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| 'Cave of Jeremiah,' Selina Bracebridge, William Henry Bartlett, c.1825-60. |
PART I: HIDE AND SEEK
1. Introduction
In 2 Maccabees we read a record of how the
Prophet Jeremiah climbed a mountain “and found a cave” and there hid “the tabernacle
tent and the ark and the altar of incense,” sealing “up the entrance” until the
time came when the Lord would reveal it (2:4-8). This took place as Jerusalem
was besieged by the Babylonian army. The whole city was reduced to rubble, and
the first temple built by Solomon was destroyed. God instructed Jeremiah to hide
the three most holy things from the temple in order to keep them safe and
secure until a future date.
2. Jesus, Mary and Joseph: The Tent, Ark and Altar
These three holy articles of the temple serve as symbols
of each member of the Holy Family. The associations attached to the articles could
easily vary, but those we will draw are pertinent.
The tabernacle tent was the original dwelling place of God used from Moses' time until the reign of Solomon. It was in this sense, the original temple and holy place. It was likely stored in the temple once the temple was built, and thus Jeremiah was able to take it away. Jesus, specifically in His humanity, is aptly symbolised
by the tabernacle tent because the Greek word used in the Old Testament for the
holy tent was σκηνη, the same word used in the passage from 2 Maccabees above.
This word in its verbal form (σκηνόω) appears in John’s Gospel when he writes:
“the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (1:14). The Greek word for “he
dwelt” being ἐσκήνωσεν, literally, “he tented,” “he pitched his tent” among us.
The ark of the covenant was a wooden box gilded with gold upon which God’s Presence rested. It was crafted under Moses’ leadership. The ark symbolises Mary, since Mary is persistently referred to in Catholic tradition and devotion as the Ark of the Covenant. For it is in Her that God’s Presence dwelt in the Incarnate Word.
The ark of the covenant was a wooden box gilded with gold upon which God’s Presence rested. It was crafted under Moses’ leadership. The ark symbolises Mary, since Mary is persistently referred to in Catholic tradition and devotion as the Ark of the Covenant. For it is in Her that God’s Presence dwelt in the Incarnate Word.
The altar of incense was made of wood and gilded with
gold. Placed in the temple, every morning and at twilight incense was offered
to God upon it, directed toward the holy place where the Ark dwelt. Already we
can see how Joseph is symbolised by the altar of incense. The incense of his
devotion was perpetually offered to Mary, and his worship to God in the child
Jesus. His love would have been especially offered upon waking up in the
morning, and at twilight when he retired after work before sleeping—for then he
could best contemplate the gift of Mary and Jesus within his life.
In the Scripture we see God referring to the altar of
incense as “most holy to the LORD” (Ex 30:10). This is not an absolute statement,
because clearly there were holier things (i.e. the tent and the ark) but after
these came the altar of incense. This parallels the status of Joseph—third in
holiness within the Holy Family, and excepting Jesus who is God, the most holy
person after Mary.
3. The Hiddenness of the Holy Family
As Jeremiah hid the literal tent, ark and altar of
incense within a cave, God hid the figurative tent, ark and altar—Jesus, Mary,
and Joseph—in obscurity, namely in the holy house of Nazareth. We learn from
this that God hides precious things, holy things, and even, holy people. It is
a profound mystery that the holiest people to have walked the earth were in
their own contemporary terms, almost completely unknown in Mary and Joseph’s
instance, and relatively unknown in the case of Jesus—it would take years for the
personages of this Family to be made known to the world at large. In fact, even
in our own day the members of the Holy Family remain in the shadows of people’s
awareness, and in certain ways, even more so than in the past.
3.1 ‘The Holy Family…Who Were They?’
Considering who they really are, most of the world does
not know the Holy Family. Even Jesus is poorly understood. For example, in 2015
a poll of 4,000 people in England among whom 57% identified as Christians, 1 in
4 did not think Jesus was a real person and 57% disbelieved in the Resurrection
(this means some Christians also disbelieved in Christ’s resurrection).[i] In
a cross-generational study in the U.S., 9 in 10 believed Jesus was a real
person, but only 56% believed He was divine, and only 31% strongly disagreed
with the statement that “When he lived on earth, Jesus Christ was human and
committed sins, like other people”.[ii]
However three quarters of Americans in one poll expressed
belief in the virgin birth of Christ, although far fewer accept the Catholic
doctrines on Mary’s perpetual virginity and Immaculate Conception.[iii] Still,
like Jesus, Mary is reasonably well known ‘about.’ Take for example the
National Geographic—a secular magazine—which in a 2015 issue had Mary on the
cover, titled: “Mary, the Most Powerful Woman in the World.” I say well known ‘about’
because She is not actually known, that is, people generally know about Mary,
but they don’t know much about Her as a person, nor what is actually true.
As for Joseph—I don’t think St. Anthony could even find a
poll conducted inquiring views regarding this greatest of all saints following
the Virgin Mary. I wouldn’t be surprised if many couldn’t name Mary’s husband,
and few would be able to say anything more other than name him and perhaps his
trade. Yet factual details about Joseph are scant and knowing a breadth of
facts about someone does not constitute a grasp of why they are
significant. Nevertheless, how many Catholics would be able to articulate the significance
of Joseph and something about His unparalleled sanctity? To many Catholics, and
I confess, I once was somewhat in this camp myself! He is a boring saint, less
dazzling than the red-martyrs, less appealing than St. Peter—a saint known
hardly at all. A background guy. If a Catholic was asked who the greatest saint
after Mary was, or who was the closet to Jesus after Mary, few would answer
Joseph, but many might respond with St. Francis to the former, and John the
Beloved to the latter. Joseph really is the most neglected and least
understood. Yet without understanding Joseph to some degree, a grasp of the
Holy Family is doomed to ignorance and misunderstanding.
3.2 Scriptural Silence
A lot of the ignorance surrounding the Holy Family is
understandable—even among Christians and specifically, Catholics. After the infancy
narrative accounts, including the visitation of the magi and the forty-day post-natal presentation in the temple, the Gospels record
nothing about what tradition calls, ‘the hidden life’ of Jesus, Mary and
Joseph. A period which lasts until about Jesus’ thirtieth year. The only
exception is the incident where Mary and Joseph lose the twelve-year-old Jesus,
and after three days find Him—where? In the temple. We are then told that from
the temple “he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to
them” (Lk 2:51). This one line summarises the entirety of the hidden life—a
time when Jesus lived as an obedient Son, under the charge of Mary as Mother,
and Joseph as Chosen Father.
Other than this, the Gospels point out that the first
years of Jesus’ life were lived in Egypt. The Holy Family only returned when King
Herod I, who sought to kill him, had died. As far as we infallibly know,
excepting possible yet uncertain apocryphal accounts and various oral traditions,
the remainder of Jesus’ hidden life was spent in Nazareth.
3.3 Livin’ in Nazareth
Nazareth was a valleyed countryside region where
grapevines grew. It was a very humble and no-where place, at the northern end
of Palestine. Such that the Apostle Nathanael, when told about Jesus for the
first time, said “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (Jn 1:46). As a
parallel, one is led to think of rough-suburbs today, or rough-country places;
places that bear a negative connotation. These kinds of places are not where
most people desire to live. Quite the contrary, they’re held up as archetypal
places not to live. God could have lived anywhere. Yet it was to such a
place that God decided to live out most of His years—almost thirty years. No
one would expect this, especially not the Jews of the time who were awaiting
the Messiah—that God would choose to hide Himself for so long in a crummy
village. Sure, by doing so God was fulfilling an obscure prophecy Matthew
alludes to (2:23), but He did so in an unexpected and unassuming way.
Here in Nazareth Jesus simply lived a normal Jewish life
of prayer, work—especially carpentry, and Torah study. Joseph would have worked
alongside Jesus, teaching Him the practical side of the trade. Joseph worked to
earn a living, to provide for his wife and adopted son who happened to be God—his
literal God-son. Mary fulfilled domestic duties, including sweeping,
lighting fires, and preparing meals; most notably the weekly Sabbath meal. She
made a home out of the house. They would have been hospitable people, generous
with charity and tithes, and faithful to the laws of Moses. To all external
appearances, excepting their obvious outstanding goodness, the Holy Family was a
normal Jewish family indicative of the first century.
It is amazing to think that while God in Jesus was living
out His life as a carpenter, alongside the two most exemplary human beings that
ever were and shall walk this earth, the rest of the world was clueless, simply
doing their thing. People under the Roman Empire in Rome to Egypt, Indian
tribes in America, aborigines in Australia, the Chinese subjects of the Xin
dynasty and Eastern Han dynasty, and Celts in Ireland, all had no idea that a
Divine Being, that God in-flesh was living far away in Palestine in a humble
home. Likewise with notable historical figures like Augustus Caesar (27 BC-AD 14),
Ovid (43 BC–AD 17/18), Livy (64/59 BC–AD 12/17) and Emperor Wang Mang (45 BC-AD
23), who lived during Jesus’ first thirty-years on earth—they had no idea that
their lifetimes were shared by the most important Person to have walked the
earth. Never mind the ignorance of the Holy Family’s neighbours and the
extended kin of Mary and Joseph. Practically everyone had no idea that the
Messiah, that God Himself was right next door! Drawing water beside them from
the village well. Making tables for them and praying beside them at the
synagogue. Their ignorance is made clear in the Gospels when we read that those
who knew Jesus during this time exclaimed later on in dismissal about His
teachings, healings and inferred divine status: “Is this not Jesus the son of
Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down
from heaven’?” (Jn 6:42).
We see then how successful God was in His covert designs.
He hid Himself well. The hidden life of the Holy Family, so ordinary to
observation, hid perfectly well the holiness of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus—Holiness
Itself—from the eyes of men.
4. God’s Wisdom in Hiding the Holy Family
There is a strain of thought that leads atheists, on the
assumption of God’s existence, and even ourselves as thinking people, to ask
the question: Why didn’t God make Himself more visible? Why did God hide
Himself? Why didn’t God carry out a grand tour of the world and manifest His
divine power, converting all, and making Himself known? It is a very apt line
of questioning, and even the best responses must appeal to God’s mystery, and
His knowing what is best, since He is All-Knowing and All-Powerful. Nevertheless,
much can be said, and we’ll contribute a little something towards answering it.
We must remember that the last three years of Jesus’ life
were spent on a sort of tour of Palestine, preaching, working miracles and
teaching about God and His Kingdom. One of the biggest set of miracles Jesus
performed was the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, most notably in
feeding 5000 men, and women and children on top of that. In John 6 we see that the
multitudes responded by wanting to make Him an earthly king, eager to see more
signs and to eat more free miracle-food. Jesus is aware of this and criticises
the people of being unable to see past the external work and into the spiritual
meaning that it reveals about Himself as the Messiah and God Incarnate, who
loves and nourishes the souls of those who seek Him. Only faith can make the
step to see past the external works of God and to apprehend God the worker. The
crowd wanted a Messiah that could feed their bellies, satisfy their agenda and make
their lifestyles easier, they were not interested in living anew as disciples
of Jesus according to the Spirit.
This is typical of human beings. God could work marvels
and convince us He existed, but even the Devil believes God exists. In other
words, external miracles do not convince people to have sincere faith, that is
to change their minds and hearts and live godly lives—just think of the Devil
who saw God in His full glory! — and belief that does not lead to such inner
change is dangerous and condemnable. Great outer spectacles of God thus only serve
as occasions to nourish a sincere faith already present, or which He knows will
be elicited; and may help nudge a soul whose heart is already open to change,
or which God knows will change if powerfully touched. Yet we can be sure that
if outer miracles would affect change in more people’s lives, God would work
them; and He would multiply Damascus-road conversion situations like He did to
St. Paul. And though God can never override free will, by being Omniscient He
knows what course of action is best to win people freely to Him, and how to
best elicit quality believers, true lovers, who seek Him sincerely. In His
wisdom God has determined that a more discreet mode of operation best
accomplishes this.
God’s reasons for acting discreetly would be numerous,
and we could never fathom one reason sufficiently, never mind them all. He sees
the greater plan, and how everything interconnects. One thing we know for sure
is that God knows how to maximise the possibility for everyone to have the
opportunity to be saved—whether religious or atheist; dispensing gifts and
working miracles, not always obvious, as it best serves this end; and anyone
who does attain salvation does so, even if in this life unknowingly, through
Jesus whose salvific mediation operates in His Body, the Holy Church,
especially through the most notable of Its members: Mary, Mother of the Church,
and Joseph, Father of the Church.
If God doesn’t throw around external wonders and miracles
like lollipops, turning chickens into golden turkeys, or whipping up chocolate
fountains before our eyes to prove Himself, or flying on the clouds on the
backs of angels, we can be sure that this is because by God’s not doing these
things it increases our odds of salvation and makes it easier to approach God
sincerely to seek a relationship with Him; rather than seeking His outer gifts
which do not guarantee eternal happiness, but at their maximum could provide a temporary
utopia and fleeting moments of bliss. The latter quest would render us numb in
indulgence to stop desiring what matters most: our common salvation in the God
of Love, and not our wish-fulfilled pampering.
We can thus apprehend the wisdom of God who chose to come
in hidden form, along the path of Nazareth, so that people might come to
believe in Him and not chase after what they could get from Him according to
worldly standards. God’s humble earthly existence, especially His first
thirty-years, are thus a protection and aid from the temptation to get lost in
a quest for a Genie-God who supplies our every whim. Spoilt children demand
their own whim is satisfied, and parents who accommodate this allow them to grow
rotten in behaviour. God wants to spoil us spiritually, but according to His
Will which knows what we need to grow as good and loving people. He does not
want to spoil us according to our own fancy, for this truly would spoil us!
Only after finishing this article I found an excellent
commentary, following the Wedding of Cana in John 2, that touches on this theme
by Protestant Minister Rev. Glenn David Bauscher:
Those thirty years of silence and
obscurity are in a very real sense more miraculous than the last three years of
His earthly Life, considering Who He was and is. ‘Verily thou art a God who
hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour’. (Isaiah 45:15). The patience and
humility of God are far more surprising and unbelievable to men than His
miracles, and these are stumbling blocks to the faith of many, if not all of us
[…] Consider also the grief of His heart, knowing that so many, if not all, of
those who professed faith, believed only in the outward signs, but did not know
Him. Our Lord knew that to begin performing miracles would be to come out of
hiding (out of character for God) and that would also make Him susceptible to
misunderstanding and false devotion, when His usual design is to make men seek
after Him Who hides, and recognize Him in His disguises.[iv]
The hidden life of the Holy Family, so ordinary, so
plain, so hidden, so seemingly illogical in smallness, is thus a kind of litmus
test. Those who can accept that God could, would, and best of all, actually did
live like this, are able to be nurtured in a mature faith which believes God comes
into our lives not to dazzle it with outer sparkles that impress others and which
goes along with our own agenda of what is best; but that God comes into our
lives to dazzle it secretly and interiorly, enriching the plainness of our
normal lives with the joy of knowing His love and participating in His drama of
intimacy—injecting eternal meaning and vitality into every sphere of our mortal
existence, even when ordinary and especially when things go south.
5. Why Does God Hide Holy Things?
On this point we return to why God had Jeremiah hide the
three temple articles in a secret cave. One reason is because the Babylonians
would have sacrilegiously misused them—failing to see the true importance of
these articles beyond their mere material worth. This explains why they were
hidden from the Babylonians, yet when we look at 2 Maccabees we see that even
those Israelites who helped hide the tent, ark and altar were unable to mark
out and remember the way, thus prevented by God from knowing the exact location
of the hiding place (2:6-7). They were thus even hidden from God’s own people.
The reasons for this could be many, but at least two
things can be inferred as to why God hid these holy items, even from the
Israelites—specifically, the Judeans. Firstly, God’s people had forgotten to
reverence these items appropriately. They had forgotten that these items were
supposed to be used as signs and mediums to worship God with. They grew too
familiar with the temple and its articles, and had reduced them to sentimental
objects, to mechanisms of rituals done out of habit—void of heartfelt devotion.
Consequently the worship of God among the people of Judah waned, and so they filled
this sound devotional void with unsound devotion, succumbing to polytheism, to idolatry.
God’s oracle through Jeremiah makes this clear:
‘You have seen all the evil that I
brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah. Behold, this day they
are a desolation, and no one dwells in them, because of the wickedness which
they committed, provoking me to anger, in that they went to burn incense and
serve other gods that they knew not, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers.’
(44:2-3).
Secondly, and this point extends from the first, God hid
the tent, ark and altar of incense because He knew at this moment and in the
immediate future the presence and knowledge of these holy items would still
remain unappreciated by His people. He knew they would fail to grasp the
spiritual significance of these holy items until they had come to know Him
better and worship Him alone. They had to be purged of idolatrous inclinations
over many years, lest they turned even these holy items into ends in
themselves, as objects of worship, or at least, as mere holy things abstracted
from their real purpose as signs of the One God. This had already happened in
the temple, as we read in Ezekiel:
And he [the Lord] said to me, ‘Go
in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here [in the temple].’
So I went in and saw […] all the idols of the house of Israel.’ (8:9-10).
God did not want this to happen again. Thus only when His
people had been purged of idolatrous inclinations, then and only then might
these sacred items be revealed and returned and so serve as aids to actually
advance the people’s worship of God. In the words of Jeremiah quoted in 2
Maccabees: “The place [of the tent, ark and altar] shall be unknown until God
gathers his people together again and shows his mercy. And then the Lord will
disclose these things” (2:7-8).
6. Why Did God Hide the Holy Family?
This leads us to an important reason why God hid the Holy
Family—the personification of the three symbolic temple articles—in the unknown
dwelling of Nazareth in a life of obscurity.
We might first recall the defensive-rationale of hiding
the temple articles from the Babylonians. They would have taken them far away
from their proper place, misusing them or perhaps destroying them, melting down
their gold. In parallel, the defensive-rationale for God’s hiding the Holy
Family in secrecy can be seen in His wanting to preserve them from harm at the
hands of Herod; and even other earthly rulers, who if they knew who they were,
especially Jesus, might have sought to kill them, or take them away from their
true call and foreordained locale as novelty ‘play things’ or trophies.
We see this sort of possibility play out when Jesus was
condemned to death. ‘King’ Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, begged
Jesus to act as a kind of miracle performing showman. In Herod's words portrayed by Jesus Christ Superstar, "Prove to me that you're divine; change my water into wine." Jesus was vehemently
against this kind of worldly agenda, such that His response was complete and utter silence, and Herod
ended up dismissing Him as a nobody and madman. This silence of the condemned
Christ in the face of worldly authority is reminiscent of the Holy Family’s
silence in hiddenness from the world at large. Their greatness was thus
looked-over and this preserved them from false agendas being imposed on them.
St. Jerome also cites Ignatius of Antioch (d. 110-130 AD) who comments that another reason for God's hiding His Son in the outward ordinariness of the Holy Family was in order to conceal the true identity of Jesus from the devil, who was kept ignorant of Jesus' virginal conception.[v]
St. Jerome also cites Ignatius of Antioch (d. 110-130 AD) who comments that another reason for God's hiding His Son in the outward ordinariness of the Holy Family was in order to conceal the true identity of Jesus from the devil, who was kept ignorant of Jesus' virginal conception.[v]
Yet God also hid the Holy Family from the people of
Israel, and partially so, even from the early Church to a degree. For just as
God hid the holy articles of the temple to preserve their true dignity,
likewise with the Holy Family. God hid them so as to preserve their real dignity, revealing them bit by bit, each in their turn, so that they might be sought for who they really are:
Jesus as God-Man, Mary as Mother of God, and Joseph as chosen Father
to God. This will need teasing
out and will be taken up in Part II (click here).
Part III - On Joseph
Part IV - On the Holy Family
Part III - On Joseph
Part IV - On the Holy Family
[i] “Jesus
'not a real person' many believe,” 31 October 2015, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34686993
[ii] “What
Do Americans Believe About Jesus? 5 Popular Beliefs,” April 1 2015, https://www.barna.com/research/what-do-americans-believe-about-jesus-5-popular-beliefs/
[iii]
A Pew Research Poll as cited in Bill Sherman, “Americans diverge in views about
Mary, but poll shows most believe in virgin birth: Poll says most Americans
believe in virgin birth,” December 21 2013, https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/religion/americans-diverge-in-views-about-mary-but-poll-shows-most/article_9b7551af-4e42-5242-9942-d504ca4e25f2.html
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