5th Week after Epiphany: Thursday

Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation

We will come back to-morrow to the temple at Jerusalem, where we left the Infant Jesus this morning, and we will consider Him: 1st, in His relations to the doctors; 2d, in His relations to His parents. We will then make the resolution: 1st, always to observe perfect modesty in our language and in our relations with our neighbor; 2d, always to make the interests of God and His service our prior consideration. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the Gospel: “Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God” (Matt. vi. 33).

Meditation for the Morning

Let us adore the Infant Jesus seated humbly on the bench of the disciples in the midst of the doctors (Luke ii. 46). Let us admire the humility of the eternal wisdom of the Master of all knowledge and of all light, listening to and interrogating simple men, and let us be confounded at our presumption and self-sufficiency.

First Point

The Infant Jesus in the Temple in His Relations with the Doctors of the Law.

1st. Jesus listens to them (Luke ii. 46); there is no doubt that no one could teach Him anything, or speak better than He. But His silence was a great lesson which He wished to give us. He desired: 1st, to teach us thereby to keep silence; we often repent that we have spoken, and rarely that we have been silent; 2d, to teach us not to assume in society an air of self-sufficiency which modesty disapproves, not to interrupt persons who are speaking, to listen to others with an air of interest, that we may be instructed if we are ignorant of what they are saying, and to be still better instructed if we are acquainted with what they are telling us, for it is always profitable to listen, without taking into account that we acquire the happiness of not giving pain to those who speak, and of giving to our knowledge its most beautiful feature, which is modesty. 2d. Jesus questions the doctors (Ibid.); not because He was ignorant of anything, but because He desired to teach us that truth is an inheritance which is transmitted from father to son, from the master to the disciple (Deut. xxxii. 7); that to wish to be our own master, without counsel and without guide, is to take the wrong path in the way of instruction; that the order of God is that we should be instructed by other men as formerly David was by Nathan and Gad, Moses by the counsels of the ancients, Saul by Ananias; that our vanity is very great, our knowledge very small, if we are not aware that we are ignorant of many things, and that it is foolish pride to prefer not to instruct ourselves by questioning others who are more clever than we are than to reveal our ignorance by asking questions; that, lastly, by consulting others we avoid many faults, and we spare ourselves much repentance; and that it is always prudent to add the wisdom of others to our own wisdom. 3d. After the Infant Jesus had questioned the doctors, they, in their turn, questioned Him, and He answered their questions with a modesty and wisdom which ravished with admiration all those who heard Him. We are perhaps tempted to envy the happiness of these hearers, but let us remember that Jesus Christ speaks to us by His Gospel, by all the instructions we receive from His ministers, by His holy inspirations. Let us listen, admire, and practise.

Second Point

The Infant Jesus in the Temple, in His Relations with His Parents.

Mary, having recognized Jesus in the midst of the doctors, goes immediately to Him, and says, not by way of reproach, but animated by a sentiment of admiration and astonishment: “Wherefore, my Son, hast Thou acted in this manner towards us?” She does not say, towards me, but towards us, because true charity mingles together in a common interest the trouble others feel and our own. She does not describe her trouble, but simply says: Why didst Thou act in this manner? a general expression which includes the whole of her excessive sorrow. Thy father and I, she adds, we have been seeking Thee. She does not say, I and Thy father, but Thy father and I, words full of humility, both in the manner in which she assigns to herself the second place, and also in her speaking of herself as an ordinary mother. To these words, so remarkable in their simplicity, Jesus answers: Wherefore did you seek Me among your relatives and your friends, and not rather in the temple, which is My Father’s house? Do you not know that I must give up Myself wholly to the service of My Father? an answer more admirable even than the complaint, because: 1st, it gives Mary an opportunity to teach us by her example to suffer reproach in silence, even when it is not deserved; 2d, it reveals to us that Jesus Christ is more than a man, and that God is His Father; 3d, it teaches us that we ought to give the service of God the first place, before the affection of relatives and before family interests, and employ ourselves in it at the time and in the place which He wills; 4th, that the place of a Christian soul is much rather in the temple where he can pray, meditate, and listen to the law of the Lord, than in societies and circles which only dissipate and corrupt it. What lessons are contained in these simple words of the Infant Jesus! Let us meditate upon them and conform our conduct to them.

Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.