Companions of Christ's Life

"Being rich He became poor for your sakes, that through His poverty you might be rich" (2 Cor. viii. 9). The first companion of Our Lord's life, and aid in His mission was Poverty. In this there were three degrees of privation. 

1. Our Lord gave up all the wealth and possessions of this world. He was born in a stable of the spouse of a poor artisan. He lived first by daily labour, and lastly by the offerings of the charitable. He died despoiled even of His garments, and was laid in another's sepulchre. 

2. He had no friendship or even acquaintance with great men, with the rich and noble, with chief-priests. His companions were poor ignorant fishermen. During His ministry He deprived Himself of the companionship of His Mother, the only being who understood Him and was in full sympathy with Him. 

3. He resigned the use of His divine power and authority for His own purposes, and employed it solely for the benefit of others. In the methods of the world, money, influential friends, exhibition of power are essential to success; to despise them is madness. In Christ's kingdom they are hindrances; this is the great comfort of the bulk of mankind. Christ's poverty is the cause of our spiritual wealth. This is true also in the economical order. In poor countries all have a sufficiency of work and wealth; but the thirst for riches and the accumulation of wealth is the cause of the abject misery of the millions of poor. Imitate, according to your state, the poverty of Christ; at least be detached from your possessions and generous with them.

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Jesus in The Desert

Immediately after His baptism "Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert" (Matt. iv. 1). 

 

1. Our Lord was subject to all the conditions of human life; and it was in accordance with law that He should prepare Himself by retirement and mortification for a great supernatural career, and for the temptation that is associated with it. The messenger of God must go straight from the Divine Presence to his task. 

2. The lawgiver of the Old Testament, just before delivering the law and organizing Israel into a nation, retired alone to the recesses of the mountains, and spent forty days face to face with God. With the same solemnity the Lawgiver of the New Testament prepared Himself to proclaim the universal Kingdom of God. 

3. The first epoch of human history had commenced with a personal struggle between the father of the race and the spirit of evil; a like struggle had to take place at the opening of the second epoch. Satan again girded himself to overthrow the divine plan, and hoped to succeed against the second Adam as against the first. You also have a work to do which requires all your vigilance and energy. Critical moments will occur in your life when you have to choose between God and Satan, and the nature of the issues is obscure. You cannot develop the necessary capacity on a sudden. It must be the fruit of a previous preparation like that of Our Lord.

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The Baptism of Christ

The advent of Christ had been announced by a long series of patriarchs, kings and prophets. St. John the Baptist was the last of the line, a rugged austere figure suddenly appearing from the desert, where he had lived in mortification and hardship for thirty years, in intimate communion with God. He was the immediate herald of the Messias and the greatest of the prophets. Every one of them had represented the Redemption by some symbolic act. Noah had saved the elect in the ark. Jacob begot twelve sons as princes of the people of God. Moses had delivered the Israelites from the avenging angel, and brought them through the waters of the Red Sea to the bounds of the Promised Land. David established his throne in Jerusalem. Solomon, the prince of peace, built the temple. Elias figured the Ascension. To St. John was given the emblem of baptism. This was merely a baptism of penance, and was not for the remission of sins; it was of water only, and not of the Holy Ghost and fire like Our Lord's. It stirred men to a sense of their sins and of their need for a Redeemer, and revived their expectation and desire of the Messias. You in like manner have to prepare for the coming of Jesus in His Holy Sacrament and in death. Do not venture rashly and unprepared into His presence, but cultivate retirement and prayer, penance and desire, in imitation either of St. John or his hearers.

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Characteristics of Christ's Life

"His name shall be called wonderful" (Isa. ix. 6). The life of Our Lord is most admirable in itself. Amongst all the marvels of the universe and of the human mind and character, there is nothing so rich in matter for admiration as Jesus Our Lord. His life is a source of unfailing interest to men in every age. Unbelievers acknowledge it to be more noble and beautiful than any life imagined or lived. It is a store-house of spiritual and temporal wisdom, it affords us the safest guidance for our lives; and if its lessons were practiced, most of the evils of humanity would be cured. Our Lord's being is wonderful as consisting of two natures infinitely distant, united in one person. In every particular we can trace this double influence. Our Lord was created, temporal, born of an earthly mother, yet, as God, He was eternal and without a mother. He was made "a worm and no man" (Ps. xxi. 17), and yet He is recognized by all as "beautiful above the sons of men" (Ps. xliv. 3). He was crushed beneath the burden of our sins, and He destroyed the power of sin. He was condemned by representatives of all mankind, and He is the supreme Judge of the living and the dead. None has been so lowly, and none is so great. He commands our awe and adoration, yet He is the perfection of tenderness and the object of the most ardent love. Consider Our Lord as an object of wonder. What treasures He contains, by many men unknown or despised! Let Him be the chief object of your thoughts, desires and love.

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The Occupations of Christ

Our Lord lived about thirty-three years on earth. During thirty years of this short time He remained in retirement with His Blessed Mother and His foster-father, St. Joseph, in a quiet village, working at a handicraft. During three brief years He preached and wrought miracles in the limited country of Palestine; He laid the foundations of His Church, He trained His Apostles and prepared them for their future work. Within three days He accomplished the great series of mysteries for which He had principally come to this world, His last Supper, His Prayer, His Passion, Death, and Resurrection. After that He remained in a semi-glorified state long enough to give evidence of His Resurrection, and then departed from this earth. But these were full years. "Being made perfect in a short space, He fulfilled a long time" (Wisd. iv. 13). Not a moment was useless or wasted. Our Lord came into full possession of His powers of mind and soul at the first instant of His existence, and never for a moment ceased from offering Himself to the Heavenly Father, praying efficaciously for our necessities, and forming internal acts of every kind of virtue. Those were years of the highest human activity elevated to a divine activity. They were the most precious and wonderful years in the whole history of the world. They did more for the progress of the world and the happiness of mankind than all the efforts, the thoughts, the inventions of the human race during its whole career. Compare your years "few and evil" with Our Lord's. Most of your time is spent in unconsciousness, much in idleness and unprofitableness, much in doing harm to men and offending God. Endeavour henceforth to "redeem the time because the days are evil" (Eph. v. 16).

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The Childhood of Christ

The first thing to be remarked is that Our Redeemer became the object of most violent persecution as soon as He commenced His work of blessing and elevating the human race. This was brought about by Satan, the prince of evil, through men, who have always been too susceptible to his influence. "The dragon stood before the woman, who was ready to be delivered, that when she should be delivered he might devour her Son" (Apoc. xii. 4). The powers of wickedness had always sought to destroy the tree of Jesse so as to prevent the accomplishment of Redemption. Pharaoh wished to exterminate the whole people of the Jews. Aman arranged for a simultaneous and complete massacre. Antiochus the same, in the time of the Maccabees. Athalia destroyed all but one of the direct line of David. Now Herod was inspired by hell to compass the death of the Christ in the general massacre of the innocents. God did not obstruct the freedom of human action; He did not meet it with the methods of the world, with armed resistance, nor did He work a miracle. The Infant was carried into exile, as if too weak to meet the storm, and the efforts of Satan were effectually frustrated. So always; the Church of Jesus is waylaid by the dragon; its destruction seems imminent; it has no material strength for resistance; but God is with it, and it can never fall. Let nothing induce you to lose confidence in the arm of the Almighty and the success of His Church.

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The Epiphany

The Epiphany was the first formal manifestation of Our Lord on His entrance into the world, and is a type of all His other manifestations. The coming of Christ was lowly, secret and sudden; it was not in the form that men expected or desired; it was both a surprise and a disappointment. There was much that might be alleged against its genuineness, and abundant excuses for those who wished to disbelieve, or doubt, or procrastinate and wait upon events. At the same time, there was clear evidence of divine action, sufficient for all, and convincing to men of good-will. This evidence differed in each case, and was adapted to the differences of men's circumstances. The simple shepherds had been called directly by God through the angels. Those learned in the study of the stars were brought by the evidence that their own science supplied. The Jews had the Sacred Books and prophecies, and the power of interpreting them; but they did not know the time of their visitation. Further evidence was given to them by the coming of the Magi, and their inquiries of Herod and the priests; this called attention both to the place and to the time of the coming of the Messias. The manifestation of Christ comes to you in some peculiar form adapted to your circumstances. It is a distant glimmering light at first, easily extinguished, often hard to detect. You need to be watchful, sincere, and prompt, if you wish to arrive at its fulness.

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The Circumcision

Circumcision was the outward sign of the ancient covenant between God and Abraham. It was a shedding of blood in punishment of sin, and an acknowledgment of the sinfulness of the race. The observers of it entered into the service of God by submitting to bear the burden of sin, and this by being washed in their own blood; and in consequence they became entitled to a share in the divine promises. God covenanted in return to give them a Messias who should shed His blood for the actual remission of their sins. By circumcision the Jews were spiritually incorporated into the chosen race, they became participants in special graces, and received a first charge on the universal covenant which was to succeed theirs. By this they received either the title to the future remission of original sin, or its actual remission in prevision of the merits of Christ. The Jewish covenant was temporary, it was the assurance of a promise yet to be fulfilled, and ceased when the prefigured Messias appeared. The promise was accomplished in Jesus Christ, and a new, abiding covenant has been made. The last of David's sons has been seated on an eternal throne, and reigns as King over the whole earth. We enter His kingdom and obtain the promise by being washed in His blood instead of our own. Thenceforth "they who are of the faith shall be blessed with faithful Abraham" (Gal. iii. 9). Thank God that He has allowed you to see this happy time, and take care to be faithful to your duties under the new covenant.

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The Nativity

After four thousand years of expectation, the moment arrived for the Messias to come from heaven and appear on earth to men. The words of the prophet were fulfilled: "The wilderness shall rejoice and shall flourish like the lily. It shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise. . . . They shall see the glory of the Lord and the beauty of our God" (Isa. xxxv. 1, 2). The birth of Christ, like His conception, was miraculous; painless and pure like the budding of the lily or the first rays of the rising sun, as became the sanctity of God the Son and the virginal holiness of His Blessed Mother. The great event which all mankind looked for, and which kings and prophets had celebrated, occurred in profound peace, in the silence and obscurity of midnight. Without observation, the King of glory entered the world that He had made, with no witnesses but the ox and the ass, in the cave-stable of Bethlehem. The work of the sixth day of creation was finished by the birth of the chief member of the human race, the first-born of mankind. The great cycle of the universe was virtually completed. Slowly it had progressed from primeval energy to solid matter, from the inorganic to the organic, from the sentient being to the rational. Man had been the crown of creation, and now Christ became the crown of humanity. Everything converged upon Him; and in Him the universe, in the course of its evolution, came back to God whence it had originally proceeded. Adore God in this wonderful mystery, which holds so important a position in both the cosmical and the super natural order.

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The Offices of Christ - 2

FINE ART AMERICA!

Jesus is our Light. "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death light is risen" (Isa. ix. 2). In consequence of the fall, our perception of truth has been obscured; error, ignorance, spiritual and mental darkness have prevailed. Redemption is an enlightenment, and Our Lord is the Light of the world. Without Him, in present as well as in past time, we are plunged in thickest darkness, we have no supernatural knowledge of God, and the natural knowledge of Him becomes erroneous. Many think now that passions, misery and death belong to man's nature and are ordained by God; that happiness consists in possessions and sensual gratifications; that violence, falsehood, injustice and lust are man's proper occupations and the irresistible needs of his being. No restraint is recognized but what is enforced by the state and its police, by convenience, public opinion, or "enlightened selfishness." Jesus, in His Church, by revealing Himself, the future life and the nature of sin, changes our views, and gives us new principles of action that will ensure our well-being in this world and in the next. "He that followeth Me walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John viii. 12). How happy you are, first in possessing a light otherwise unattainable, and then in having the firm assurance that you possess it! It is one of your greatest privileges. Be not unfaithful lest you lose it.

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The Offices of Christ - 1

FINE ART AMERICA!

Jesus Christ is our Redeemer; that is He has paid the price of our ransom, He has bought us out of slavery to sin and Satan, and has restored us to liberty, honour, and the enjoyment of our supernatural inheritance. These advantages mankind had lost through the sin of Adam and each one's personal sins. They had lost the dignity of the supernatural life with the true freedom that belongs to it. They were incapable of executing the commands that God had given, and so were not fully under His dominion. They had chosen a lower state at the suggestion of Satan, and had placed themselves on the side of evil against the supreme good. Their natural forces had been corrupted and weakened; they had laid themselves open to temptations, and had less vigour to resist them. They were demoralized by their subjection, and were incapable of throwing off the yoke and asserting themselves against a triumphant enemy. They knew nothing of a nobler state, and did not even desire it. And all this was the prelude to eternal slavery and the overwhelming miseries of hell. Such was the thoroughly wretched and hopeless condition of all men. From this we have been "bought with a great price" (1 Cor. vi. 29), viz., the Incarnation and Death of Jesus Christ. None other could have delivered us: hence He is our sole Redeemer. Be careful that you do not "neglect so great salvation" (Heb. ii. 3); like many who love their chains, who will not submit to the conditions which the higher state requires, and who trample on the blood of their Redemption.

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The Worship Due to Christ

FINE ART AMERICA!

"He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High" (Luke i. 32). The homage we pay to any one is proportioned to his eminence and greatness. Christ Our Lord is great in every respect. 

1. In His natures, the Divinity, and a most perfect and holy Humanity. 

2. In His power, for He can do all that He desires in heaven and on earth. 

3. In His qualities, which are the Divine Perfections, and the highest degree of all human virtues, splendour, beauty, benevolence, justice. 

4. In His relations, to God first, as a Person of the Blessed Trinity, and then to creatures, as their King, Priest, Teacher, and as Son of a Virgin Mother. 

5. In His activities, the internal ones of intellect and heart, and His external ones of miracles and beneficence. 

6. In the variety of the sufferings of His Passion and their effects. 

7. In His possessions, for all things are His. 

8. In every place; in His Blessed Mother, at Bethlehem, in the lowliness of Nazareth even, in the temple, on the cross and in death, in His descent to hell, and on the right hand of His Father. 

9. In every time; for before Abraham and the world were made He was. He was great in anticipation and prophecy, greater still abiding and working in His Church. 

10. One thing remains, that He be magnified in you, and His greatness be shown in its effects on your life. "Now also shall Christ be magnified in my body" (Phil. i. 20). For this greatness He depends on your good-will.

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The Predestination of Christ

FINE ART AMERICA!

"Jesus Christ, who was predestinated Son of God in power, according to the spirit of sanctification, by the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead" (Rom. i. 4). All things were foreseen and ordained by God from eternity; so Our Lord, as being man, was predestined like the rest of His race. He was to be the first-born of humanity, the father of all supernatural life, both to the generations following Him and to those preceding Him; and all the rest of mankind were predestined after Him, and with relation to Him. There was a double predestination in Jesus Christ. It was first predestined that the Sacred Humanity should be united personally with the Word of God; and this, not in consequence of its being merited by the works and virtues of Christ, but by the infinite bounty of God. Secondly, it was decreed that He should not remain for ever in the suffering stage of human nature, bearing our afflictions, but that He should be raised from the dead and glorified by the exhibition of divine power, and that He should occupy as man the first place in heaven. This predestination had reference to Christ's deeds and merits, as the reward earned thereby. Rejoice with Our Lord that His name is the first one written in the Book of Life; pray that yours may be written there after His, and strive to make it so.

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The Sonship of Christ

FINE ART AMERICA!

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, not by adoption, in any sense of the word, but by nature. Adoption is the gratuitous assumption of a person who is not a relative, to bring him into the family and entitle him to an inheritance. This cannot be said of Our Blessed Lord. He has the two natures: the divine, which He possessed from all eternity; the human, which He took so many years ago; the one is of the substance of the Father, the other is of the substance of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But it is the one indivisible Person who exists in both these natures, and the same who is Son of God and Himself God, is also Son of Mary. St. Paul draws out for us this divine dignity of Jesus Christ. God, he says, "in these days hath spoken to us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world: who being in the splendour of His glory, and the figure of His substance . . . sitteth on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb. i. 2, 3). We adore Our Lord, therefore, with supreme worship as being true God of true God; and we venerate the unparalleled dignity of her who, being Mother of the Son of God, was also Mother of God. Adore Our Lord profoundly, especially when you enter His presence, for the sublime dignity which belongs to Him in His Divinity and His Humanity.

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The Royalty of Christ

FINE ART AMERICA!

Jesus Christ is not only our Pontiff in spirituals, He is King and supreme ruler of mankind in temporals; because "there is no power but from God" (Rom. xiii. 1); and secondly because He is actually our King; He is "Prince of the Kings of the earth" (Apoc. i. 5). He Himself says, "All power is given Me in heaven and on earth" (Matt, xxviii. 18), and again, "I am appointed King by Him over Sion, His holy mountain" (Ps. ii. 6). Our Lord has all the qualities which go to the making of kings. He is of noble descent, being Son of God, He is the first born of all mankind, He surpasses all in power and in qualities of body and soul, He has conquered His rights by delivering the world from its previous slavery and disorganization, and He is the founder of a new social order and a new civilization. He is also Son of David, the King of the chosen people, which had primacy over all nations, to be their blessing and their salvation. The Father gave Him not only the Jews but all mankind, according to His word: "I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for Thy possession" (Ps. ii. 8). His rights, therefore, over us are temporal as well as spiritual, even though many refuse to admit them. The two things cannot be separated; for our internal and external life, although different, constitute one human life; the prosperity of the one is interwoven with that of the other; and the influences of religion and morality penetrate all our actions domestic, industrial, and political. Honour your King with the service both of body and soul. Let His law rule your whole life in every branch of it.

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The Priesthood of Christ

FINE ART AMERICA!

"The Lord hath sworn and He will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedec" (Ps. cix. 4). The priesthood used to be attached to the primogeniture; it belongs, therefore, to Our Lord, the first born of mankind; and it is His office to offer supreme worship to the Creator on behalf of all. He was, further, appointed to offer the great sacrifice for sins by the shedding of His blood on Calvary. This priesthood is "for ever," because the oblation continues for ever in heaven and on earth. The Apostle saw 

"in the midst of the throne . . . a lamb standing as it were slain" (Apoc. v. 6.); and Christ "offering one sacrifice for sins, for ever sitteth on the right hand of God" (Heb. x. 12). The eternal sacrifice as it goes on amongst us, is, according to the order of Melchisedec, under the forms of bread and wine. This is the "clean oblation" (of flour), which the prophet said would be offered among the Gentiles in every place, from the rising of the sun to its setting (Mai. i. 11). Venerate Our Lord as the eternal Priest, always offering the sacrifice of the Mass, in visibly but really, and inviting you to be present at it. There is no event so holy or so efficacious on earth; nothing that corresponds so exactly with the actual facts of heaven.

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The Prayer of Christ

FINE ART AMERICA!

The Gospels remind us continually of the long, frequent, and fervent prayers of Our Lord. This is meant for our example, and we should learn to consider prayer as the most pressing and important of our duties. It was necessary even for the Son of God as man. As being bound by the laws of human life. He had to exercise the virtue of Religion with its different forms of service towards God. Prayer is the ordinary means of securing the blessing of God on our work and graces for ourselves; Our Lord made use of it, therefore, for the promotion of His work of preaching and miracles, just as He made use of food for the support of His life in accordance with natural law. Prayer was also a function of Our Lord's office as Priest, Pontiff, and Mediator; those offices still continue in heaven, wherefore He is represented to us as "at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" (Rom. viii. 34). The example of Our Divine Master shows us that prayer is one of the most necessary of our duties; first, as a homage to God; secondly, as the accompaniment of every one of our undertakings, to secure its success, especially if it be of a spiritual nature; thirdly, as a most precious privilege which admits us to intimate communication with God; fourthly, as a source of grace, strength, comfort and guidance under all circumstances.

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The Subjection of Christ

FINE ART AMERICA!

Consider the successive descents and subjections of Jesus Christ for our sake. His Humanity was a creature of God, and so, of necessity, dependent on the supreme dominion of its Creator. The Divinity is over all, and loses none of its rights over the work of its hand even though it be united to the Humanity. Christ speaking in His human nature says therefore : "the Father is greater than I" (John xiv. 28). Our Lord then was subject to the natural and supernatural, moral and spiritual law. To the ceremonial law of God given by Moses, Christ was not properly subject, as being the Messias, the legislator, and the founder of a new dispensation. He submitted, however, out of respect to a law that had come from God, out of humility concealing His dignity, in order to give us an example. He submitted Himself further to obedience to the death of the cross under the law of His Father's will, and the law of charity towards us. The subjection of Christ was a lowering of Himself, but it exalted the Divinity in the person of the Father. An infinite Person became in His human nature the first subject of God; and for the first time God received His full due, infinite service of adoration and love. How great are the results of humility! Put off all your self-sufficiency for the sake of God, forego all elevation in your own esteem and in the esteem of others; it is little indeed to offer to God, but it will cost you much, and it will honour Him still more. It is the only way in which you can exalt Him.

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