What life was like in Jesus' Nazareth

(These three articles preview the Spiritual Wellness Day, March 3, 9 a.m. - 12:45 p.m., at St. Ambrose parish in Latham. Co-sponsored by the Albany diocesan Consultation Center and St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry, the day includes a keynote and workshops. For information and cost, call 489-4431.)

Life in first-century Palestine was no "Sesame Street."

Instead of "sunny days" where "everything's A-OK," the Holy Family probably endured lives of punishing physical labor, complex societal rules and constant danger -- with an ultimate life expectancy of the mid-40s at best.

Sister Patricia Mills, SNJM, who is a part-time teacher of writing and research at the Academy of the Holy Names in Albany, has spent well over 12 years researching "the earthly lives of Jesus and Mary," and will lead a workshop on the subject at the March 3 spiritual wellness day at St. Ambrose parish in Latham.

Jesus' humanity

The subject is dear to her heart. "There are so many books on the divinity of Jesus, not on His earthly life," she told The Evangelist.

An "impulse from inside" led her to learn more, and she discovered many facts about the likely lifestyles of Jesus, Mary and Joseph that brought her closer to them.

"The more you learn about somebody, the more you love them, the more you appreciate them," she explained. "If [you] get to know Jesus as a person and not somebody sitting up in the sky, He won't seem so unreachable -- more like a friend who's had a tough life and been through some pretty tough things."

Nazareth life

What the Holy Family lived through would seem tough by any standards. For example, Sister Patricia noted that Jesus' childhood home would have been small, with a dirt floor and insects infesting the rooms.

In His work as a carpenter, Jesus probably walked along with Joseph about three miles into the mountains to work 12- to 16-hour days, six days a week, rebuilding the city of Sepphoris as a Roman provincial center.

Sometimes, there was snow in the mountains. Jesus and Joseph also would have endured "ferocious sandstorms;" by the time Jesus began His public ministry, He would already have been showing signs of age and illness from His harsh life and poor diet.

Woman's plight

Mary, for her part, was no model-perfect mother in a blue gown, said the nun, adding that Mary probably wore animal-hair garments most of the time, changing to a cream-colored wool gown only for the Sabbath.

"She was a simple village woman," Sister Patricia explained. "She did laundry, beating the clothes against rocks; her hands were as chapped and cracked as [Jesus'] were. Her feet were probably scarred. She may have been a shepherd in her childhood; she may have learned midwifery."

Sister Patricia, who gleaned her data from literature by Scripture scholars and archaeologists, has found her knowledge of Jesus and Mary's lives comforting.

"It's deepened my relationship with Him a lot," she stated, speaking as if about a close friend. "I pray to Him using His Hebrew name, Y'shua -- 'Shua for short."

(2/15/07) [[In-content Ad]]