Up to this point, by the grace of God, we have treated the Life of the Lord Jesus according to the order of events, omitting little or nothing of all that happened to Him, or of His own doings ; but I do not intend to pursue the same course hereafter. This Work would become too long, if I were to touch upon all that He said and did, and to attempt to bring all within the compass of these meditations ; especially as it is of the greatest moment that we should, after the custom of S. Cecilia, continually bear deeplyengraven on our hearts the facts of Christ’s life. Let us, then, make choice of some of His actions on which, in meditation, we may assiduously occupy ourselves up to the time of His Passion; for, after that, nothing must be omitted. Neither ought we to dismiss from consideration anything altogether, or cease to insert it in its right place and time. But I do not intend for the future to treat these meditations at so great a length, except on rare occasions. For it suffices that you place before the eyes of your mind that which was done or said by Him, and that you hold colloquy with Him, and become familiar with Him. For in this seems to consist the greater sweetness and efficacy, and, as it were, the entire fruit of these meditations, that everywhere and always you devoutly behold Him in some act of His ; as when, for instance, He stands in the midst of His disciples, and when He is with sinners ; when also He speaks to them, when He preaches to the crowd, when He goes out, when He sits, when He sleeps, when He watches, when He eats, when He ministers to others, when He heals the sick, and when He works other miracles. But on these, and on similar occasions, observe all His gestures, and especially the expression of His features, if you can form some conception of it, which seems to me more difficult than anything which has been before mentioned. Observe also attentively whether He, perchance, looks graciously upon you. Recur to what has been said in this chapter for instruction upon all which follows, and whatever I relate hereafter, unless in the meditations in question I suggest a different course, and in those which I shall omit, refer to this place, and it will be a sufficient guide to you. Let us now proceed with the following subjects.
After, then, the Lord Jesus returned from His Baptism, the Master of humility lived in a humble manner, as He had been accustomed to do. He began, however, by degrees to manifest Himself to some, by teaching and preaching in secret. For He is not said to have assumed publicly the office of preaching during the whole of the following year ; namely, not until the miracle which He wrought at the marriage feast, and which happened on the same day as His Baptism, a year after it. And if on some occasions He preached and His disciples baptized, yet neither did He nor His disciples habitually preach before the imprisonment of John, as afterwards they did. In this, giving us an example of amazing lowliness, in humbly deferring to John, who was so greatly His inferior in preaching, as we may piously imagine or conclude from what we have seen before. He did not, then, begin His public ministry with noise and pomp, but humbly and gradually.
On one Sabbath-day, then, when He was in the synagogue with the assembly of the Jews, He stood up to read1 in the book of Isaiah, and He read the passage where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor .”2 And then, when He had shut the book, He said, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Behold Him, then, how humbly He undertakes the office of reader. With a benign and placid face He reads among them, and expounds the Scripture; and how humbly He begins to manifest Himself, when He says, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled ;” that is, “I am He of whom the Prophet speaks.” And the eyes of all were fixed upon Him, on account of the efficacy of His words, and His lowly and gracely appearance ; for He was most beautiful and most eloquent. Of both the Prophet thus had spoken, ” Thou art fairer than the children of men ; full of grace are Thy lips .”3
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