LIFE AT NAZARETH
2. In the Temple.
See them arrive in the Temple, the house of their Father, the place where God dwells and communicates Himself to souls. How pained they feel to witness the abuses committed in the Temple! The want of respect for the sacred place shown by the shop-keepers and mercenary-minded people who have taken their merchandise and commerce into the sacred premises. Was not Jesus tempted to do now what He did later on, namely, to drive them out at the point of a cracking whip? But His hour has not still come. How injurious to Jesus is a fault committed in a sacred place.
They enter the Temple and first Jesus and then Mary and Joseph begin to pray. It was their first prayer together in the Temple. Let us join them. Let us keep close to Him. Let us stand close to Our Lady. The Mother does not lift Her eyes from Him but full of love and admiration imitates His way of praying and speaking to God. What does He tell His Father? How great is the fervor of His Heart! How He shares it with Mary and She too is all ablaze with fervor! And then they take part in all the sacred ceremonies with great attention following the development of the liturgy. No vain curiosity, no unnecessary questions, no comment, no frivolous demeanor in the presence of so much splendor. It is thus that you too take part in the liturgy or do you occasionally allow yourself some light remark?
And when the Child saw the Pascal Lamb and witnessed its immolation and when He watched the priests gathering its blood in golden vessels in order to pour it on the altar of the holocausts, what would His Heart feel? Nothing foreshadowed the Redeemer and His Sacrifice better than the innocent little lamb. Well did Jesus know that that blood was too poor and insufficient to wash away our sins and give atonement to His Father. And He would once again repeat in His Heart: "My Father, here I am ready, I shall take away the sins of the world." And Mary, His Mother, so used She was to reading that Heart, would certainly guess all the thoughts that were crossing the mind of Jesus. And She too would renew with Her Son the desire of that Sacrifice for the salvation of men.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
2. In the Temple.
See them arrive in the Temple, the house of their Father, the place where God dwells and communicates Himself to souls. How pained they feel to witness the abuses committed in the Temple! The want of respect for the sacred place shown by the shop-keepers and mercenary-minded people who have taken their merchandise and commerce into the sacred premises. Was not Jesus tempted to do now what He did later on, namely, to drive them out at the point of a cracking whip? But His hour has not still come. How injurious to Jesus is a fault committed in a sacred place.
They enter the Temple and first Jesus and then Mary and Joseph begin to pray. It was their first prayer together in the Temple. Let us join them. Let us keep close to Him. Let us stand close to Our Lady. The Mother does not lift Her eyes from Him but full of love and admiration imitates His way of praying and speaking to God. What does He tell His Father? How great is the fervor of His Heart! How He shares it with Mary and She too is all ablaze with fervor! And then they take part in all the sacred ceremonies with great attention following the development of the liturgy. No vain curiosity, no unnecessary questions, no comment, no frivolous demeanor in the presence of so much splendor. It is thus that you too take part in the liturgy or do you occasionally allow yourself some light remark?
And when the Child saw the Pascal Lamb and witnessed its immolation and when He watched the priests gathering its blood in golden vessels in order to pour it on the altar of the holocausts, what would His Heart feel? Nothing foreshadowed the Redeemer and His Sacrifice better than the innocent little lamb. Well did Jesus know that that blood was too poor and insufficient to wash away our sins and give atonement to His Father. And He would once again repeat in His Heart: "My Father, here I am ready, I shall take away the sins of the world." And Mary, His Mother, so used She was to reading that Heart, would certainly guess all the thoughts that were crossing the mind of Jesus. And She too would renew with Her Son the desire of that Sacrifice for the salvation of men.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
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