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Fourteenth Tuesday after Pentecost.
- caelidomum
- Sep 15
- 5 min read
Fourteenth Tuesday after Pentecost. Fourth Means for Becoming Humble.
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation.
We will meditate to-morrow upon a last means for becoming very humble; it is a life of trial; and we shall see: 1st, how useful this life is for making us humble; 2d, how useful in its turn is humility to enable us to bear in a Christian manner the trials of life. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to receive all crosses and all trials as warnings that God gives us to humble ourselves beneath His hand; 2d, to receive them consequently with perfect resignation. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of St. Peter: “Be you humbled, therefore, beneath the mighty hand of God” (I. Pet. v. 6).
Meditation for the Morning.
Let us adore Jesus Christ in His holy passion, admirable in His humility and His patience. The state of suffering to which He is reduced, His face covered with blood and spittle, His head crowned with thorns, His body torn, His feet and His hands pierced, the mockery of all the people. His death between two thieves as being the most guilty of the three, cover Him with confusion; on the other hand, the humble sentiments which He has of Himself, laden as He is with all the sins of the world, like the scape-goat destined to, die for the whole people, make Him feel these severe trials to be light; and render His patience invincible. It is thus that in Him patience and humility seem to give one another the hand and to sustain each other. Let us thank Him for this great example and ask of Him grace to imitate it.
How Useful a Life of Trial is to Make us Learn Humility.
The life of man, says the Holy Ghost, is a life of constant trial; for the same reason it is a life of constant humility. There are trials of suffering and of infirmities; therein is a lesson of humility, teaching us that we are always in a state of continual dependence upon God, who is the supreme Master of health and sickness, and that when we are well we ought not to be proud, as though health were our own doing; and because, in addition, having sinned, we deserve always to suffer as a penance for our faults. There are trials arising from want of success in our enterprises; therein is a lesson of humility, which tells us that we have not much intelligence, ability, or prudence; that we ought to be modest and not prefer ourselves to others. There are trials arising from reverses of fortune which oblige us to descend from the position we had occupied; therein is a lesson of humility which preserves us from the pride engendered by higher positions. Prosperity swells the heart and leads to contempt of our inferiors; reverses bring us down, destroy our pretensions, and dispose us to entertain humble sentiments in regard to ourselves. There are trials arising from humiliations; others speak or think ill of us, and do not render us the justice which is our due. We are treated without con sideration, and are despised; therein is a lesson of humility, which recalls to us that, being nothingness and sin, we deserve nothing but con tempt; that we are always treated too well, and that present humiliations are a grace for which we can never be thankful enough towards God, since it is the only path by which we can arrive at the attainment of humility (St. Bernard). There are trials arising from temptations, which incline us to evil and against which we must constantly maintain a painful combat; therein is a lesson of humility which recalls to us that our nature is evil and cannot of itself produce anything but sin (Council of Orange); that we ought to mistrust ourselves, avoid occasions which expose us to sin, keep ourselves continually abased in the sentiment of our profound wretchedness (Nahum iii.14). Finally, we should never finish if we at tempted to describe all the trials of this present life; but all of them have one characteristic in common, which consists in the fact that, by making us feel our misery and our weakness, they lead us to have recourse to God, as to our sole source of strength, our sole support (Ps. cxix. 1), and to imitate the dove of the deluge, which, not finding any resting-place upon the earth, returned to take refuge in the ark. God is the true ark wherein the afflicted heart finds its consolation, the weak heart its strength, the tempted heart its defence. Let us examine whether we have made use of our trials to become more humble, more detached from ourselves, and more united to God.
How Useful Humility is to Enable us to Bear all Kinds of Trials in a Christian Manner.
A proud man can bear nothing; he is angry with and revolts against the cross; he will not understand that he deserves to suffer and that he needs to do so; and God, who holds pride in horror, leaves him a prey to his impatience and his bad temper. A man who is humble accepts, on the contrary, the cross with a good grace; he feels that, being a sinner, it is only right that he should suffer, and that he ought to accomplish in his own flesh what is wanting in the sufferings of Jesus Christ, and to unite the members with their head in the participation of trials, even as they will be united in the participation of glory; that, lastly, whatever he may suffer, he deserves to suffer still more. On His side, God, touched by this humble frame of mind, assists him, supports him, protects him under the weight of the cross, and renders it sweet and even delightful to him (II. Imit. ii. 2). Sometimes trials come to us from our neighbor, and then humility quickly sets right the differences which have arisen; its charms soften the most bitter of hearts, and appease those which are the most irritated. If, on the contrary, the trial comes from ourselves, humility again quickly sets it right. It teaches us to be ashamed in the presence of God, to cast ourselves into His arms as into the arms of a father, to pray to Him, to love Him, to declare to Him that it is He alone we will love, that we will to love Him with our whole heart and always; and immediately the soul is calmed, serenity and peace re appear, and, thanks to humility, the trial turns to our greater good. Oh, how well then it is to be humble!
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.
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