FOURTH WEEK- COMING OF CHRIST - BAPTISM - HIS TEMPTATION AND THE APOSTLES

OF THE COMING OF CHRIST TO THE TEMPLE WHEN HE WAS OF THE AGE OF TWELVE YEARS

St. Luke writes in the second Chapter [42-51].

First Point. First: Christ our Lord, of the age of twelve years, went up from Nazareth to Jerusalem.

Second Point. Second: Christ our Lord remained in Jerusalem, and His parents did not know it.

Third Point. Third: The three days passed, they found Him disputing in the Temple, and seated in the midst of the doctors, and His parents asking Him where He had been, He answered: "`Did you not know that it behooves Me to be in the things which are My Father's?'"

OF HOW CHRIST WAS BAPTIZED

St. Matthew writes in the third Chapter [13-17].

First Point. First: Christ our Lord, after having taken leave of His Blessed Mother, came from Nazareth to the River Jordan, where St. John Baptist was.

Second Point. Second: St. John baptized Christ our Lord, and wanting to excuse himself, thinking himself unworthy of baptizing Him, Christ said to him: "Do this for the present, for so it is necessary that we fulfill all justice.'"

Third Point. Third: "The Holy Spirit came and the voice of the Father from heaven affirming: `This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.'"

OF HOW CHRIST WAS TEMPTED

St. Luke writes in the fourth Chapter [1-14] and St. Matthew fourth Chapter [1-12].

First Point. First: After being baptized, He went to the Desert, where He fasted forty days and forty nights.

Second Point. Second: He was tempted by the enemy three times. "The tempter coming to Him said to Him: `If Thou be the Son of God, say that these stones be turned into bread.' `Cast Thyself down from here.' `If prostrate on the earth Thou wilt adore me, I will give Thee all this which Thou seest.'"

Third Point. Third: "The Angels came and ministered to Him."

OF THE CALL OF THE APOSTLES

First Point. First: it seems that St. Peter and St. Andrew were called three times: first, to some knowledge; this is clear from St. John in the first Chapter: secondly, to follow Christ in some way with the purpose of returning to possess what they had left, as St. Luke says in the fifth Chapter: thirdly, to follow Christ our Lord forever, as St. Matthew says in the fourth Chapter and St. Mark in the first.

Second Point. Second: He called Philip, as is in the first Chapter of St. John, and Matthew as Matthew himself says in the ninth Chapter.

Third Point. Third: He called the other Apostles, of whose special call the Gospel does not make mention.

And three other things also would be to be considered:

The first, how the Apostles were of uneducated and low condition;

The second, the dignity to which they were so sweetly called;

The third, the gifts and graces by which they were raised above all the Fathers of the New and Old Testaments.