Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/95



''"He grew  in  age  and  wisdom  and  grace  with  God  and men." — Luke ii. 52.

Ex. : I.  Gospel  silence. II. Reason. III. Church's liturgy.

1. Christ's  knowledge :  1. Pupil's question. 2. Christ's development  and  ours. 3. Knowledge  acquired,  infused;  possessed,  applied. II. Imperfect system  :  1. Age without  wisdom. 2. Wisdom without grace. 3. Crime  against  individual  and society.

III. Remedy : 1. Church's enemies. 2. God  and  Caesar. 3. Religious  instruction  and  Holy  Eucharist.

Per. : Result  will  be  real  Christians.

Brethren, in  meditating  on  the  mysteries  of  this holy season,  nothing  strikes  one  more  forcibly  or engenders  greater  surprise  than  the  silence  of  the Evangelists concerning  the  earlier  years  of  our divine Redeemer. After His  return  from  Egypt  to Nazareth  in  His  seventh  or  eighth  year,  we  lose  all trace of  Him  until  the  beginning  of  His  miracles  in Cana  of  Galilee,  in  the  thirtieth  year  of  His  age. True, we  find  Him  momentarily  appearing,  at  the  age of twelve,  in  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem,  but  with  that solitary exception  the  Evangelists  give  us  no  information concerning  His  whole  hidden  life,  other  than that He  went  down  to  Nazareth  with  His  parents  and was subject  to  them. Now, this  silence  of  the  Gospels, it  seems  to  me,  was  not  merely  accidental — it