Lessons 7 - 8 From the Divine Office of the Octave Day of the Solemnity of St. Joseph. Luke 3: 21 - 23; Sermon 36 on the Baptism of Christ by St. Augustine the Bishop.
Lessons 7 - 8 From the Divine Office of the Octave Day of the Solemnity of St. Joseph. Luke 3: 21 - 23; Sermon 36 on the Baptism of Christ by St. Augustine the Bishop.
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At that time: it came to pass, when all the people were baptized, that Jesus also being baptized and praying, heaven was opened; And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, as a dove upon Him; and a voice came from heaven: Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased. And Jesus Himself was beginning about the age of thirty years; being - as it was supposed - the Son of Joseph, who was of Heli, who was of Mathat,
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The day of his baptism is, as it were, a second birthday of the Saviour. For we know that he was born with signs and wonders like to those of his baptism, and that in the latter is a great mystery like to his birth. For God saith: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This second birth is indeed more glorious than the first. For then, he was born in silence, and without witnesses. Now, the Lord is baptized with a proclamation of his divinity. Then, Joseph, who was supposed to be his father, denied that he was. Now, his true Father, who was not believed to be so, proclaimeth himself so to be. Then, the Mother was enduring suspicion, because no father was acknowledged. Now she that bore him is honoured because the Divinity maketh him known as his Son.
I say that the second birth was more glorious than the first. For now, the God of majesty proclaimeth himself as his father. Then, the carpenter Joseph was so accounted. And although it was the Holy Ghost through whom the Lord was born and baptized, yet the Father, whose voice was heard from heaven, is greater than the father who laboured on earth. Therefore Joseph the workman on earth was supposed to be the father of the Lord and Saviour. But God, the true Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is also a workman, and cannot be excluded from those who work at the carpenter's trade.