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Lessons of Nazareth
In 1964, Pope Paul VI made a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land and spoke these words at the dedication
of the new Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth.
At Nazareth, our very first thoughts must be turned toward Mary Most
Holy, to offer her the tribute of our devotion and to nourish that
devotion with reflections that will make it genuine, profound and
unique, in conformity with the plan of God. It is Mary who is full
of grace, who is the Immaculate, the ever-virgin, the Mother of
Christ and hence God's Mother and ours, she who was assumed into
heaven, our most blessed Queen, the model for the Church and our
hope.
Before all else we offer our humble filial promise to venerate her
with that special devotion which recognizes the wonders God has
accomplished in her; with singular homage manifesting the most holy,
pure affectionate, personal and confident movements of our heart;
with such devotion as causes her encouraging example of human
perfection to shine upon the world from on high.
Then we present to her our requests for what is closest to our
heart, because we wish to honor both her goodness and the power of
her love and intercession. We pray that she may preserve in our
hearts a sincere devotion to her. We beg her to give us
understanding, desire, and then the peace of possessing purity of
body and soul, purity in thought and word, art and love; the purity
that the world of today attempts to shock and violate; the purity to
which Christ has linked one of His promises, one of His beatitudes,
that of penetrating into the vision of God Himself.
We ask therefore the favor of joining our Lady, mother of the home
at Nazareth, and her humble but courageous husband St. Joseph, in
their intimacy with Jesus Christ, her human and divine Son.
Nazareth School of the Gospel
Nazareth is the school in which we begin to understand the life of
Jesus. It is the school of the Gospel. Here we learn to observe, to
listen, to meditate, and to penetrate the profound and mysterious
meaning of that simple, humble, and lovely manifestation of the Son
of God. And perhaps we learn almost imperceptibly to imitate Him.
Here we learn the method by which we can come to understand Christ.
Here we discover the need to observe the milieu of His sojourn among
us places, period of time, customs, language, religious practices,
all of which Jesus used to reveal Himself to the world. Here
everything speaks to us; everything has meaning. Everything
possesses twofold significance.
"The letter"
The first is exterior, that which the spectators' senses and
perceptiveness can immediately derive from the Gospel scene. It is
the impression gained by those who look merely at externals, who
study and examine only the philological and historical trappings of
the holy books, that part of which in Biblical terminology is called
"the letter." This study is important and necessary, but it is
opaque to one who stops there, and even capable of engendering
illusions and intellectual pride in the observer who approaches the
external elements in the Gospel without clear vision, humility, a
good intention, and a prayerful spirit.
... and "the spirit"
There is also an interior significance that is, the revelation of
divine truth, of supernatural reality which the Gospel not only
contains but also manifests, though, to be sure, only to the person
who puts himself in harmony with its light. This harmony is due
partly to uprightness of spirit, that is of mind and heart a
subjective and human condition which depends on the personal
initiative of each person.
At the same time it flows from the mysterious, free, and unmerited
outpouring of grace, which, in keeping with the mystery of mercy
governing mankind's destiny, is never lacking; indeed, at the proper
time and in the appropriate manner it never fails any man of good
will. This second element, distinct from "the letter" of the Gospel,
is called the "the spirit."
It is here, in this school, that one comes to grasp how necessary it
is to be spiritually disciplined, if one wishes to follow the
teachings of the Gospel and to become a follower of Christ. Oh, how
we would like to repeat, so close to Mary, our introduction to the
genuine knowledge of the meaning of life, and to the higher wisdom
of divine truth!
But our steps here are hurried, and we must take leave of our desire
to pursue here this never-ending education in understanding of the
Gospel. Nevertheless, we cannot depart without recalling briefly and
fleetingly some fragments of the lesson of Nazareth.
The lesson of silence
The lesson of silence: may there return to us an appreciation of
this stupendous and indispensable spiritual condition, deafened as
we are by so much tumult, so much noise, so many voices of our
chaotic and frenzied modern life. O silence of Nazareth, teach us
recollection, reflection, and eagerness to heed the good
inspirations and words of true teachers; teach us the need and value
of preparation, of study, of meditation, of interior life, of secret
prayer seen by God alone.
of domestic life
The lesson of domestic life: may Nazareth teach us the meaning of
family life, its harmony of love, its simplicity and austere beauty,
its sacred and inviolable character; may it teach us how sweet and
irreplaceable is its training, how fundamental and incomparable its
role on the social plane.
of work
The lesson of work: O Nazareth, home of "the carpenter's son," we
want here to understand and to praise the austere and redeeming law
of human labor, here to restore the consciousness of the dignity of
labor, here to recall that work cannot be an end in itself, and that
it is free and ennobling in proportion to the values beyond the
economic ones which motivate it. We would like here to salute all
the workers of the world, and to point out to them their great
Model, their Divine Brother, the Champion of all their rights,
Christ the Lord!
And so our thoughts leave Nazareth and range those mountains of
Galilee which once provided the natural backdrop for the words of
the Divine Teacher. We lack time and sufficient strength to proclaim
at this moment the divine message intended for the entire universe.
But we cannot neglect to glance at the nearby Mount of the
Beatitudes, which are the synthesis and summit of evangelical
preaching, and to listen to the echoes of that discourse which, in
this mysterious atmosphere, now seem audible to us.
The motive of love
It is the voice of Christ promulgating the New Testament, the new
law which both absorbs and surpasses the old, and raises human
endeavor to the very peak of perfection. The great motive of man's
activity is a sense of duty which controls the exercise of his
freedom. In the Old Testament it was fear; and at all times
including our own it is instinct and self-interest.
But for Christ, who is the Father's gift of love to the world, the
motive is love. He taught us to obey through love; it is love that
moved Him to set us free.
According to the teaching of St. Augustine, "God gave less difficult
precepts to those who had still to be bound by fear; through His Son
He gave more difficult ones to those whom He had deigned to free by
love."
Christ in His Gospel has spelled out for the world the supreme
purpose and the noblest force for action and hence for liberty and
progress: love. No goal can surpass it, be superior to it, or
supplant it. The only sound law of life is His Gospel. The human
person reaches his highest level in Christ's teaching. Human society
finds therein its most genuine and powerful unifying force.
We believe, O Lord, in Thy word; we will try to follow and live it.
Echoes of the Beatitudes
Now we hear its echo reverberating in the souls of men of our
century. It seems to tell us: Blessed are we, if in poverty of
spirit we learn to free ourselves from false confidence in material
things and to place our chief desires in spiritual and religious
goods, treating the poor with respect and love as brothers and
living images of Christ.
Blessed are we, if, having acquired the meekness of the strong, we
learn to renounce the deadly power of hate and vengeance, and have
the wisdom to exalt above the fear of armed force the generosity of
forgiveness, alliance in freedom and work, and conquest through
goodness and peace.
Blessed are we, if we do not make egoism the guiding criterion of
our life, nor pleasure its purpose, but learn rather to discover in
sobriety our strength, in pain a source of redemption, in sacrifice
the very summit of greatness.
Blessed are we, if we prefer to be the oppressed rather than the
oppressors, and constantly hunger for the progress of justice.
Blessed are we, if for the Kingdom of God in time and beyond time we
learn to pardon and to persevere, to work and to serve, to suffer
and to love.
We shall never be deceived.
In such accents do we seem to hear His voice today. Then, it was
stronger, sweeter, and more awe-inspiring: it was divine. But as we
try to recapture some echo of the Master's words, we seem to be won
over as His disciples and to be genuinely filled with new wisdom and
fresh courage.
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Brother Charles painted this picture
of Mary and Jesus (under Mary's title of Our Lady of Perpetual Help)
while he lived in Nazareth from 1897 to 1900.
Sr. Mary Elizabeth made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with other
members of the community in 1985. Their journey included a visit to
Nazareth.
Sister visited the chapel where Brother Charles prayed. He worked as
a handyman for the Poor Clare Sisters during his time in Nazareth.
The Poor Clares are proud of their history with Brother Charles.
Sister loved to make friends everywhere. In Nazareth, we learn "to
observe, to listen, to meditate."
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