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Tenth Tuesday After Pentecost
- Adam Paige
- Aug 18
- 3 min read
Tenth Tuesday after Pentecost. Second Reason for Being Very Humble: We have Nothing.
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
We will meditate to-morrow upon a second reason for keeping ourselves humble, which is that we have nothing; that is to say: 1st, that we have nothing good in us at which we can glorify ourselves; 2d, the good which is foreign to us is lent to us, to serve for the glory of God and not for ours. After these reflections, we will make the resolution: 1st, to make an exact division between what belongs to God in us and what belongs to ourselves; there will then remain nothing but what is evil as our portion, consequently, what humiliates us; 2d, when it seems to us that others esteem us or that we are tempted to take pleasure in ourselves, immediately to make the right division between what is God's and what belongs to us. “Take what is thine and go thy way” (Matt. xx. 14). These words shall serve as our spiritual nosegay.
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore Jesus Christ possessing in Himself all the treasures of grace, all the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God; and in the midst of all these riches confessing Himself, in the presence of His Father, to be poor and needy (Lam. iii. 1; Ps. xxxix. 18), because He would not consider as His own any of the gifts of God. His doctrine is not His own, His words do not belong to Him (John vii. 16; xiv. 28). Oh, what a beautiful example He sets before us, teaching us thereby not to be vain because of anything that is in us, and to look upon ourselves always as having nothing in respect to which we can glorify ourselves. Let us thank our divine Master for so useful a lesson, and beg of Him to establish His spirit of annihilation firmly in our hearts.
We have not in us Anything Good in Respect to which we can Glorify Ourselves.
In point of fact, nothingness, which is our nature, excludes all possession; nothingness is the greatest of "all kinds of poverty, the lowest of all kinds of miseries. If in this state we were sufficiently devoid of sense to glorify ourselves for anything, we should fall beneath the double anathema pronounced by God against the poor proud man and of Jesus Christ against the man in the Apocalypse who believed himself to be rich when he was in the greatest poverty. It is very true that in order that we should appear in this world in the rank of creatures, God created for us a body and a soul, and all that we have, not excepting a single hair; but in creating these things He did not intend thereby to abdicate His property in them. All in the order of nature and of grace belongs to Him, and is His. He has only lent it to us, with the charge to turn it to profit, and at the judgment day to render to Him an exact account of it. Now, things being thus, is it not an extravagance on our part to glorify ourselves for what we have ? “What hast thou that thou hast not received?” the Apostle asks, “and if hast received, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it ?” (I. Cor. iv. 7) It is only a fool who wills to be admired because of his dress which has only been lent to him, which every one knows does not belong to him, and of which he will be deprived at the moment when he least expects it.
The Good which is in us has been Lent us only to Serve for the Glory of God, and not in any Way for ours.
God declares to us that glory belongs to Him alone; it is His exclusive property, and He will not give it up to others (Is. xlviii. 11). To make use of His good things for the glorification of the creature, is to act in a manner entirely contrary to His designs. It is to abuse His gifts and turn them against Himself. It is behaving with the greatest insolence to employ His gifts in stealing away His glory from Him. Let us think deeply on this kind of outrage which we commit against God every time that we make use of His gifts for our own glory by esteeming ourselves or endeavoring to obtain the esteem of creatures. Let us beg of Him to-day and every day of our life to give us the grace never to esteem ourselves because of anything there is in us, and never to seek anything except the greater glory of God.
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.
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