[Meditationes seu Contemplationes devotissimae]

First, because Isaiah had predicted this long before, saying: "Behold, the Lord shall ascend upon a light cloud and shall enter into Egypt" Isaiah 19:1. He calls the flesh of the Lord himself a "light cloud," which is called a light cloud because it was never burdened by the weight of sin. Second, because in Egypt the patriarchs and prophets were once pilgrims; therefore, he himself, who is the God of the prophets and the supreme patriarch, wished to be a pilgrim there. Whence that which the evangelist says was fulfilled: "Out of Egypt I have called my son" Matthew 2:15. Third, he fled into Egypt as a figure of the fact that his preachers, namely the apostles, were to leave Judea because of the cruelty and persecution of the Jews, and were to pass into the Egypt of the Gentiles. For "Egypt" is interpreted as "darkness." Whence, through this "Egypt of the Gentiles," it is understood that they were oppressed by the darkness of infidelity and vices. Whence that which the prophet Isaiah said was fulfilled: "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light, and to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen" Isaiah 9:2. Therefore, faithful soul, think, and while thinking, sympathize with the labors and perils that He, the chaste One, endured in this most harsh pilgrimage. Truly, if you consider the roughness of the way, the length of the journey, the tenderness of the boy's age, the youth of the mother, the old age of Joseph, the poverty of the father regarding the necessary expenses, and the unknown region to

which he was betaking himself, where he hoped to find no solace from kin or friends, you will find, indeed, the most ample matter for compassion. Remember, therefore, the word of the apostle, who, speaking of the reward of those suffering with Christ, says to the Romans in the eighth chapter: "And if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ, yet so if we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together" Romans 8:17.

Concerning the sitting of Christ at twelve years old

in the temple among the doctors

O stupendous disposition of divine
wisdom! Behold, He who is the fountain
of wisdom, the Word of God in the highest,
who teaches the angels in heaven and illuminates
all human minds on earth, sits in the temple
at twelve years old in the midst of the doctors,
hearing and asking them questions. What
wisdom or knowledge could He hear that He
did not know from eternity? In Whom are all
the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of
God Colossians 2:3. What does He ask about the law
that He himself, as the legislator—and He whom
God the Father, with the Spirit as guide and
preceptor, gave to all peoples—did not see
before from eternity in the fountain of the
divinity? Acknowledge, faithful soul, the works
of Christ, so full of sacraments and fecund
with mysteries, not undeservedly stupendous
to human senses. Wherefore do not wonder
if you do not comprehend them with your own
ingenuity. This, however, I want you to know:
that for the sake of human salvation, divine wisdom