'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH ’

New Zealand Tablet, 12 February 1914, Page 3

' STAND FAST IN THE FAITH ’

(A Weekly Instruction specially written for the N.Z. Tablet by ‘Ghimel’.)- : y C THE BOYHOOD OF OUR LORD.— IV. The first twelve .years of the Diving Child’s life at Nazareth were characterised by sublime simplicity. He was subject to Mary and Joseph as other children were subject to their parents, received instruction, learnt a trade, and played the childish games of the East. ‘He advanced in wisdom and age and grace with God and men.' ■ - The twelfth year opened a new career to Him as to every Israelite, for from that age the young Jew was treated as a man and became a member of tlie Chosen People, blessed with its privileges and bound by its obligations. ‘He began, to bear the phylacteries on his forehead and arms, in religious ceremonies, according to the precepts of Moses ; he had to fast on penitential days; and at the great feasts, the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, -to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.’ It was on the occasion of His first visit to the Holy. City, at the feast of the Passover, that an incident occurred which gives us a glimpse of what was passing in the soul and . conscience of Jesus. The pilgrimages to the Temple in Jeursalem at the eat feasts formed a striking feature of Jewish national and religious life. Jews came from all parts of the world: ‘ Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappodocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, 'and Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Lybia about Gyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews also, and proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians —that is, Jews called by the names of the countries in which they lived. For safety and companionship the pilgrims travelled in large bands. As they passed through the deep valley of the Kidron, and climbed up the steep ascent to Jerusalem, the voices of thousands and thousands would ring out: ‘I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord—our feet, were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem. For thither did the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord; the testimony of Israel, to praise the name of the Lord’ (Ps. 121). ‘Behold now bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. In the nights lift up your hands to the holy places, and bless ye the Lord.’ Then came the answer, as it were from God Himself, ‘ May the Lord out of Sion bless thee, He that made heaven and earth’ (Ps. 133). , ■ What emotions vibrated through the soul of Jeshs as He entered the Temple for the first time we are not told, but we can well , imagine that His heart was stirred to its depths—‘ that heart so tender and sensitive, so ready to embrace all that touched His Father’s honor.’ , When the Paschal Feast was over, Joseph and Mary left Jerusalem on their homeward march with one of the bands of Galilean pilgrims. In the evening they arrived at the first stage, Bireh, not far from Bethel, where Jacob had the vision of the-mysterious ladder, and it was only then they found that the Child Jesus was not, as they had supposed, in the caravan. Anxiously, they returned to Jerusalem, and after three days’ search they found Him, to their, amazement, sitting in the midst of the great and learned men of the Temple, listening to them and asking them questions. * Those who know the manners of the Eakt, and have seen the Jewish synagogues or the Moslem mosques at the hour of teaching, will not wonder at this scene. A circle is made round the doctors, all sit on mats, listening, asking, answering, by ..turns ; young and old are seated side by side, the teachers/and the disciples with their legs crossed, on the same carpet, and all may speak. History does - not fysll us, , but we mav easily guess ; the questions of Jesus . and His

He was the V. Son of God, and though He had chosen to clothe and veil Himself with the robe of humanity, most rr,ys "of His infinite wisdom must have shown, •now as later on in His public ministry, through His human jdisguise. ‘ If human genius always reveals itself, the divine wisdom of Christ must have done the same.’ ;So we are not surprised to read that ‘ all who ''"heard Him were astonished at His answers ’ ; they were astonished not at the fact of the Boy being present or asking questions, but at the clear intelligence and discerning understanding of His questions and answers. Ho was about His, Father’s business, as He put it Himself. ‘ The mind of Jesus is revealed for the first time in this mysterious speech ; His whole self was there in Its fulness, with His title of divine Sonship, His sovereign initiative. His heavenly vocation His life, in its smallest details, would be only the accomplishment of this that was spoken in His twelfth year.’