2nd. Only their interpretation Lord. was authentic.

3rd. Private judgment bowed before it.

10. Videntes autem stellam, gavisi sunt gaudio magno valdè.

11. Et intrantes domum invenerunt Puerum cum Mariâ matre ejus, et procidentes adoraverunt eum ; et, apertis thesauris suis, obtulerunt ei munera : aurum, thus et myrrham.

10. And seeing the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

11. And going into the house, they found the child with Mary his mother and 'falling down, they adored him and opening their treasures, they offered to him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Herod here behaves after the manner of the character which Josephus gives of him. He was crafty and treacherous; but his son, of whom we have written in S. Luke has had no character of that kind. The son was a voluptuary who sacrificed a Saint to please a dancing girl, but the father was a real fox.

The re-appearance of the star after they had made the necessary inquiries confirms us in the opinion that it was altogether miraculous. It should not, and could not, as an ordinary orb in the empyreum, march before a number of men and stop at the door of a poor hamlet.

The old pictures of this charming scene have special value. It was the revelation of His coming to the Gentiles.

The Church commemorates the baptism in the Jordan on the 6th January. The baptism happened in March, but it is commemorated then for liturgical reasons.

1 Herod seemed publicly to take little more interest in the Wise men than seeing them properly directed. He who is born King of the Jews, startled him not a little; so that he formed his own designs - the slaughter of the innocents-to frustrate this rival coming to the throne. His artful hypocrisy is very remarkable and seems to merit him the title which some suppose our Lord gave his son, Luke xiii. 32: "Go tell that fox." How vain are man's endeavours against divine providence !

2 Those commentators (very few) who maintain that the star which appeared in the East remained there are refuted by this passage. There was something in this star or its shining which gave it a peculiar charm. 3 Going into the house.-Some think that house here does not mean the cave in which our Lord was born but some better lodging in Bethlehem to which the holy family had removed. Those who think the Magi came after the Purification think it was the house in Nazareth. There is no

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need of deviating in this, or any other fact of the kind, from the tradition of the Church. That tradition as Benedict XIV. remarks, is a fact against which arguments or convenientia ought not to prevail. There were consolations enough in that poor cave to make it joyful to the various wayfarers, notwithstanding its poverty.

4 Falling down they adored him.-The Greek word used here generally denotes divine worship or latria. In this all the Catholic commentators are agreed; and, inded the Magi would scarcely come for less. Their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh denote the Kingship, Divinity and Mortality of our Divine Lord. One old writer remarks that as our Lord was born on a Sunday the Epiphany, or adoration of the Magi, took place on a Friday, the day of his death. Myrrham ad sepulturam ejus.

14. Qui consurgens accepit Puerum et Matrem ejus nocte, et secessit in Ægyptum.

15. Et erat ibi usquè ad obitum Herodis: ut adimpleretur quod dictum est à Domino per prophetam dicentem: Ex Ægypto vocavi Filium meum.

14. Who rising up, took the child and his mother by night, and retired into Egypt.

15. And he was there until the 'death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: "Out of Egypt have I called my son.

The Flight into Egypt has formed the theme of many beautiful ornaments with which poets and preachers have overlaid Christian history. We see the roadside, the dried-up wells, the half-parched trees, the wearied ass and the resting travellers. The Apocryphal Gospels seem to have a cloak of truth when they tell us about the thief's mother, the idols, and the sparrows.

All this is picturesque; but in looking at the journey we rather adopt the opinion of Maldonatus: " Videtur Ægyptus schola esse filiorum Dei, qui adolescere non possunt nisi vexentur."

All the Patriarchs of note, including the twelve tribes and their progenitors were sent to Egypt as a school. None of them, except Joseph, ever seemed to get into favour there. There is a shrouded mystery here which our histories and commentaries do not unveil.

1An Answer in sleep.—Some old writers say that the Magi were led by natural means, and the Jews by supernatural to the knowledge of our Lord. The Magi were monotheists, and lived up to their lights like Melchisedeck and Job. They had their visions as well as the Jews, as this passage clearly shows. They learnt the treachery of Herod from the Angel's warning and hence they went home by another way.

2 When they were departed.-Did the angel appear to S. Joseph immediately after the departure of the Magi? The text, as it stands here, would lead us to suppose that he did. S. Luke's narrative would lead us to suppose that some time-for the Purification, etc.-intervened. None of the Evangelists excludes, although he omits what the other mentions. S. Matthew says nothing of the Presentation in the Temple, and S. Luke says nothing about the flight into Egypt. No Evangelist wrote everything he could remember or knew; only, what he thought expedient.

Into Egypt.-Various conjectural reasons are given for the flight into

Egypt. The most natural is the old custom which sent Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob there as well as the twelve tribes. The deliverance of the latter typified our Redemption, Joseph's setting out at night shows his prompt obedience.

4 Until the death of Herod, which happened in a few months. The general opinion is that the Holy family did not return immediately, yet chronology requires us to conclude they did. Archilaus reigned in a few months after his father, and Joseph came back during his time. They were no more than a few weeks in Egypt, according to this account: quite against the Apocryphal Gospels,

5 Out of Egypt.-The prophecy of Osee xi. "And I called my son out of Egypt," need not be tortured as it generally is, seeing that it expresses one actual fact which has reference to the future here detailed by the Evangelist,

The answer in sleep in the Greek means an answer to a question. The Magi suspected something and prayed.

The usual discourse here is that the way we have left in coming to Our Lord is not returned to. This because of

Ist. Old temptations and associations.

2nd. We must show ourselves detached.

3rd. Make new friends for heaven.

The flight into Egypt is always a tender subject as regards our Lady. It is one of The Seven Dolours.

Ist. Her surprise when starting,

2nd. Her alarms on the way. 3rd. Her knowledge of the Innocents.

4th. The wail of their mothers. 5th. The want of welcome where Jews were hated.

6th. Her son not yet speaking. There is room for amplification here.

16. Tunc Herodes, videns quoniam illusus esset à magis, iratus est valdè, et mittens occidit omnes pueros qui erant in Bethlehem et in omnibus finibus ejus, à bimatu et infrà, secundùm tempus quod exquisierat à magis.

16. Then Herod, perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry; and, sending, killed all the menchildren that were in Bethlehem, and in all the confines thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.