Part 7 (2/2)
vi 1; _BJ_, II xii 3; _Vita_, 52 Often, however, the pilgrims came by Peraea, in order to avoid Saers; Matt xix 1; Mark x 1]
[Footnote 5: According to Josephus (_Vita_, 52) it was three days'
journey But the stage froenerally divided into two]
[Footnote 6: lxxxiii according to the Vulgate, v 7]
These journeys, in which the asseed its ideas, and which were alitation, placed Jesus in contact with the mind of his country with a lively antipathy for the defects of the official representatives of Judaisreat influence on his develop stays there[1] But the God he found in the desert was not his God It was rather the God of Job, severe and terrible, accountable to no one Sometimes Satan came to tempt hiain his heavenly Father in thethe crowds of woels in their hearts, awaited the salvation of Israel
[Footnote 1: Luke iv 42, v 16]
CHAPTER V
THE FIRST SAYINGS OF JESUS--HIS IDEAS OF A DIVINE FATHER AND OF A PURE RELIGION--FIRST DISCIPLES
Joseph died before his son had taken any public part Mary remained, in a manner, the head of the family, and this explains why her son, when it ished to distinguish him from others of the same name, was most frequently called the ”son of Mary”[1] It see, by the death of her husband, been left friendless at Nazareth, she withdrew to Cana,[2] froinally Cana[3]
was a little town at from two to two and a half hours' journey from Nazareth, at the foot of the mountains which bound the plain of Asochis on the north[4] The prospect, less grand than at Nazareth, extends over all the plain, and is bounded in the most picturesque manner by the mountains of Nazareth and the hills of Sepphoris Jesus appears to have resided some time in this place Here he probably passed a part of his youth, and here his greatness first revealed itself[5]
[Footnote 1: This is the expression of Mark vi 3; cf Matt xiii 55
Mark did not know Joseph John and Luke, on the contrary, prefer the expression ”son of Joseph” Luke iii 23, iv 22; John i 45, iv 42]
[Footnote 2: John ii 1, iv 46 John alone is informed on this point]
[Footnote 3: I admit, as probable, the idea which identifies Cana of Galilee with _Kana el Djelil_ We uments for _Kefr Kenna_, a place an hour or an hour and a half's journey NNE of Nazareth]
[Footnote 4: Now _El-buttauf_]
[Footnote 5: John ii 11, iv 46 One or two disciples were of Cana, John xxi 2; Matt x 4; Mark iii 18]
He followed the trade of his father, which was that of a carpenter[1] This was not in any degree hurievous The Jewish customs required that a man devoted to intellectual work should learn a trade The most celebrated doctors did so;[2] thus St Paul, whose education had been so carefully tended, was a tent-maker[3]
Jesus never arded as his celestial vocation The extre toomen, which we remark in him, was not separated from the exclusive devotion which he had for his mission Like Francis d'assisi and Francis de Sales, he treated as sisters the women ere loved of the same work as himself; he had his St Clare, his Frances de Chantal It is, however, probable that these loved himThus, as often happens in very elevated natures, tenderness of the heart was transforue poetry, and a universal charm His relations, free and intimate, but of an entirely moral kind, omen of doubtful character, are also explained by the passion which attached hilory of his Father, and which made him jealously anxious for all beautiful creatures who could contribute to it[4]
[Footnote 1: Mark vi 3; Justin, _Dial cum Tryph_, 88]
[Footnote 2: For example, ”Rabbi Johanan, the shoemaker, Rabbi Isaac, the blacksmith”]
[Footnote 3: _Acts_ xviii 3]
[Footnote 4: Luke vii 37, and following; John iv 7, and following; viii 3, and following]
What was the progress of the ideas of Jesus during this obscure period of his life? Through what meditations did he enter upon the prophetic career? We have no infor coy But the development of character is everywhere the sarowth of so powerful individuality as that of Jesus obeyed very rigorous laws A high conception of the Divinity--which he did not owe to Judaism, and which seereat mind--was in a manner the source of all his power It is essential here that we put aside the ideas familiar to us, and the discussions in which little minds exhaust themselves In order properly to understand the precise character of the piety of Jesus, we ospel and ourselves Deisy
The paltry discussions of scholasticision of the eighteenth century, by lessening God, and by li which is not His very self, have stifled in the breast of modern rationalism all fertile ideas of the Divinity If God, in fact, is a personal being outside of us, he who believes himself to have peculiar relations with God is a ”visionary,” and as the physical and physiological sciences have shown us that all supernatural visions are illusions, the logical Deist finds it ireat beliefs of the past Pantheis the Divine personality, is as far as it can be froions Were the men who have best comprehended God--Cakya-Mouni, Plato, St Paul, St Francis d'assisi, and St Augustine (at so life)--Deists or Pantheists? Such a question has noThe physical and metaphysical proofs of the existence of God were quite indifferent to them They felt the Divine within thereat family of the true sons of God Jesus had no visions; God did not speak to him as to one outside of Himself; God was in him; he felt himself with God, and he drew from his heart all he said of his Father He lived in the bosom of God by constant communication with Him; he saw Him not, but he understood Hi bush of Moses, of the revealing tees, of the fael Gabriel of Mahoination and the hallucination of a St Theresa, for example, are useless here The intoxication of the Soufi proclai Jesus never once gave utterance to the sacrilegious idea that he was God He believed himself to be in direct communion with God; he believed hihest consciousness of God which has existed in the bosom of humanity was that of Jesus
We understand, on the other hand, how Jesus, starting with such a disposition of spirit, could never be a speculative philosopher like Cakya-Mouni Nothing is further froy than the Gospel[1] The speculations of the Greek fathers on the Divine essence proceed from an entirely different spirit God, conceived siy of Jesus And this was not with him a theoretical principle, a doctrine ht to inculcate in others He did not argue with his disciples;[2] he demanded from them no effort of attention He did not preach his opinions; he preached hireat and very disinterested minds often present, associated with much elevation, that character of perpetual attention to theeneral, is peculiar to women[3] Their conviction that God is in the, that they have no fear of obtruding themselves upon others; our reserve, and our respect for the opinion of others, which is a part of our weakness, could not belong to theotisive their lives freely, in order to seal their work; it is the identification of self with the object it has elory by those who see in the new teaching only the personal phantasy of the founder; but it is the finger of God to those who see the result The fool stands side by side here with the inspired iven to insanity to influence seriously the progress of humanity