Mary of Agreda - Chapter XXVIII ~ AT THE AGE OF ONE YEAR THE INFANT JESUS SPEAKS TO SAINT JOSEPH...
"AT THE AGE OF ONE YEAR THE INFANT JESUS SPEAKS TO SAINT JOSEPH AND REQUESTS HIS MOTHER TO CLOTH HIM AND ALLOW HIM TO WALK. HE COMMENCES TO CELEBRATE THE DAY OF HIS INCARNATION AND OF HIS BIRTH.
681. During one of the conversations of Mary with Joseph concerning the mysteries of the Lord, the Infant Jesus, having reached the age of one year, resolved to break the silence and speak in plain words to Joseph, who so faithfully fulfilled the duties of a foster-father. As I have already mentioned in chapter the tenth, He had thus conversed with his heavenly Mother from the time of his Birth. The two holy Spouses were speaking of the infinite being of God, of his goodness and excessive love, which induced Him to send his Onlybegotten Son as the Teacher and Savior of men, clothing Him in human form in order that He might converse with them and suffer the punishments of their depraved natures. Saint Joseph was lost in wonder at the works of the Lord and inflamed by affectionate gratitude and exaltation of the Lord. Seizing upon this occasion the infant God, resting upon the arms of his Mother as upon the seat of wisdom, began to speak to saint Joseph in an intelligible voice, saying: “My father, I came from heaven upon this earth in order to be the light of the world, and in order to rescue it from darkness of sin; in order to seek and know my sheep as a good Shepherd, to give them nourishment of eternal life, teach them the way of heaven, open its gates, which had been closed by their sins. I desire that you both be children of the Light, which you have so close at hand.”
682. These words of the Infant Jesus, being full of divine life, filled the heart of the patriarch saint Joseph with new love, reverence and joy. He fell on his knees before the infant God with the profoundest humility and thanked Him for having called Him “father” by the very first word spoken to him. He besought the Lord with many tears to enlighten him and enable him to fulfill entirely his most holy will, to teach him to be thankful for the incomparable benefits flowing from his generous hands.
683. During the whole of this first year his sweetest Mother had wrapped the infant God in clothes and coverings usual with other children; for He did not wish to be distinguished in this from others, and He wished to bear witness to his true humanity and to his love for mortals, enduring this inconvenience otherwise not required of Him. The most prudent Mother, judging that now the time had come to free Him from swaddling clothes and place Him on his feet, knelt down before the Child in its cradle and said: “My Son and sweetest Love of my soul, my Lord, I desire, as thy slave, to be punctual in fulfilling thy wishes. O, Light of my eyes, Thou hast been for a long time oppressed by the swaddling-clothes and thereby gone to the extreme of thy love for men; it is time Thou change this manner. Tell me, my Master, what shall I do to place Thee on thy feet?”
684. “My Mother,” answered the Infant Jesus, “on account of the love which I bear toward man, whom I have created and come to redeem, the swathings of my childhood have not seemed irksome to Me, since when I shall be grown up I shall be bound and delivered over to my enemies unto death (Matth. 20, 18). If this prospect is sweet to Me for the love of my Father (Heb, to, 71) all the rest is certainly easy to Me. I wish to possess only one garment during all my life, for I seek nothing more than what is sufficient to cover Me. Although all created things are mine because I have given them being, I turn them all over to men in order that they may owe Me so much the more and in order that I may teach them, according to my example and for my love, to repudiate and despise all that is superfluous for natural life. Clothe Me, my Mother, in a tunic of a lowly and ordinary color. This alone will I wear, and it shall grow with Me. Over this garment shall they cast lots at my death (Ps. 21, 19) ; for even this shall not be left at my disposal, but at the disposal of others; so that men shall see that I was born and wish to live poor and destitute of visible things, which being earthly, oppress and darken the heart of man. At the very moment of my conception in thy virginal womb I made this renunciation and abdication of all that is contained in the world, though all is mine on account of the union of my human nature with the divine. I shall not have anything to do with visible things except to offer them up to the eternal Father, renouncing them for his love, and making use of only so much as is sufficient to sustain my natural life, which I will afterwards yield up for man’s sake. By this example I wish to impress upon the world the doctrine that it must love poverty and not despise it; for I, who am the Lord of the whole world, entirely repudiated and rejected its possessions. Those who know Me by faith should be filled with confusion at seeing themselves desire what I taught them to despise.”
685. The words of the divine Child produced in the heart of the heavenly Mother diverse wonderful effects. The allusion to the seizure and death of her most holy Son transfixed her pure and compassionate heart, and the doctrine and example of such extreme poverty and destitution excited her admiration and urged Her to its imitation. His boundless love for mortals inflamed Her with loving gratitude toward the Lord and produced in Her heroic acts of many virtues. Seeing that the Child Jesus desired no footgear and only one garment, She said to Him: “My Son and my Lord, thy Mother has not the heart to allow Thee to go barefoot upon the ground at thy tender age; permit me, my Love, to provide some kind of covering to protect them. I also fear that the rough garment, which Thou askest of me, will wound thy tender body, if thou permit no linen to be worn beneath.” “My Mother, I will permit a slight and ordinary covering for my feet until the time of my public preaching shall come, for this I must do barefooted. But I do not wish to wear linen, because it foments carnal pleasures, and is the cause of many vices in men. I wish to teach many by my example to renounce it for love and imitation of Me.”
Anton Raphael Mengs - The Holy Family, 1769, 112X91 cm, Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest), Hungary:
