143 part i: sunday meditations for the entire year and then, on the mountain of Moriah40 (that is, in religious life), consecrate, dedicate, and sacrifice your only son Isaac, which is your will, to the one, all-good, and all-powerful God. In accordance with the Eternal Wisdom, always say of all actions or plans: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in [H]eaven” (Mt 6:10) [DRB]. As to me, O Lord, may Your will be done with me in every moment, hour, day, and in eternity. 3. “and [He] was obedient to them” (Lk 2:51). Now Christ teaches you the sublime virtue of obedience not by lengthy words, but by the power of brief examples, as you consider His submission to the will of His parents. I am more astounded here, O Jesus, at Your humble obedience to Joseph, than at Your persuasion of the Israelite teachers with the admirable power of Your words and knowledge. For what is astonishing in Your debating most wisely, since You are Eternal Wisdom? But who would not be astonished that You, the Lord of Heaven, willingly subject Yourself to parents; that You, who are God, submit Yourself to human beings? O my Jesus, having Your example before my eyes, I acknowledge the excellence and necessity of the virtue of obedience. For it was necessary that He who would have to be obedient to His executioners later, and to Whom the whole world was to be subjected, obeyed His parents first. Should neighbors and kinsfolk have noticed that He rebelled against His Virgin Mother and His presumed father Joseph, they might have suspected that He was under the influence of an evil spirit and that He was hypocritical and conceited. Obedience is the true witness and proof of all holiness. [f.15r] 40 Moriah is the name of the mountain to which Abraham went to offer sacrifice to God (cf. Gen 22:2).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==