons. Does a boy sin by trying to please his parents? Does a studentsin by trying to gain a prize? Jansenists would think so, but such is not Catholic doctrine.
The desire of praise is a constant encouragement to the practice of the natural virtues. Sin enters when praise is sought for doing what is unreasonable, or when we take all the credit of good conduct to ourselves, forgetting that our very goodness is a gift of God. For this is blamed bySt.Paul: “What hast thou that thou hast not received? and if thou hast received, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received?” (ICor.iv, 7). There is unfortunately plenty of sin in the world; but we must avoid increasing it by forming false consciences.
Yet, even when reasonable praise is sought, and no sin committed, there may be great evil in the loss of merit for Heaven; and the imitation of Christ will teach us to avoid that evil. He acted in all things for the glory of His Heavenly Father. “I seek not my own glory,” He said to the Jews; and again: “He that sends me is with me,—for I do always the things that please him” (St.Johnviii,50, 29). By imitating the Saviour in this, we become more and more like unto Him, and we lay up abundant treasures for Heaven.
But He earnestly warns us not to lose such precious merit, saying: “Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them; otherwise you shall not have reward of your Father, who is in Heaven” (St.Matth.vi, 1). And speaking, in the next verse of the hypocrites who gave alms that they might be seen by men, the Saviour adds: “They have received their reward.”
But the loss of supernatural reward is not the only evil resulting from the seeking of human praise; for, though, as we have seen, seeking such honor is not in itself a sin, still it is very often the cause of sin, even of mortal sin. For praise is very apt to affect the mind somewhat as intoxicants affect the body; it arouses an inordinate greed of more and more of the stimulant. The more we get of it, the more are various passions aroused within us, and we are likely to become ambitious of honor and of superiority over others, conceited and contemptuous of others, becoming infatuated with our supposed good qualities; in a word we gradually become proud, and a proud man is an abomination to the Lord, or, asSt.Luke expresses it: “That which is high to men is an abomination before God” (xvi, 15).
A third cause that made the life of Christ so holy was thatHe did everything perfectly well: “He hath done all things well” (St.Markvii, 37). Our goodness does not consist so much in what we do as in the manner in which we do it. In fact, during the thirty years of His private life, which we are now studying, Christ did no great things whatever. His occupations were of the humblest kind; millions of men are doing the same day after day; but His actions derived their excellence from the perfection wherewith He did them, and our goodness consists in imitating His perfect manner of acting.
The excellence of a masterpiece in painting and sculpture results from the excellent delicacy and appropriatenessof every, even the smallest, detail; the beauty of a specimen of good penmanship does not result from bold dashes, but from the perfection of every single letter; and so the excellence of the life of Christ, and the lives of those who wish to become like unto Him, lies not in doing great things, but in doing everything excellently well.
Few of us, if any, have occasion of doing many great things in the course of our life; but we can all, with God’s grace, do a multitude of little things well, and thus resemble our Divine model. Our crown in Heaven will not consist of some one or two magnificent jewels, as does the crown of many glorious Martyrs, but of countless little gems, each shining with its own peculiar lustre. These are the lessons we should learn from the private life of the God incarnate.
1stPrelude.Recall the facts: Christ began His public labors for the salvation of souls by leaving His Blessed Mother, by being baptized among sinners, then fasting forty days. Next He travelled on foot from town to town during three years, in great poverty, through Galilee and Judea; selected ignorant men as His Apostles, instructed them most patiently, and predicted His sacred passion.
2ndPrelude.Behold Christ, attended by His Apostles, while He addresses a miscellaneous multitude.
3rdPrelude.Ask earnestly that you may learnfrom Him an intense zeal for souls and generosity in following His example.
POINTI.Consider the grandeur of the work of saving souls. It is the noblest occupation possible, as is expressed in the maxim attributed toSt.Dionysius the Areopagite: “The most Divine of all Divine works is the salvation of souls.” In fact the saving of one soul is a higher achievement than the creation of the material universe; for the value of an action is properly measured by the result achieved, and a glorified soul is as far above all bodily substances as the knowledge, love and fruition of God is above mere matter. We admire the poet who composes a grand epic, the painter or sculptor who produces a masterpiece of his noble art, the architect who erects an imposing structure, etc.; but what is all this compared to the salvation of a soul, that will be for eternity an ornament of Heaven. To Christ belongs the glory of all salvation of souls, but He deigns to share this glory with His followers, to whom He says: “I have chosen you and have appointed you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain” (St.Johnxv, 16).
What a noble object to work for! And while a soul is so precious, its salvation is to be effected in a short time. We may at times achieve this wonderful success in a single hour.
POINTII.Consider the example set us by the Son of God to accomplish this purpose: 1. He left His Blessed Mother, and we do not read that He ever returned to her home. This ought to encourage us to make similar sacrifices. 2. He so humbled Himself asto be baptized among sinners; and, to call down the blessings of Heaven upon His sacred ministry, He spent forty days in fasting and prayer. By all this He taught us that the supernatural work of saving souls is to be accomplished by the supernatural means of humiliations and penance and prayer; mere eloquence and logic are not sufficient. 3. He endured many privations. For during those three years He and His Apostles had not the comforts of a home: “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head” (St.Matth.viii, 20). They often spent the night in the open air, for instance in the Garden of Olives. They had no regular supply of food, and must often have endured bitter hunger.St.Matthew narrates an instance: “At that time Jesus went through the corn on the Sabbath; and His disciples being hungry began to pluck the ears and to eat them” (xii, 1). He travelled and taught the people all day and received visitors during the night, like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arithmathea, who were His disciples secretly for fear of the Jews.
The history of the Saints is full of similar hardships; for they had learned to follow His example. Am I a worthy follower of my King? Do I make generous sacrifices in His service? Frequently the salvation or the loss of a soul depends on the zeal of a priest or religious. Neglect in this matter is often irreparable.
POINTIII.During His public life Jesus also gave us the example of earnest prayer, in which He would at times spend the entire night.St.Luke writes: “He (Jesus) went out into a mountain to pray, and hepassed the whole night in the prayer of God” (vi, 12). He did not need to pray for His own sake, but He wished to show us by His example the necessity of fervent prayer for those employed in the active duty of saving souls. They need it for themselves and for the good of others. For themselves, because the sacred ministry is full of dangers; it is like striving to save drowning men, in which task those who lend assistance often perish themselves. Sad experience teaches that many priests, employed in constant labors, neglect their own souls, and come to a miserable fall. And as far as the neighbor is concerned, it is the man of prayer, the man of God, that does the work of God, and not the priest of a worldly mind who neglects his prayer.
With what devotion do I offer the holy sacrifice of the Mass? receive Holy Communion? make my meditation? recite the Divine Office? The annual retreat is the time to consider all these things and to provide for improvements.
Colloquywith our Dear Lord, praying for an increase of fervor in prayer, of zeal for souls, of generosity in the labors of the ministry.