Chapter 7 

The Divine Ministry of Jesus Christ 

Before the Ministry of Christ Began 

     And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all 

these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.  

(Lk 2:51 52). 

    After Jesus was found in the Temple, when He was 12 years old, He returned to Nazareth with the Virgin 

Mary and Saint Joseph, and was obedient to them. In His human nature, Jesus increased in wisdom and 

stature (he grew up) and in the grace of God. The Divine Nature of Jesus Christ, Second Person of the Most 

Holy Trinity, is perfect and unchangeable. But in His humanity, Christ could grow and change. The humanity 

of Christ was always perfect, yet Christ could still increase in grace in His humanity. More is expected of an 

adult than of a child; a perfect child is less than a perfect adult. Jesus also increased in favor among other 

people, though not with everyone. 

    Blessed Anne Catherine gives us some additional information about the life of Jesus after He returned to 

Nazareth from the Passover of His 12th year.  He said also to one of the youths, a relative of His own named 

Nathanael: `I shall be present at thy marriage.'  

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 Jesus knew the future, even from His Childhood, and He 

had foreknowledge of His future Ministry. He also spoke at that time of a marriage feast where water would be 

turned into wine (the marriage of Nathanael at Cana, Jn 2:1 11) and a marriage feast where wine would be 

changed into Blood, and bread into Flesh (the first Eucharist, Lk 22:19 20, cf. Lk 5:34 35).

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 Jesus knew the 

course that His Ministry would take, even from His Childhood. 

Jesus Christ as a Teenager 

    The Ministry of Jesus Christ was a public teaching Ministry, yet He taught people privately long before His 

public Ministry began.  From His twelfth year, Jesus was always like a teacher among His companions. He 

often sat among them instructing them or walked about the country with them. 

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 Jesus taught the youths 

who were near His own age beginning about the time that He returned from the Passover of His 12th year. As 

a teenager, Jesus could not have been a follower or someone who joined in with whatever the other teens were 

doing. And He knew so much about God and the path to Heaven that He could not have refrained from 

sharing His knowledge and teaching by word and example. Even so, this was not the beginning of His public 

teaching Ministry, for He taught a limited group of people privately; He did not yet go out into the streets to 

offer His teaching to everyone. 

    Did Jesus heal anyone before His public Ministry began? He may well have done so. Any devout Jew or 

Christian, upon hearing that a neighbor was ill or injured, would surely pray to God on behalf of that person. 

So also, Jesus must have obtained (in His Humanity) and provided (from His Divinity) the healing of many, 

even before His public Ministry began. Yet, He must also have done this healing, for the most part, in secret 

and at a distance. Otherwise, He would become the center of attention and His Ministry would have begun 

before the appointed time. 

Jesus Christ in His Twenties 

    Blessed Anne Catherine describes the persecution that Jesus suffered from various Jewish religious leaders, 

even before His public Ministry began. 

     He [Joseph] had already suffered much from the persecution Jesus had had to support from the malice of 

the Jews from His twentieth to His thirtieth year; for they could not bear the sight of Him. Their jealousy often 

made them exclaim that the carpenter's Son thought He knew everything better than others, that He was 

frequently at variance with the teachings of the Pharisees, and that He always had around Him a crowd of 

young followers. 

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