HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 45, 7 March 1874, Page 13

HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

By the Abb 6J. E. Dakbas. (Translated from the French for the New Zealand Tablet.) 12. THE GOSPEL NAHBATIVE, A MIBACLE OF AUTHENTICITY. ATTJBNDANTS OF THE INFANT GOD IN THE TEMPLE OP JEBTTSALEIC. THTTS, forty days after the birth of a son in Israel, the purification of the mother was accomplished by a holocaust and a sin offering The inheritor of the royal house of David, the Immaculate Virgin, blessed among all women, bearing in her arms the Lamb of Grod, who was to efface the sins of the world, found herself too poor tj provide a lamb for the offering in the Temple. Her offering was that of the indigent ; two turtle doves or two young pigeons, presented to the priest, whose day it was to perform the function of sacrificer, were substituted for the rich offering made by the women of Israel. Divine poverty, and touching emblem of the purity of Mary, characterized by the innocence of the dove ! The priest, descendant of Aaron, prayed for the mother cf the Son of God ; and the legal purification was accomplished in the jftfenn of the Virgin without spot. This, however, was but one of the obligations imposed on Mary. The Divine child was a first-born ; as Mich, he belonne 1 to the Lord, and was therefore to be redeemed at a price. It is for this reason that the Evangelist adds that the child w*s to be presented in the temple. We have already dwelt at length on this condi'ion of primogeniture in Israel. Here again, this coiformityofSt. Luke's narrative with the observances prescribed by the law is striking. Let them say, if they will, ar d as often as they will, that an apocryphal writer has invented all these narratives in after-times-that a falsifier lias been able to measure his words to the perfect artlessnes* of trutn, so that not one of them should bo either out of place, or bet-ide the question! Rationalism would thus suppose a miracle, more surprising th an those of the Gospel which it rejects. Well, then ! "Yes ; the miraculous pervades this entire history and if it were otherwise, the world would be still pagan. What forms are these we see— in the age of Augustus, at a time when the world was rushing headlong into voluptuousness, sinking itself into Epicureanism gorging itself with luxury and blood ? What forms meet our gaze in the persons of the just Simeon, " awaiting the consolation promised to Israel, and of Anna the prophetess, wearing out an entire lifetime in prayer and fasting »in the Temple ! Where, then, had true greatness nobility of soul, piety and virtue, taken refuge ? Ask the poets the histoiians, the orators, the philosophers of Eome, if they were acquainted with these great things, even in name ? Fasting— to those refined wits who went to enrol themselves with so much ease amon" the disciples of Epicurus ! Piayer— to those slaves of the inflexible fatum (fate) 1 Truly, a great deal they minded these things at the banquets of Apicius, and beneath the perfumed velum of the circus, where the Gladiators assassinated each other with studied grace. Who does not see that to prodigies of corruption it is necessary to oppose proJigies of sanctity, that the increiib'e perversity of Paganism could only be vanquished by the divinity of the Gospefmiracle ; in fine, that the Only cortege wov'.hy ofthe Word made flesh, the only court befitting the presence of the God of all purity, was found in the Temple of Jerusalem, where Iho traditions of tho patriarchs, of the just, of the prophets, were personified in such representatives ? § ni. TnE Magi. Flight into Egypt. 18. Adqraton of the Magi.— Depasture of the Holy Family fob Egypt. "When Jesus therefore was born in Bethlehem, of Juda, in the days of King Herod, behold there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying : Where is he that is born King of the Jews ? For we have seen his star in the East, and are come to adore him King Herod hearing this was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him And assembling together all the chief priests and the Scribes ofthe people Me inquired of them where Christ should hi born. But they said to him : In Bethlehem, of Juda. For bo it is written by the Prophet • " And thou Bethlehem, the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda ; for out) of thee shall come the captain that shall rule my people Israel " (1). Then Herod, privately calling the wise men learned diligently of them the time of the star which appeared to them' and sending them into Bethlehem, said : Go and diligently inquire after the child, and when you have found him, brin<* me word again that I also may come and adore him. Who having heard the King went their way ; and behold the star which they had seen in the East went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was. And seeing the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And entering into the house, they found the child with Mary, his Mother asd, falling down, they adored him ; and opening their treasures, they him gifts— gold, irankincanse and myrrh. And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod "they went back another way into their own country. And after they were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph Baying : Arise, and take the child and his mother and fly into EWpt I and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will como to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him. And rising up, Joseph took the child and his mother by night and retired iato Egypt." (3)

(1) MioK, v 2. (2) Matth. n, 1-14. The Adoration of the Magi did not piecede the purification. Immediately after the departuio of the illustrious stranger?, the Holy Family, on the same night, set out for Egypt, buch readers as. would desire to study tins question of Evangelical Chronology fully, will fiud all the elements collected by R P Papebrock fActu Santo, j aaa 11. P. Patrizizi (De Evangel., lib iiiy It v generally believed tiiat the adoration of the Magi did not take place til a year after the birth of Josus Cfcrist ; this i% the opinion ofthe Bollandmts. As to the sojourn of the Ho3y Family at Bethfehem, during so long a space of ti.ue, there is nothing surprising m this, if we take into account all the statements furnished by the f. i<-ed text lßtl 8 t The Gospel tells us that the Holy Virgin dwelt i» >„ . v th before her espousal (Imo.i.fe7); but it does not in the least, inter that StT Joseph fixed his abode there, 2nd. Par from attributing this residence, eve" premeditated, to at. Joseph, before the time when he leceived the sublime misaion of guardian to the Immaculate Mary and foster father of Jeiu. the Gospel supposes piecisely the coutju.ry. In effect, when, wanted by the \ngel, the Holy Family quits Egypt to return into Palestine it is not to Galhlee, where Nazareth was situated, that Josei h thinks of returning, but to the tribe of Juda, where was situated Bethlehum Th« fear ol Aichelaus, son of Herod, who was reigning in Judea, and a divine

warning alone determined him to return to Nazareth. And thesasred historian notes this incident, as a circumstance providentally arranged tt ° O all h«man Probabilities : Vt adJpleretur £& SK& per prepfutas : Quonam Nazareus vocabitur. (Matth. ii. 23)