Vigils Reading

THE SEASON OF MAJESTY

The continuation of a sermon by St John Henry Newman

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You will observe, then, that the only display of royal greatness, the only

season of majesty, homage and glory, which our Lord had on earth, was in His

infancy and youth. Gabriel’s message to Mary was in its style and manner such as

befitted an Angel speaking to Christ’s Mother. Elizabeth, too, saluted Mary, and the

future Baptist his hidden Lord, in the same honorable way. Angels announced His

birth, and the shepherds worshiped. A star appeared, and the wise men rose from

the East and made Him offerings. He was brought to the temple, and Simeon took

Him in his arms, and returned thanks for Him. He grew to twelve years old, and

again He appeared in the temple, and took His seat in the midst of the doctors. But

here His earthly majesty had its end, or if seen afterwards, it was but now and then,

by glimpses and by sudden gleams, but with no sustained light and no diffused

radiance.

We are told at the close of the last-mentioned narrative, “And He went down

with His parents, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.” His subjection

and servitude now began in fact. He had come in the form of a servant, and now He

took on a servant’s office. How much is contained in the idea of His subjection! and

it began, and His time of glory ended, when He was twelve years old.

Solomon, the great type of the Prince of Peace, reigned for forty years, and

his name and greatness was known far and wide through the East. Joseph, the

much-loved son of Jacob, who in an earlier age of the Church, was a type of Christ

in His kingdom, was in power and favor eighty years, twice as long as Solomon. But

Christ, the true Revealer of secrets, and the Dispenser of the Bread of life, the true

wisdom and majesty of the Father, manifested His glory only in His early years,

and then the sun of Righteousness was clouded. For He was not to reign really, till

He left the world. He has reigned ever since; nay, reigned in the world, though He is

not sensible presence in it – the invisible King of a visible kingdom – for He came

on earth only to show what His reign would be, after He had left it, and to submit to

suffering and dishonor, that He might reign. Christ descends to the shadows of this

world, with the transitory tokens on Him of that future glory into which He could

not enter till He had suffered. The star burned brightly over Him for a while,

though it then faded away.