ter is taken up with
bodily actions: yet that form of active life in which a man, by
preaching and teaching, delivers to others the fruits of his
contemplation, is more perfect than the life that stops at
contemplation, because such a life is built on an abundance of
contemplation, and consequently such was the life chosen by Christ.

Reply Obj. 3: Christ's action is our instruction. And therefore, in
order to teach preachers that they ought not to be for ever before
the public, our Lord withdrew Himself sometimes from the crowd. We
are told of three reasons for His doing this. First, for the rest of
the body: hence (Mk. 6:31) it is stated that our Lord said to His
disciples: "Come apart into a desert place, and rest a little. For
there were many coming and going: and they had not so much as time to
eat." But sometimes it was for the sake of prayer; thus it is written
(Luke 6:12): "It came to pass in those days, that He went out into a
mountain to pray; and He passed the whole night in the prayer of
God." On this Ambrose remarks that "by His example He instructs us in
the precepts of virtue." And sometimes He did so in order to teach us
to avoid the favor of men. Wherefore Chrysostom, commenting on Matt.
5:1, Jesus, "seeing the multitude, went up into a mountain," says:
"By sitting not in the city and in the market-place, but on a
mountain and in a place of solitude, He taught us to do nothing for
show, and to withdraw from the crowd, especially when we have to
discourse of needful things."
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SECOND ARTICLE [III, Q. 40, Art. 2]

Whether It Was Becoming That Christ Should Lead an Austere Life in
This World?

Objection 1: It would seem that it was becoming that Christ should
lead an austere life in this world. For Christ preached the
perfection of life much more than John did. But John led an austere
life in order that he might persuade men by his example to embrace a
perfect life; for it is written (Matt. 3:4) that "the same John had
his garment of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins:
and his meat was locusts and wild honey"; on which Chrysostom
comments as follows (Hom. x): "It was a marvelous and strange thing
to behold such austerity in a human frame: which thing also
particularly attracted the Jews." Therefore it seems that an austere
life was much more becoming to Christ.

Obj. 2: Further, abstinence is ordained to continency; for it is
written (Osee 4:10): "They shall e