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).
