HOMILY XII. ON THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY.
Luke 2. At that time, when Jesus was twelve years old, ascended with them to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast day, and having completed the days, when they were returning, the boy Jesus remained in Jerusalem, etc.
The reading of the holy Gospel has been recited to us, dearest brothers, and there is no need for us to speak in explanation of it. For it describes the infancy and childhood of our Redeemer, by which He deigned to become a partaker of our humanity: it recalls the eternity of the divine majesty, in which He has always remained equal to the Father; so that, with the humility of His incarnation brought to mind, we might also strive to practice the medicine of true humility against all the wounds of sin, always remembering with a pious soul how much we ought to humble ourselves for divine love, and for our own salvation, we who are earth and ashes, if that highest Power did not disdain to humble Himself for us in order to descend to receiving the weaknesses of our frailty. Also, having heard, believed, and confessed the divinity of the Lord Savior, by which He always remains consubstantial and coeternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, let us hope that through the sacraments of His humanity with which we have been imbued, we might be able to reach the contemplation of His divine glory, which He Himself promises to His faithful servants with faithful piety, saying: He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me: and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him (John XIV). "I will manifest Myself," He says, that is, not as I appear to everyone, as even unbelievers can see and crucify Me, but as in His own beauty the King of ages can be seen only by the pure eyes of the saints, I will show Myself in this manner to those who love Me, as a return of love. Therefore, let us hope, as we have said, that through the sacraments of His humanity we might ascend to see the form of His divinity, if indeed we keep those sacraments unstained with the worthy honor of justice and holiness and truth, as we have received them, if we humbly follow the examples of His human life, and the teachings which He delivered to us through man. For who, if he disdains to follow the footsteps of His humility, with what temerity does he hope to penetrate to the joys of His glory? Therefore, what the Lord did every year with His parents, coming to Jerusalem for the Passover, is undoubtedly a sign of human humility. For it is for man to hasten to offer spiritual sacrifices to God, and to reconcile himself to his Creator with prayers and tears profusely poured out. Therefore, the Lord, born as a man among men, did what God had commanded men to do through angels.
He himself observed the law he gave, so that he might show us, who are mere men, that everything God commands must be observed in all things. Therefore, let us follow the path of his human conversation, if we delight in beholding the glory of divinity, if we desire to dwell in his eternal house in the heavens all the days of our life, if we find joy in seeing the delight of the Lord, and being protected by his holy temple (Psalm 26). And, that we may not be struck by any wind of evil in eternity, let us remember to frequent the house of the present Church with the necessary gifts of pure prayers. That he sat in the temple at the age of twelve in the midst of the doctors, listening to and questioning them, is an indication of human humility, or rather, an eminent example of learnable humility. Indeed, the power of God, the eternal wisdom of God, which speaks divinely: "I, wisdom, dwell in counsel, and I am among learned thoughts. Counsel and justice are mine, prudence is mine, strength is mine; by me kings reign, and law-makers decree what is just. Blessed is the man who listens to me, who watches daily at my doors, who waits at the posts of my doors" (Proverbs 8). Clad in human form, she deigned to come to listen to humans, to undoubtedly provide the form necessary for learning the word to people, however gifted they may be with supreme talent: lest any who refuse to become disciples of truth turn out to be teachers of error. And fittingly, he who was to undertake the office of teaching while young, even as a little boy, listens and questions the elders, so that by their provident dispensation he curbs the audacity of those who, not only unlearned but even immature, rush to teach rather than submitting themselves to learning. Let us follow the path of his humanity, if the dwelling of divine vision delights us, always mindful of that precept: "Listen, my son, to the discipline of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother, so that grace may be added to your head, and chains around your neck" (Proverbs 1). Through the listening to paternal discipline and the observance of maternal law, grace is indeed added to our head, and chains to our neck: because the more one is attentive to listening to divine precepts, the more diligently one strives to observe them in the unity of Mother Church, the more worthily one will ascend now to the honor of preaching, and in the future, to the highest beatitude of reigning with Christ without end. But lest anyone suppose that the Lord and Savior resorted to listen and question the teachers due to any need of ignorance, let us see what follows:
All who heard him were amazed at his prudence and responses, and seeing him, they were astonished. For the same one who was truly man and truly God, to show that he was man, humbly listened to human teachers, and to prove that he was God, responded to them loftily. His mother seeking and saying:
"Son, why have you done this to us? Behold, your father and I were searching for you in sorrow." He responded: "And why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in the things of my Father?" This was a sign of divine majesty, of which he says elsewhere: "All things that the Father has are mine"; and therefore he rightly testifies that the temple pertains to him no less than to the Father. Found in the temple, he says that he must be in his Father's things: because indeed, of those whose majesty and glory are one, their seat and house are also one; not only the material house of God, which is made temporarily for worshiping Him, but also the intellectual house which is built for praising Him eternally, belongs equally to the Father and the Son, indeed even to the Holy Spirit. Hence, the same Son of God who promises to his beloved about himself and the Father: "We will come to him and make our home with him (John 14)," says of the Spirit: "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth, who will remain with you and will be in you (Ibid.)." Because, indeed, the dwelling of the same Holy Trinity, whose nature of divinity is one and indivisible, cannot be otherwise within the hearts of the elect. Therefore, what the Lord says while sitting in the temple, "I must be in my Father's things," is a declaration of coeternal power and glory with God the Father. But what he was submissive to his parents when returning to Nazareth, is a sign of human truth, as well as an example of humility. For in that nature he was subject to men, in which he is lesser than the Father. Hence, he himself says: "I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I"; in which he is also made a little lower than the angels (John 14). But in that in which he and the Father are one, in which he does not go to the Father in time, but always is in him, all things were made through him, and he is before all. Greatly to be admired is the dispensation of his great mercy, who, seeing that his parents could not yet grasp the mystery of his divine majesty, showed to them the humility of human subjection, so that through this, he might gradually lead them to the recognition of his divinity. For when he said, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's things?" and they did not understand the word that he spoke to them, as the evangelist following insinuates:
He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was submissive to them. Thus He revealed the secret of His divine power to His parents through His human frailty, to His true mother of His flesh, and to His most chaste guardian of His chastity, who at that time, not yet enlightened by the light of the Gospel, was almost universally estimated and called by those who knew them both as her husband by carnal union, and as the carnal father and guardian of the Lord and Savior Himself. He said to them, I must be about My Father's business. When they could not comprehend the heights of such a mystery, nor could they understand Him being involved in what truly belonged to His Father, He came down to accompany them in their ordinary conversation, and began to dwell in the things that were theirs: and He was submissive to them for pious reasons, until they could recognize how much He was to be preferred above all creatures. Let us consider briefly what our pride does in this regard. Certainly, when we realize that simpler brothers cannot understand the mysteries of Scripture we speak of, which we have learned with the Lord’s help over time and not eternity, we tend to become proud and look down on them, and boast about our unique and extensive knowledge, as if there were not many much more learned than us. And although we do not want to be despised by the more learned, we ourselves enjoy despising and even mocking those less learned than us. We do not care to remember that it is not to those who only comprehend the mysteries of faith or the commandments of their Creator by meditation, but rather to those who exercise what they have been able to learn through action, that the gates of the heavenly kingdom are open. Furthermore, it is sin for one who knows to do good and does not do it. And as the Lord Himself witnesses, to whom much is given, much is required from them (Luke 12). Therefore, let knowledge not inflate us, but let charity rather edify us: let us follow the example of the Son of God appearing as a human, who submitted Himself with benign humility to those He saw were not yet able to follow Him to the heights of knowledge, so that by His example, their minds imbued with heavenly grace would be made capable of receiving the heavenly mysteries.
And his mother, he said, kept all these words, pondering them in her heart. All the things that the Virgin Mother knew were said or done concerning the Lord or by the Lord, she diligently kept in her heart, carefully committing all things to memory, so that when the time finally came to preach or write about His incarnation, she would be able to fully explain everything as it happened to those who sought to know. Let us also, my brothers, imitate the pious mother of the Lord, keeping all the words and deeds of our Lord and Savior fixed in our hearts, repelling the troublesome incursions of worthless and harmful thoughts through daily and nightly meditation on them: through frequent reflection on them, let us also endeavor to chastise ourselves and our neighbors from useless and ill-sweetened conversations of detraction and to incite to the frequenting of divine praise. For if, dearest brothers, we desire to dwell in the house of the Lord in the blessedness of the world to come and praise Him forever, it is certainly necessary that we diligently show in this world what we seek in the future by frequently visiting the thresholds of the Church, not only by singing the praises of the Lord in it but also by striving through words and deeds in every place of His dominion for those things that contribute to the praise and glory of our Creator.
And Jesus, it says, increased in wisdom, age, and grace before God and men. It indicates the nature of true humanity, in which He desired to grow over time, who in divinity is the same, and His years will not fail. According to the nature of man, He increased in wisdom, not by becoming wiser over time, who from the very hour of conception remained full of the spirit of wisdom, but by gradually demonstrating to others over time the same wisdom of which He was full. According to the nature of man, He increased in age, because He advanced from infancy to childhood, from childhood to youth, through the customary order of human growth. According to the nature of man, He increased in grace, not by receiving what He did not have through the passage of time, but by revealing the gift of grace which He had. And rightly, when it was said that Jesus increased in wisdom, age, and grace, it was added, before God and men; because as He increased in age, He gradually revealed to men the gifts of wisdom and grace inherent in Him, and so He took care to always rouse them to the praise of God the Father, fulfilling what He commanded others to do: Let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matthew V). And thus He is said to have increased in grace and wisdom not only among men, in so much as they could recognize His wisdom and grace, but also before God, in so much as they reported the wisdom and grace which they recognized in Him to His praise and glory: to whose eternal blessings and gifts be praise and thanksgiving forever and ever. Amen.