_edited.png){kind=logo}
Eleventh Thursday after Pentecost
- caelidomum
- Aug 27
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 29
Eleventh Thursday after Pentecost. Tenth Reason for Being Very Humble: All the Saints Loved Humility.
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation.
We will meditate to-morrow upon a tenth reason for being very humble; it is the special affection which the saints have had for humility. We will make this clear in the first point, and we shall see in the second point how we ought to endeavor to render ourselves like to the saints. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to recall to ourselves in temptations to self-love how humble the saints were, and to be ashamed and con founded by the comparison; 2d, often to ask of God grace to imitate the saints in their generous contempt for all vanity and for all self-love. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of St. Augustine: “Why canst thou not do what these have done ?”
Meditation for the Morning.
Let us adore Our Lord Jesus Christ laboring from the first moment of His incarnation down to His latest sigh to teach us humility by His example, and continuing after His death to teach it to us by the great examples set up by His saints, whom He rendered participators in His life of humility upon earth before rendering them participators of His glory in heaven. Let us thank Him for the care He takes to instruct us and for the desire He has to make us very humble.
On the Special Affection which the Saints had for Humility.
Even before Jesus Christ came David had said: I have chosen contempt for my portion (Ps. lxxxiii. 11; II. Kings vi. 22). St. John Baptist had said: Every day I desire to become less in the opinion of men, that the Messias may be more honored. I desire to efface myself that He may appear (John iii. 30). It is He who is the master; as for me I am but as a sound which is lost in the air, and of which nothing remains a moment after (John i. 23). I am not worthy to untie the strings of His sandals (Luke iii. 16). Mary places herself in the lowest rank of creatures. She calls herself a poor servant (Luke i. 38), and far from attributing to herself the honor of her divine maternity, she says that the great things which had been done in her were entirely the act of the divine mercy (Luke i. 54), and on that account she devoted herself with all the more love to the obscurity of a poor dwelling. Jesus Christ appears, and passes through life in humiliation; and His apostles, filled with His spirit, esteem it a great cause of joy to have been deemed worthy of humiliation (Acts v. 41). St. Paul finds his happiness in opprobrium (II. Cor. xii. 10; Gal. i. 10), and calls himself the chief of sinners (I. Tim. i. 15). After the apostles come twelve millions of martyrs, who joyfully lose their reputation upon earth, believing that they are only beginning to be disciples of Jesus Christ from the moment in which they begin to be humiliated (St. Ignatius, Martyr). To the martyrs succeed the hermits, who go and hide from the eyes of men their merits and their virtues. Then come the saints of all conditions and of both sexes, who strive to do good in secret, blush to be surprised in a good work, are afraid of esteem as they would be of a dangerous rock, of praise as though it were a scourge, are calm in the midst of calumny and contempt, and esteem themselves to be worthy only of confusion. St. Ignatius looked upon himself as an ulcer, whence infected matter was forever flowing; St. Vincent Ferrer as a hideous corpse, horrible to the sight, unsupportable to all who approach it. St. Fran cis Xavier is in his own eyes nothing but an abominable sinner, who stands in the greatest need of being recommended to God, because of the infinite multitude of his sins; St. Francis Regis considers himself worthy to be trod under foot by everyone; and when perverse men strike and outrage him, he exclaims that they are doing him a great favor, and that he deserves to be treated in a much worse manner. And who has not heard St. Vincent de Paul utter from the bottom of his heart that touching prayer: “O God! I am not a man, but a poor worm crawling over the earth, not knowing whither it is going and only trying to hide itself in Thee, O Jesus, who art all my desire. I am a poor blind man, who cannot advance a single step in virtue unless Thou boldest out the hand of Thy mercy to lead me.” O humility of the saints, how you confound my self-love and my vanity !
How we ought to Endeavor to Resemble the Saints in the Practice of Humility.
If the saints, so eminent as they are in merit and in virtue, reached heaven only by humiliating themselves and wishing to be humiliated, what likelihood is there that I shall arrive there by an entirely opposite road ? Jesus Christ has placed in the firmament of His Church these admirable examples of humility that we may see how the soul is saved. When the saints, who had so many merits, nevertheless despised themselves so greatly, and made of contempt their delight, how inexcusable are we, with so many defects as we have, to esteem ourselves and to desire to be esteemed I The saints, considering all the graces which they had received, all that these graces, put largely to profit, had produced in them oi what was most perfect in holiness, said in the bottom of their hearts: “If such or such a sinner had received as many graces as I have done, I believe that he would have better profited by them; whilst I, if I had been in his place, with passions as violent as his, in an atmosphere as dangerous, and an ignorance as great, I believe that I should have behaved worse than he has done.” Whence they came to the deeply-felt conclusion: “I am therefore the greatest of sinners, I deserve nothing but contempt and confusion” (St. Peter Damian). Why should not I myself come to the same conclusion? Is it reasonable of me to esteem myself and to desire to be esteemed? Oh, how humble I ought to be!
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.
Comments