Welcome to Nazareth

This December, a series of daily Advent, devotional postings is running from December 1st to December 25^th. Journey beside Mary, the Mother of God, as she waits for the birth of Jesus.

STRENGTH

Scripture:

For thus said the Lord God,
the Holy One of Israel:
By waiting and by calm you shall be saved,
in quiet and in trust shall be your strength (Isaiah 30:15).

Quote of the Day: “Nazareth is wherever you work with Jesus in humility, poverty, and silence” (Blessed Charles de Foucauld).

Song Suggestions:
“Nazareth,” from the Nativity Soundtrack
“I Shall Not Want,” by Audrey Assad

Question: What is the state of my heart? Am I peaceful? Am I humble? Am I in a state of simplicity?

MIND

Let’s travel back to Nazareth. One of the smallest and poorest villages in Palestine, it is surrounded by rolling hills that are a patchwork of browns, greens, and yellows. Nazareth is so small that you can stand on one end of the village and clearly see the other end. There are probably only a few hundred inhabitants in this village at the time of Mary. The people live in simple homes—some that are attached to caves. The village is overshadowed by neighboring cities like the large capital of Galilee, Sepphoris.

Picture the daily scene of the village: In the morning, the women go to the spring to get water, just outside of the village. The men quickly begin their work, whatever their trade may be. Many are farmers and go to the fields to plow. Perhaps one man in Nazareth is a potter and another a tanner. We know that there certainly is a carpenter: Joseph. We’ll get into who Joseph is a bit later. The men in Nazareth travel to larger cities like Sepphoris to do their business since their own village is too meager to find work or sell their goods.

The children are awake with their parents, right when the cock crows, helping them with work. The older ones join their fathers in the fields or are apprentices—perhaps at the pottery shop, learning the trade. The smaller children assist their mothers with baking the day’s bread. A few are assigned to the grain mill, to grind their wheat and prepare it for baking. Others are preparing dinner—maybe collecting figs or pomegranates depending on the season. Some are spinning wool to create clothing.

Travelers pass by Nazareth on a major Roman road, hardly giving the little cluster of houses a second glance. These farmers are all poor peasants. They will have to give most of their crops away to taxes. They pray daily that they can feed their families and keep the roof over their heads.

(Inspiration for Nazareth comes from, The Nazareth Jesus Knew, by Joel Kauffmann; provided and produced by Nazareth Village in Nazareth, Israel, 2005. Check out the website: www.nazarethvillage.com)

HEART

Pretty simple stuff.

Nazareth doesn’t sound like a very spectacular place, and it wasn’t. But that is where God placed Mary, and later, God placed His own Son. Why not an important city like Jerusalem? Even the apostle Nathanial questioned when hearing that Jesus was from that village, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46)

Well, in this village of poverty, there was also great simplicity and beauty. God is found in humility and poverty because the simple is not distracted by material, temporal things, but by God, Who is everlasting. For it is in quietness and trust that we draw strength (Isaiah 30:15). Simplicity and poverty remind us that we can do nothing without our Creator.

There was a man who based his whole spirituality off of the village of Nazareth. His name was Charles de Foucauld.  He’s currently a “Blessed” in the eyes of the Catholic Church and is on his way to becoming a saint. Living in the 19th century, he spent some of his time in Nazareth, devoting himself to the simple life that the Holy Family lived.

Charles de Foucauld, perhaps like few others, grasped the import of the spirituality which radiates from Nazareth. This great explorer hastily abandoned his military career, attracted by the mystery of the Holy Family, the mystery of Jesus’ daily relationship with his parents and neighbors, his quiet labor, his humble prayer. Contemplating the Family of Nazareth, Brother Charles realized how empty the desire for wealth and power really is. Through his apostolate of charity, he became everything to everyone (Address of Pope Francis, St. Peter’s Square, 3 October 2015).

SOUL

Come, Lord Jesus. Come. Fill me Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yours is a spirit of simplicity and humility.

Mother Mary, you lived in Nazareth.  Help me to make my own life—my own heart, a Nazareth. It is there that you lived in a state of waiting and expectation for the Lord.

Mary, teach me how to wait.