And
in the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to a city of Galilee
called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph of
the house of David and the virgin’s name was Mary. The angel came
to her and said: «Hail to you who have been favored by grace; the
Lord is with you.» She was troubled by his words and wondered what
this manner of salutation meant. The angel said to her: «Do not
fear, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will
conceive and give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus. He
will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest and the
Lord God will give him the throne of David, his father. He will
reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will never
end. » Mary said to the angel: «How can this be since I have not
known a man? » The angel replied: « The Holy Ghost will come upon
you and the power of the highest will overcome you. Therefore, the
holy (enfant) that will be born to you will be called the Son of
God.
Luke 1: 26 –35
Nazareth was then
only a village whose inhabitants were renowned for their piety and
their attachment to the Law. Jesus spends the first thirty years of
his life in the surrounding areas and within the walls of the city.
Moved by the relics of Christ preserved at the sites surrounding the
city, the French writer Pierre Loti wrote:
And
it is in this secluded, pastoral part of the world that Jesus «grew
in wisdom, in age and in grace before God and man» about two thousand
years ago. He knew the spring here, the warm month of April like
the one that delights us today, the same carpet of pink flax and
fine grass. Our thoughts at this moment and in this place are haunted
by the mystery of his musing childhood – a mystery even more inscrutable
perhaps to our human understanding than that of his life as a grown
man…
P. Loti, The Galilee
Jesus’ attempt to interest the Nazarenes
themselves in his teaching would not meet with success:
| No
one is a prophet in his own country |
He went to Nazareth where
he had been raised and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue
on the Sabbath. He stood up to read and the book of Isaiah was brought
to him and he found the place where it was written:
The Spirit of God is
upon me because he has anointed me [to heal the brokenhearted];
to preach the gospel to the poor; he sent me to proclaim deliverance
to the captive and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the
oppressed and to proclaim a year of the Lord’s grace.
Then
he closed the book, returned it to the minister and sat down. The
eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began
to say to them: « This day the [words of the] Scripture that you
have just heard has been accomplished. » And everyone bore him witness
and was in awe of the gracious words that proceeded from his mouth
and they said: « Isn’t this Joseph’s son? » Jesus said to them:
« You will surely quote me this proverb: “Physician, heal yourself;
everything that we heard that was done in Capernaum, also do here
in your own country.” » And he added: In truth, I say to you, no
prophet is accepted in his own country. What I say is true: there
were many widows in Israel during the days of Elie when heaven was
shut for three years and six months and there was great famine throughout
the land; Elie, however, was not sent to any of them except to Sarepta
who was a widow in the city of Sidon. And there were many lepers
in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha; nevertheless, none
of them were made clean except for Naaman, the Syrian. » And when
everyone in the synagogue heard this, they were filled with rage.
And they rose up and pushed him out of the city to the escarpment
of the hill upon which the city was built to cast him down. But
he went his way, passing through their midst.
Luke 4: 16 – 30
These two events, the Annunciation
by the angel Gabriel and the hostility of the people of Nazareth,
will to a large extent determine the holy geography of the city.