Path of Humility

Fourth Week
Directions for the Humble Soul

Preparation for the Fourth Week

We are convinced and resolved we will be humble.

But this impulse needs direction. False ideas, our own mistakes, and ingrained habit, all tend to draw us from the true path. Laws misunderstood and half-digested knowledge may leave us with an incomplete humility, ineffective and even dangerous.

On the other hand, the glory of true humility will show up the imperfection of ours, and by its charm will win our heart. To acquire a taste for good is already to live in accordance with its standards. Desire is the springing shoot, the mounting sap, the effort that tends to growth.

Certain of the following meditations will be concerned with various applications of the sentiment of humility in regard to God, to our neighbor, and to ourselves. Others will teach the cultivation of this virtue by exterior practice, by inner sentiment, and by that great spiritual flight that is known as the love of contempt.

Lastly, the virtue of prudence must be allowed to teach these impulses its own wise and careful methods of procedure.

This fourth week is, then, especially to be given up to the study of practical humility.

Some False Forms of Humility

These reflections regarding weak, false, and illusive forms of humility seem less useful for meditation than for reading and self-examination.

They fix our attention chiefly upon ourselves, while the aim of meditation is rather to fix it upon God. Since, however, there may be some who may prefer to make meditations upon them, the various parts have been so arranged as to make this possible.

I.- Rational Humility

This kind of humility is to be found in almost every soul of ordinary virtue. A little observation will soon show this to be the case. Now, merely rational humility is not the humility of Jesus, nor of the Saints, nor of those souls who are advancing in virtue. Not resting upon faith, it has not the strength to sustain high virtue; it does not soften the heart, nor shed abroad the light of the Divine reflection.

O my God, clear from my mind its narrow prejudices, and reveal the truth to me. I ask it for the sake of the humility of Jesus, that surpasses human reason by the whole height of Calvary.

I. In what rational humility consists.- That we shall not foolishly esteem ourselves, nor despise estimable people; that we shall not undertake what is beyond our strength or capacity; that we shall not exalt ourselves above our deserts, and that we shall be neither arrogant nor vain. This suffices for a merely natural humility. The humility of the Saints is offensive to it, it calls it extraordinary; if it dared it would call it fanatical.

The teaching of the masters of the spiritual life does not find grace in its sight. Its private opinion of it is expressed in such varying phrases as: "We may take or leave it," or "It is absurd."

Rational humility is not always dogmatic, it is often merely practical.

In such a way we are not deceived by reason, it is nature that carries us away.

We are ready nonchalantly to admit every Christian theory on this virtue without dreaming of applying it to ourselves. It is besides, the most natural thing in the world that we should seek to be seen and to rule.

If a certain need of justifying ourselves arises in our mind, we satisfy it by the most plausible excuses: to take the first place is no more than what is due to our rank; to speak well of ourselves, merely simplicity; and to accept without affectation all that flatters our self-love, only a holy liberty. This is no better than pagan virtue. Nonne ethnici hoc faciunt? sadly exclaims the Divine Master.

Such a humility is false in its principles, for, taking no account of the dogmas of faith, it is a mutilation of Christian humility. It is inadequate in its moral import, for it does not attain to its end; it is not that humility that maintains peace and charity, it is not such as produces self-abnegation and disperses illusions.

II. Why merely rational humility is to be feared.- Such a seemingly reasonable humility easily deceives us; we are shocked by no excess; nor yet is there anything seriously amiss, none of those moral deformities that betray evil.

Not only our reason but our own nature approves it. Of ourselves we can advance as far as that, and our innate sense of justice and goodness is satisfied.

Human common sense, in accordance with reason and nature, confirms us in a state of mind that excludes doubtful practices. Does not everyone think thus? A victim of the common error, though I have been in good faith, I am none the less utterly lacking in true humility.

III. The inadequacy of this humility.- It stops short on the threshold of the supernatural, and through its short-sightedness sees only the human aspect of humility. Now, in order to judge an object truly, we must not content ourselves with seeing only a part of it, however clearly.

The mistake here is not in seeing indistinctly, but into not seeing the whole, and in drawing conclusions as if we had seen the whole.

The dogmas relative to original sin and to our need of grace wonderfully elevate the point of view; to the eye of faith the undreamed-of extent of our dependence is revealed, and in the light of this discovery the inadequacy of a merely rational humility is plainly seen.

Recall the meditations of the second week, and the extraordinary impression they doubtless made upon you.

We have said that all dogma, that is true, becomes a legitimate principle of reasoning, and the conclusions thus arrived at, however unexpected they may be, have the fullest right to enter the domain of virtue.

Nothing, then, is more strictly reasonable than supernatural humility; but reasonable though it may be. it is far from appearing so to us.

We are terribly like those vulgar people who will admit nothing that they cannot understand. Speak to them of disinterestedness, and they will answer you, with a smile on their lips, that au fond everyone has, as a motive, some kind of self-interest; that disinterestedness does not exist, and that if by any chance we come across it, it is only trickery.

And these people are very sure of themselves. They are like those rustics who, depending on their own good sense, refuse disdainfully to avail themselves of the most authentic scientific remedies.

In the matter of humility, do not let us trust too much to what it is convenient to call good sense, for it is only of the earth, earthy.

Earth, of the earth, has no capacity to judge the the things of heaven. It is that human sense that, in the Pagans, treated us folly the sublime self-annihilation of Calvary, and which, among Christians themselves, stirred up to those "enemies of the Cross of Christ," of which S.Paul "could only speak weeping." It is found again, alas! in the rationalistic spirit of today.

Who can be sure that he is not tainted with it? Our natural instincts are full of it, and our minds are perhaps not wholly free from it. How many souls, of reputed piety, having lost in a measure the Christian sense, have despoiled the humility of Jesus of its supernatural exigences! Evacuerunt crucem Christi!

Let us seek, then, to see more clearly and to feel more keenly. The day is long in dawning, it is hard to rid ourselves of habit, though it be only a habit of mind, for the mind, too, needs to become accustomed to an idea in order to believe what it has only admitted by force of reasoning.

Reflections.- If my humility is not the humility of Jesus, it is too weak to support the supernatural edifice of virtue, and it is powerless in the eyes of God to attract His graces. It possesses neither that profound sweetness that assures peace, nor that special charm that makes it pleasing in the eyes of men. It is no more than an incomplete virtue, dry and unfruitful.

Yet we say that we believe we are humble because we are neither vain, ambitious, arrogant, nor susceptible. Ah! let us return to the school of Bethlehem, of Nazareth, and of Calvary; let us lend a more attentive ear to the Divine Master; and let us take as our ideal not the modesty of the worldly-wise but the humility of the Saints.

II.-A Narrow and Pusillanimous Humility

Is not the practice of humility likely to become a source of preoccupation? Will it not make me hesitate to take my part, fearful of giving an order, easily disturbed when the necessity arises to act with firmness? Will it not put me under tiresome obligations? Shall I not be liable to be easily scandalized by others?

Humility ought certainly not to cramp our ideas, nor on any account to paralyze our actions and make us timid.

To refuse to practice a virtue or to do a good work that circumstances clearly call for, because it may be an occasion to us of vanity, is the excuse of a narrow and exclusive soul.

To tremble in the presence of difficulties is not humility, but weakness.

Our first regard ought to be for the will of God, our sole rule of action, and we should base our confidence on the grace that accompanies it. Are we to defend our shy virtue even against God? or rather, can that even be called a virtue that exhibits a selfish fear for its own security and is so narrowing in its influence upon the heart and so paralyzing to zeal.

Self-complacence is a vice, but to be sad even to discouragement about oneself is another; it arrests all progress. To see evil in everything we do is neither just nor wise; the good that is in me is not mine but God's.

To be irritated at our faults is to know neither God nor self. True humility stirs us to regret, to prayer, to effort. False humility produces cowardice that has not even energy to arouse us to regret, much less to prayer and combat.

It is especially in the exercise of authority that this narrow spirit makes itself felt in the most deplorable fashion. We dare not give orders, or orders are given timidly, and we do not realize that we are depriving subordinates of a strength that they have a right to expect. We allow them to criticize and find fault without thinking that it is God in the superior that is being held up to scorn; all this is very prejudicial to the good.

This sort of defect is the very opposite of the preceding. Rational humility limits the virtue too much; narrow and pusillanimous humility carries it beyond the limits of prudence. This is not such a common fault, and that is easily explained. Rationalistic humility is the action of reason left to itself, while narrow and pusillanimous humility betrays, in addition to a natural defect, an excessive preoccupation with the views of faith.

To discover this eccentricity, and to institute means of getting rid of it, it is good to analyze the causes that produce it: the one, narrowness, belongs to the disposition of the mind; the other, pusillanimity, depends on the character. Thanks to this distinction, each will know where to set to work at reform.

I.Narrow humility.- Like rationalism, narrowness of mind sees humility only in part, but it sees it in its exigencies. It supposes pride where it does not exist, in such and such a principle or act that it believes is infected by it.

We shall deceive ourselves if we think that this defect is only t be found in persons of small intelligence.

Narrowness, as the word indicates, is only a want of expansion. The view is not wide enough, it does not embrace the whole, and it is only this complete view that permits the value of each detail to be seen; on the contrary, some particular point is seized with great clearness and energy, and given undue proportions, and it is not realized as possible that some other virtue such as charity, for example, may on occasion forbid humility, not to exist, but to appear.

Now the portion of truth that is found even in this error satisfies and gains the assent of the judgment. Then let us extend our view of the truth as far as possible.

The remedy is difficult of application, for it consists of self-doubt, and doubt of that part of the self that we are wont to defend most jealously: our judgment. Yet we must not hesitate, this self-doubt must be aroused, and we may aid it with the reading of books, and by laying open our minds freely to our director.

We shall find that as our minds widen they will become more just.

Education is often the sole cause of the defect of narrowness, and the inculcation of larger views may be a sufficient corrective.

If, however, the long application of narrow principles has developed a kind of mental twist, the cure is more laborious, and will be still more so if the evil has attacked the nature of the mind itself.

How are we to have sufficient judgment to recognize our own false judgment?

II.Pusillanimous humility.- We have already seen that pusillanimity belongs not to the mind but to the character, and it consists in a disposition peculiarly accessible to fear.

Fear may arise from an exaggerated circumspection, or from a feeble will. These two defects alike produce hesitancy and instability, though in a different manner. The mind that is over-circumspect foresees numberless possibilities in every decision, and is uncertain how to act; the feeble character would and would not, all the time seeing clearly what it ought to do. Neither the one nor the other can act decidedly, and both are equally liable in the course of action to be deterred from proceeding by the slightest obstacle.

These defects are not peculiar to mediocre souls. Some people are firm in governing others, and yet when it is a matter f themselves they are tortured with fears; they see pride in everything they do and think.

Pusillanimity, then, does not exactly indicate a want of intelligence, but an intelligence of a particular stamp, and it is often allied with extreme subtlety of mind. A multitude of aspect blinds, and numberless possible solutions confuse.

3.The choice of the remedy depends on the cause that produces the evil. Are you excessively prudent, very particular, even meticulous? Force yourself to quick decisions in ordinary matters. Even in serious matters do not reflect too much, and always make definite decisions. Then, having once decided, do not call the matter into question again, and if you have blundered never give way to self-reproach. Even the most wary do not escape such mistakes of human foresight.

If you are of an irresolute nature, easily put off by difficulties or opposition, beware, for you must not call this defect humility, you are simply giving way to your own weakness.

Stir up your courage, then, and impose upon yourself the duty of safeguarding more carefully your rights and your dignity. Maintain your commands and your observations so long as you are clearly in the right.

A narrow and pusillanimous humility gives to the face, the words, the whole exterior, something constrained and even artificial that makes others feel ill at ease, or leads them to impose. Direction will greatly help and encourage those who find in themselves such defects.

At bottom, narrowness and pusillanimity proceed from preoccupation with self, forgetfulness of God. These faults are contrary to prudence, whose mission it is to control all the virtues. They also offend against the social order, and bring discredit upon humility.

O my God, I beseech Thee give me that simple and courageous humility that only looks to Thee, but in looking to The feels all the force of duty and all the fearlessness of zeal.


III. Humility that is False in Expression

No one should pass over this subject, for very few entirely escape this defect, and the commoner a defect is the less it is noticed. Without being conscious of it, I may have much to correct in this regard. Yet I do not wish to be either false or artificial in my words or in my experience. I desire that my humility, if it is not of a very high order, may at least be genuine. Thy light, O my God! Thy indulgence! Thy help!

I. The nature of this defect.- Man has a certain inveterate tendency to place virtue in exterior actions, while, in reality, these actions are only the manifestation and effects of virtue. He is thus led by the logic of this mistake to content himself with forms of words and vain appearances. The baleful effects of such an idea prove too late the falseness of it. The Jews, in the time of our Lord, had fallen into ths error. When they had said to their poor parents, "The gift whatsoever proceedeth from me, shall profit thee," they believed they had fulfilled the law not realizing that besides due respect this law exacts the love that assists and is not satisfied with a mere form of words. Again, the Pharisees believed they were humble because they prostrated themselves in the streets, while they were entirely convinced of their superiority, and held others in supreme contempt.

Certainly we are not so bad as that! The teaching of the Gospel has penetrated Christian society too deeply to allow us to fall into such abuses, but we must take care, for our nature is still human, and human nature never alters essentially, and is prone to indulge its propensities as far as want of reflection and the conventions will allow. Jesus asks us to be humble, towards our neighbor a gentler attitude and more deferent manners, let us go into the church with more humble looks. Look at us, how humble we are! No one, of course, will say this explicitly, but some of us are secretly influenced by such sentiments.

Probe your heart well. When you say that you are worthless do you really mean it? When you abase yourself, would you permit others to look down on you? Do you not rebel when someone expresses doubt of your capacity, when you are neglected by someone or contradicted?

"There are some people who say that they are nothing, that they are abject, miserable, and imperfect, and yet who cannot bear the least word of disapproval, but complain of it at once; and if you notice some imperfection in them, on no account must you mention it, for they would be offended."

"I do not call humility," once said S.Francis of Sales, "that ceremonious assemblage of words, of gestures, prostrations, reverences, and genuflections, when all is done, as it is often is, without any inner sense of real abjection, or of just esteem for others; for all that is only the vain amusement of feeble minds, and ought rather to be named the phantom of humility."

II. The origin of this defect.- Every society forms for itself a language, and each member borrows its expressions. Pious people necessarily adopt certain expressions of humility that in some are perfectly sincere, while in others they are only an echo. This is often harmless enough, since forms of words do not count for much; but at the same time it is prejudicial to humility, since it disparages it, and to piety since it discredits it.

What we say, that let us sincerely strive to feel, for there should be a perfect correspondence between our words and our sentiments.

How beautiful humility is when it is sincere! But if it is ever so little defective in this respect, it loses all its beauty and charm.

This is a great lesson for ordinary virtue. If our humility is not deep enough to inspire us with the lowly sentiments of the Saints-do not let us express such sentiments, let us content ourselves with something less, that has at least the beauty of truth. We are certain to be aware of some defects that we may honestly avow, some inferiorities of which we are convinced, and to experience some wrongs that we can learn to accept with a good grace. Let our humility

Path of Humility

Third Week
Jesus Humble

Preparation for the Third Week

We must make these meditations respectfully: Jesus is God; with docility: Jesus is Master; with confidence: Jesus is good.

He calls us in order to train us Himself. O sweet hope! He has His examples, His lessons, and His secrets!

By his example He walks before us to show us how to be humble.

By His words He explains His example.

In His secrets He reveals to us the humility of His Heart: Mitis sum et humilis corde; and He keeps this secret for those who are lowly and for those who desire to be so. Revelasti ea parvulis.

The heart is a fire, and its heat at times becomes its light; we must meditate effectively. But, better than the heart, grace is our light, and we must draw its radiance into ourselves.

O Holy Spirit, O Creator, create in me purified desires and thoughts, a new heaven and a new earth. Teach me Jesus. "Give to me of Jesus": De meo accipit et annuntiabit vobis. I wish to be humble like Jesus and by Him.

This week will advance us in the knowledge of humility, putting in a clearer light truths already meditated, and extending our view of them. It will excite us to the practice of this virtue by the force of the most authoritative example.

May it truly transform our heart, that it may also transform our life!

I

To the end that these meditations may exercise upon our resolutions the full extent of their influence, let us disengage ourselves from certain ideas which represent the actions and sentiments of Jesus as being too much outside our own condition to serve for an example to us.

Certainly the state to which the soul of Jesus is exalted by His personal union with the Word is so different from ours that is impossible for us to state precisely its nature and its laws. Expressions fail us; but if the far horizon is lost to view, the nearer prospect is in sight. Let us approach this.

The aspect of Jesus suffering and humiliated suggests two inquiries. Could He really suffer?- He Who even here on earth enjoyed the Beatific Vision! Could He, Who knew Himself to be so great, sincerely entertain lowly opinions of Himself? Externally, humiliation and suffering were evident; but did they affect Him interiorly? Were they not perhaps simply appearances designed to give us a great lesson of example?

At any rate, if these humiliations and sufferings were real, Jesus had His divine virtue to support Him. He was the Infinite, the all-powerful, the preeminently strong; and as for me, I am only a poor little creature, full of weakness! His humility accorded with His stature.... I can scarcely raise my eyes high enough to contemplate His greatness, how can my life hope to attain to it? Let me fall on my knees in admiration of such a prodigy, but do not ask me to reproduce it.

II

According to such a view, the humility of Jesus was only an appearance, an ornament, a lifeless model! and His example can have no power to arouse my emulation, for it belongs to conditions different from my own. But such a view is false, utterly false. The humility of Jesus, my Brother, is not merely an appearance, nor an example which is out of my reach, with which God deceives me. Could the God of justice force us to submit to humiliations which He had not Himself suffered? Could the God of wisdom impose on us a burden which His divine shoulders alone could bear?

Jesus felt the shame of humiliation with that natural repulsion which the sense of personal dignity inspires; and He accepted it, as we shall presently see, with a feeling of its justice.

These two conditions were indeed necessary: to feel, and to accept- to feel really in His man's heart, to accept freely with His will, as a submissive Son-if His humility was to be a virtue, and His acts were to possess any merit.

The Soul of Jesus resembled our soul as His Body resembled our body. Both were made of the same elements as are ours; His Body had blood, nerves, and organs like ours; His Soul like ours was endowed with intelligence, will and sensibility.

If our human blood ran in His veins, our human feelings palpitated in His heart.

III

Two great differences, nevertheless, may be seen in His manner of feeling and ours; but these two differences only add force to His example. Jesus, better endowed than we are, felt more keenly; Jesus, more virtuous than we are, accepted more filially.

We know that the richer the nature, the greater the capacity for suffering: elevation gives a clearer vision; greater refinement seizes the least shades; greater constancy makes forgetfulness impossible.

Thus our adorable Jesus has suffered all the more, and has all the more right to offer us His actions and His sentiments as true examples.

Doubtless, His example will always leave us far behind, and we shall be outdone not only by the greatness of His actions, but by the perfection of His self-sacrifice. Jesus foresaw suffering and loved it- Desiderio desideravi.

But, then, where was the merit if it cost Him nothing? if He did it all for love?

Since when has love that makes everything easy been regarded as decreasing merit?

Do we feel less gratitude for an affection whose warmth makes a happiness of stanching our wounds or of sacrificing to us its joys? Since when has virtue, that also makes every duty light, deprived actions of their merit? In that case an increase of Divine love and virtue would lessen the worth of our actions!

If the actions of Jesus were determined by His immense love, they were determined freely if sorrowfully, for in Jesus, we must remember, it was not the Divinity Who felt but our human nature, a nature more sensitive than ours and more accessible to suffering. Then do not let us say: "I am not God, I cannot do what the Almighty has done." We have before us not God alone, but the Son of man; and it is He Who offers Himself for our imitation.


First Meditation
Exercise XV
The Infancy and Hidden Life of Jesus
The Humility of Self-Effacement

Evening Preparation.- In this meditation we shall see the humility of Jesus appearing in the quiet light of His hidden life; in the touching mysteries of His birth, of His presentation, of His flight into Egypt; and in the long monotonous years that flowed slowly by in the voluntary eclipse of Nazareth.

Thirty years out of thirty-three. What a marked preference! Jesus has come to speak to men, and they are all about Him; though He is only a child, He has an eloquent tongue; His young heart burns with ardent zeal,... yet He is silent. Could He do anything better than save souls?- or rather, in order to save them, could He employ any better means than to show Himself and to act?

Yes, for it is humility that, by stripping a man of all selfish preoccupation which hinders the Divine action, by rendering him insensible to what is hard and disconcerting, and by keeping his heart tender and considerate towards others, paves the way to success.

But for the acquisition of humility, human nature needs time and many victories over self. Jesus knew that our eagerness needed this lesson.

True humility also tends to self-effacement. Obscurity is her chosen place, the place where she is at ease; she tends towards it with all the force of her nature, and will remain in it if she is not called forth by God. Ama nesciri- "Love to be unknown."

This sacred and silent retreat is like a sanctuary where God reveals Himself and gives Himself more intimately. How can God refuse His favors to a heart that is full of love?

Tomorrow we will read the sacred passages which tell of that period in the life of Jesus that was entirely filled with gentle humility, a period so calm and touching and beautiful.

O Mary, O Joseph, and the holy angels, you who were the only witnesses of this self-annihilation, lend me your eyes and your hearts that I may worthily contemplate Jesus in His humility.

Meditation

First Prelude.- To represent to ourselves the contrast between the vast and shining heavens where the Word reigns, and that poor corner of the cold earth to which the Savior descends. To cast our eyes towards the uncreated splendor on high, and then to contemplate on earth the humility of a comfortless stable.

Second Prelude.- To ask the grace to realize deeply the love of Jesus for all that is humbling, and to see in His unnecessary self-abasement a supreme lesson for myself.

I

Et verbum caro factum est. Let us compare the two terms: The Word, the glorious image of the Father; and the flesh, vivified dust, the lowly flesh of man. The one approaches the other until union is accomplished. This phrase factum est. seems to imprison, to hide the Word in the flesh, and, as it were, to annihilate it.

Exinanivit semetipsum! This first act was God's alone, those that followed belonged to the Man-God.

Edictum a Caesare. Behold Him, even before His birth, submissive to a master; He accepts his exactions; Caesar is to have another subject, and Jesus is to have neither dwelling nor a cradle. Thus He wills it, thus He has chosen.

Non erat eis locus in diversorio. This was quite natural: they were poor and they were turned away.

Reclinavit eum in praesepio. The trough where the animals fed became His cradle; a handful of straw supported and surrounded His tender little body. Gentle Child, asleep in the crib, You seem to repose in humility!

Pastores erant in regione illa. Some herdsmen, poor people, these were the first to whom He gave an audience. He prefers them because He is humble.

Et hoc vobis signum. The littleness of the Savior-God is to be His sign: invenietis infantem, a little child without word or look. In praesepio, like a feeble lamb in His nest of straw.

The shepherds adore Him and return home. Jesus remains unconscious. We are not told that the shepherds said anything, but if they did no one listened to them- they were such insignificant folk. Jesus only quits the stable to go into a poor house close by.

The angels have proclaimed the Messiah, but they have not drawn away the veils with which humility covers Him.

II

Postquam impleti sunt dies purgationis. Forty days pass. They go to Jerusalem, alone, for no one is interested in them.

In the Temple, however, they are welcomed by some prophets; Simeon, venerated by the people, declares Him to be the Light of nations, and Anna speaks of Him to those who are expecting the Redeemer of Israel.

It is a momentary glory, and then the veil of humility once more enwraps Him; and when the Magi come to seek Him in Jerusalem, who has received Him in their temple, does not even know Him.

The repose of the city is troubled all day by the caravan of these sons from the East. Sages declare that the Messiah should be born, and born at Bethlehem.

Bethlehem is only two leagues away, yet no one hastens thither, nor accompanies the Magi there. What extraordinary indifference!

Surge, fuge. In the middle of the night a voice rings out: "Joseph, arise, take the child and flee!"

Is this all that God will do for His Son? Think of the power of the Almighty, and admire in Jesus His resolute will to be accounted as nothing.

The return into Galilee is just as dependent, obscure, and humble.

III

Nazareth, with its long years of oblivion, is next shown to us, a little village hidden in verdure, with two or three streets in which strangers are seldom seen, the silence of the houses only interrupted at intervals by the monotonous sound of some implements on toil. And in this obscure spot, where the days and the hours pass so slowly away, Jesus, the hidden God, dwells, unknown by those who employ Him, by those who hear Him! Mary and Joseph alone are there to adore Him, but neither do they reveal Him. His life is simply the life of a child of poor parents, nothing more! To the soul that sets herself in meditation to reproduce the scene and the details of each day, infinite prospects unfold themselves.

She sees what passes, hears what is said, and contemplates the veritable humility that is displayed in all those unnoticed actions.

O Jesus, thy desire for annihilation is so evident and so persistent that it impresses my heart and my mind.

O Jesus, "the Way, the Truth, and Life," have pity on my pride that misleads and torments me!

Accustom me so to love Thee, that the neglect of creatures is no longer bitter to me. Teach me to efface myself, that I may attract Thee; defend me from the impulsive desire to act and to succeed.

For thirty years Thou dost prolong Thy lesson, in order to teach me to keep the spirit of it, not merely on occasion or from time to time, but every day of my life.

What hast Thou found so delightful in obscurity that Thou didst not desire to leave it? There Thou hast found the Infinite, for in the shade Its brightness shines forth, and in the silence Its voice is heard.

Resolution.- To wait until the hand of God draws me out of silence and obscurity.

Second Meditation
Exercise XVI
Public Life. Humility in Action

First Point: The humility of Jesus was simple.
Second Point: It was magnanimous.

Evening Preparation.- In order fully to profit by this meditation, we must realize that in the active life humility changes its role; it no longer tends to effacement, but acts as a safeguard.

When God calls it into action, it folds itself up in the heart without suffering decrease, and there brings its useful influence to bear upon the exercise of the other virtues, imparting to them that stamp of simplicity and personal disinterestedness that gives them their power.

To be humble in obscurity is comparatively easy, but to remain humble under the stress of public activity demands solid virtue and wise caution. To delight in praise and the sight of the good we do is such a subtle poison!

To exalt oneself to the level of a high position, and to change our attitude as we rise, is a common temptation to which many yield. Is it not proper that we should show ourselves, talk, do, and make a success of things? Is it not right to show an imposing appearance?

O Jesus, Thou wilt enlighten me by Thy example. If I love Thee, it will be easy to me to follow it and to be steadfast.

O Jesus, to put Thee in place of self and to keep Thee within me, to act only for Thee and by Thee, is the ideal of humility in the active life.

Meditation

First Prelude.- Composition of place. Contemplate Jesus leaving Nazareth without a noise, as He has lived there. The humility of his thirty obscure years does not satisfy Him, He wills to commence His ministry by more obvious humiliations. Let us watch Him setting off on the road to the Jordan, mixing with the crowd of publicans, and receiving the baptism of sinners. Let us then follow Him into the desert, where He submits to the companionship of wild beasts, and the contact of the devil, allowing him to tempt Him as if He were a soul liable to fall.

Second Prelude.- Let us ask the grace to be freed from all self-confidence and dangerous self-complacence in the esteem of others.

I. The humility of Jesus was simple.- His humility has all the brilliance of truth, and all the charm of simplicity. His approach is heralded by nothing surprising; His dress is poor, His gait modest, His head slightly bowed.

Whether He looks, or speaks, or acts, all is perfectly natural, Jesus does not pose.

His entourage.- There are people in working dress, little children and their mothers, despised publicans, and even people who have lost their reputations. He prefers these; He draws them to Himself and lifts them up again, and has for them treasures of indulgence.

How can this same Heart feel such indignant repulsion? Jesus hates pride, and He is pitiless to the proud Pharisees. He takes into account neither their probity, nor their alms, nor their respect for the law, nor their lengthy prayers. Virtue inspired by pride only fills Him with horror.

His life is a daily privation; He has "no stone whereon to lay His head"; poor people receive Him into their houses; poor women provide for His needs. For His preaching He asks neither temple nor pulpit; a hillock of grass, the angle of a street, the side of a boat, suffice Him.

His language is so simple in its grandeur that all can understand Him. It is so clear, and its truth shines so radiantly, that the words seem to disappear. He borrows the expressions, the customs, even the ideas of the people.

Nothing is farther from studied elegance than His discourses.

And His virtue, how simple it is! Habitually Jesus manifests nothing extraordinary. He leads an ordinary life, He eats and drinks like everyone else, He has His hours of weariness.

When He wishes to give Himself up to long meditation He withdraws to a mountain.

Doubtless, His perfect virtue betrayed itself at every turn, but it was so entirely natural that it created no astonishment, like a monument whose harmonious proportions disguise its great size.

II. The humility of Jesus was magnanimous.- As soon as the hour designed by His Father has struck, Jesus comes forth from obscurity, shows Himself, speaks, and surrounds Himself with disciples. He gains the crowd and makes the authorities tremble. He heals the sick, raises the dead, and stills the tempest. Yet he does these things quite naturally; He seeks no honor, nor does He flee from gibes; to both alike He appears indifferent.

We must admire this magnanimous humility that frees the soul from all pusillanimity and from all hesitation. Listen to the Divine Master revealing His secret. "My Father in Me, He doeth the work." An instrument must not resist, an instrument cannot be puffed up.

Humility, when it is true, makes the heart generous. Before a superior will, it permits neither refusal nor reserve; it inspires a desire for good that has God for its sole object, and a confidence that expects everything from Him.

Humility that has not this character is insincere or incomplete.

Jesus appears and speaks with authority- tanquam potestatem habens. He appears for what He is, He says what it is His mission to say. He has none of those timidities that arise from self-consciousness, nor those set phrases for humility that often contain a secret pride.

This example gives us some important lessons.

When we undertake a mission, let us forget ourselves and make ourselves forgotten. Let God alone appear, and souls be saved.

We are not to attract attention by too much repeating that we are incapable and unworthy. What does it matter about ourselves? Let us lend to God what we hold from Him, and let the feeling of our nullity go on growing with the success of our work.

At the end of his life, S.Francis of Assisi allowed the crowds to kneel before him and to kiss the sacred stigmata. A brother showed surprise at this. "Ah!" said the Saint, "I do not deceive myself. It is not I whom they come here to see. I receive this homage, but I give it all back to God.

Resolution.- In the good that I am called to do, to see only God, and to see Him unceasingly. The danger of self-seeking, even in the most fleeting sentiment of complacency.


Third Meditation
Exercise XVII
Humility of the Heart of Jesus

First Point: Mystery of this humility in Jesus.
Second Point: Humility produced by the feeling of His nothingness.
Third Point: Humility preserved by the Beatific Vision.

Evening Preparation.- The two preceding meditations have shown us the humility of Jesus in its exterior manifestations; we have seen its gentleness and courage. Tomorrow and the following days we shall contemplate the humility of the Sacred Heart, and we shall find it profound, even to mystery.

Let us put ourselves without flinching the question that was raised at the beginning of these meditations: How could Jesus, Infinite God and perfect man, have a lowly opinion of Himself? Exterior acts of humility might find some explanation to justify them; but the sentiment, persuasion, and certitude, that constitute true humility, appear inconsistent. O Jesus, make me to understand this tomorrow.

Under the influence of this astounding revelation of humility, shall I not, in my turn, be constrained to become humble? O Jesus, shall I hold my head high when I see Thee lower Thine? Canst Thou have more cause for humility than I? or am I so blind that I can see no reason for humility? or so dull that I cannot draw the right conclusions?

O Jesus, touch my heart when Thou hast convinced my mind. I would that my humility too should be that of the heart, a humility inclining me to self-abasement, and even a love for it.

O Jesus, Who dwellest in me by Thy sanctifying grace, and Who dost animate all my actions by Thine actual grace, fill me with Thine own delight in humility.

Make me to love and follow Thee, even into those depths of detachment where self is forgotten, but where Thou and Thy joys alone are to be found.

Meditation

First Prelude.- Composition of place. To represent to myself one of those dark mountains where, at night, Jesus loved to pray under the quiet light of the stars. To see Him, kneeling, His eyes turned to heaven, lost in the contemplation of Him Who is.

Let us with holy respect strive to penetrate the secret of the great temple of His Soul, which in Its humility is filled with adoration and love.

Second Prelude.- To ask the grace of detachment from self-esteem, in a profound sense of the preponderating part played by God in all my well-doing.

I. Mystery of the humility of Jesus.- Let us recall the words of our Master: "I am meek and humble of heart." This is the Heart upon which we are about to meditate; the Heart, from whence arises the desire of humility; the Heart that has tasted its bitter sweets.

Let us gaze into this sanctuary as into a temple of deep mystery; we must accustom our eyes to this holy darkness. Actions are seen, but motives are hidden, and motives are the virtue itself. We must beg for the light of the Holy Ghost, and ask Jesus Himself to teach us the secret of His humility.

O Jesus, Heart of love, Thou didst desire love. To touch my heart, to attract and delight it, Thou hast undertaken the greatest sacrifices!

To give Thy life was much, but Thou hast also sacrificed Thine honor. It is, then, the love of our love that makes Thee humble!

O Jesus, wise God, devoted Savior, Thou hast seen pride to be the greatest evil of humanity, and its most dangerous fault; to draw us into the way of humility Thou hast deigned to travel along it Thyself, that for very shame we should blush not to follow Thee. It is, then, O Jesus, the duty of example that makes Thee humble!

Slowly I peruse these noble motives; I meditate upon them with emotion.

Must I not indeed submit, and determine to make myself humble, that I may help Jesus to save me, prove my love for Him- as near as possible? Yet, my Jesus, in proportion that I realize Thy wisdom, Thy goodness, and Thy perfection, I am the more astonished at Thy humility. Thou hast said, "I am humble of heart," and Thou art truth; yet humility of heart involves a sense of lowliness, and Thou art so great!

II. Humility produced in Jesus by a sense of His nothingness.- We will commence by forming in our minds an enchanting picture of Him. He is the most beautiful of the children of men. His flesh is pure and holy,... His mind is free from illusion,... His heart is master of all its emotions,... His imagination is as beautiful as poetry,.. His look is ravishing, His words persuasive, His kindness compelling. No stain, no imperfection, disfigures Him. Virtues and gifts in their supreme manifestation adorn Him. He sees on high the angels prostrate before Him, and on earth an obedient creation. He foresees that future generations will kiss the marks of His footsteps, and that in His honor countless beautiful devotions will spring forth.

We will recall all the wondrous attributes that theology discovers in Him: His transformed Soul that exhausts our ideas of grace; His knowledge that extends to all created things, but above all His absolutely infinite dignity, Body and Soul subsisting in the unity of a single person, the person of the Word: drawn into its orbit and receiving the same homage of adoration- what transplendent glory!

And in the midst of all this, Jesus is humble! Is it the effect of a miraculous illusion? Not at all. Jesus, fully conscious of His greatness, realizes to a nicety the smallness of His human nature.

What does He see then? He sees that this Divine dignity which He enjoys is only a splendid garment, and that this garment is purely a gift clothing simple nothingness. This soul, thus vested, did not exist yesterday, and at any moment might return again to the void if it were not each moment sustained by the Almighty, for the created being, even of a Man-God is frail and carries within itself the seeds of dissolution.

We may suppose this adorable Soul saying, long before S.Catherine of Siena: "I am she who is not." Coming from such a quarter, these words almost appal us, and they conjure up before our eyes the imperceptible image of nothingness.

III. Humility preserved in Jesus by the Beatific Vision.- We know that we are nothing, and yet we are not humble. Why? Because we do not live in the unceasing realization of all that our nothingness means.

Pride begins in forgetfulness and breeds illusion; it is never true.

If a saint from heaven came again among us while still enjoying the Beatific Vision, he might by a miracle merit and suffer, but he could never be proud. The sight of God and at the same time of his own nothingness would make pride an impossibility.

Let us consider our Divine Savior on earth thus enjoying Beatific Vision, and imbibing from it His profound humility.

What a spectacle this is- the Word face-to-face with the nature He has associated Himself with! The soul of Jesus plunges her astonished and enchanted gaze into the depths of this Divine ocean, depths that are inaccessible even to her. At all points her gaze is arrested and she is conscious of an infinite Beyond. Throughout the centuries of eternity never will this soul, united to the Word, fully understand the Word.

Though the hosannahs of the crowd surround Him like a brilliant cloud, He does not raise His head. Though His face is spat upon, yet His heart does not rebel. His thought soars high above these things.

In default of the Beatific Vision, let us endeavor to call up this vision of faith: God infinite and for ever infinite; ourselves, before Him, always and in everything a kind of nothing.

Do we not find this vision in the great souls of the Saints? and do we not meet with it ourselves in certain simple, ignorant souls? How is it that we do not attain to it? for our light is greater than theirs. We know our nothingness; but they see it, feel it, realize it.

Let us make ourselves familiar with this view, that it may penetrate our whole moral being. Let us recall it when we place ourselves in the presence of God, and especially when we are at our prayers.

What a sweet manner of preparing ourselves for the Beatific Vision of eternity! Whether it be on earth, or in heaven, whoso sees God becomes humble.

Resolution.- To see God in all our successes, and to see Him so clearly that we forget ourselves.


Instructions on the Three Succeeding Meditations

The humility we considered yesterday is that which is proper for all created beings. It was the disposition of Adam in the terrestrial paradise, and it will be that of our blessed state in heaven; it is the sentiment of the Nothing in the presence of the Infinite.

The humility of abjection belongs to what is ugly and low, it does not befit a being coming from the hands of God. It is made, alas! entirely by the hands of men; it is the work of sin alone.

Let us carefully note this: that all evil, how small soever it may be, is a deformity, and descends lower than simple nothingness. This is clear to the reflective mind, but it is in a very different guise that it is presented to our ideas and tastes.

We certainly do not understand abject humility, nor have we any deep and real conviction of our vileness. Neither do we feel a disposition to put ourselves very low.

Alas! the most guilty souls are the most refractory to such sentiments, and on the other hand we see innocence doubting and despising itself, so true it is that pure eyes alone can see clearly. "The pure in heart shall see God," says the Gospel, and they will also see, by contrast, the hideousness of what is opposed to Him- evil.

To see the hideousness of evil in himself, and to judge himself according to this view, especially constitutes the humility of fallen man; but this view is so much opposed to common opinion that it passes away as soon as we leave our meditations. It is a dream of the night, of which we retain but a vague and indistinct remembrance. It is a form of words that we repeat without really believing it. Belief, dream, remembrance, all have vanished when temptation comes, and under the stress of real humiliation we find in ourselves only the sentiments of outraged human nature.

What is to be done, O my God, to overcome these persistent illusions? How can I raise myself above these natural sentiments? I seemed to feel the force of the preceding meditations, yet I not only lack the courage to be Christianly humble, but even the simple conviction of its necessity.

In this again Jesus offers Himself to be our Light. He makes Himself the Man of Humiliations, even more, perhaps, than the Man of Sorrows.

He shows Himself so degraded, so vilified, that we gaze in amazement. Before such a spectacle our softened hearts condole with Him, and our trembling hands seek to tear from His head the odious crown of shame. But He Himself exclaims: "Do not do that! These humiliations... I deserve them!"

Deign, O Master, to explain this mystery to me.


Fourth Meditation
Exercise XVIII
Jesus Christ's Humility of Abjection

First Point: Exterior Humiliation
Second Point: Interior Humiliations
Third Point: Spiritual Humiliations

Evening Preparation.- This meditation is to be a kind of picture of the humiliations of Jesus in His Passion. We will do our best to understand them, and so to enter into them that they will really impress us. As we peruse them we may feel sure that in spite of all our efforts we shall never do more than discern the outer confines of the abyss. The Passion comprehends depths of abasement such as the human mind cannot fathom; it sees what is obvious and is appalled by what it sees, but after a little meditation it begins to realize that it has seen nothing. How would it be if we had the soul of a S.Francis of Assisi, of a S. Catherine of Siena, of a S.Theresa, of a S.John of the Cross? We should find a Jesus humiliated in ways that we never even surmised. With them we should then be ready to trample underfoot all earthly pride, and to tear the last sensitive fiber of vain esteem.

O Jesus, I have not their sight, nor such a soul as theirs, to see and feel. The Holy Ghost alone can bestow them. Beseech Him, my Jesus, to dissipate my false ideas and to do His work in revealing Thee; I desire so deeply to know Thee! Thou needs must be so beautiful: so beautiful in Thy humiliations, for I realize that there is in Thee a moral beauty so exalted that I cannot grasp it, so enchanting that it casts over humiliation itself a luster that makes it to be desired!

This meditation does not exactly demand a return upon ourselves; its aim is rather to set before us, before our mind and heart, a striking picture of Jesus humiliated. May it create sincerity in our reflections, and express itself in the fervency of our love. May our soul be filled with Jesus, and we shall have then done more towards developing our personal humility that if we had anxiously surveyed our own defects; we shall then love humility with the love that we have for Jesus.

Meditation

First Prelude.- Composition of Place. Make a rapid survey of the scenes of the Passion: Gethsemane, that witnessed the Agony, the treason of Judas, and the flight of the Apostles; the houses of Anna and Caiaphas; Pilate's Pretorium; Herod's palace, where injustice and hatred flung themselves in fury upon Jesus; the hall of the flagellation; the way to Calvary; the death on the Cross between two thieves, full in the public eye. A raging torrent seems to bear away its victim into an ocean of humiliations.

Second Prelude.- To ask the grace of meek and sincere resignation in humiliations.

I.Exterior humiliations.- Let us present ourselves before Him Who was "the scorn of men and the outcast of the people." We see Him as a leper, cursed of God, degraded even to the dust.

Let us glance rapidly through all the various kinds of humiliations that would most distress and revolt us.

Jesus was humiliated:

1.In His dignity as a free man.- His enemies throw themselves brutally upon Him, bind Him, and drag Him to prison. We, so jealous of our independence if it is even threatened.

2.In the modest dignity of His Body.- Stripped of His garments, scourged, nailed naked to the Cross in the sight of the people! An honorable man would prefer a thousand deaths to this shame.

3. In His personal dignity.- Insulted, spat upon, struck! How do men act under such outrages?

4. In the dignity of His Mind.- He was looked upon as a fool; He was given a fool's dress; He was forced to pass slowly between two rows of gaping people. And we, how troubled we are if any of our qualities are called in question, or any of our opinions ridiculed!

5. In His prophetic dignity.- His eyes were bandaged, and He was struck on the back and head. "Prophesy! who struck Thee?"

6. In His royal dignity.- He is clothed again in an old fragment of purple, a reed is placed in His Hand, a Crown of Thorns on His Brow. The soldiers make mock genuflections before Him, laughing rudely while they strike Him with His sham scepter.

7. In His dignity as God.- His enemies tear from Him everything that is in their power. "He is an impostor," they cry, "for He made Himself the Son of God." On this account the sentence of death is passed upon Him by recognized authority. At Calvary, the Pharisees sneeringly cry, "If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the Cross." Ah! when we are wrongly condemned, when we are scoffed at, how we long for revenge! And if our anger is useless, how our impotent rage consumes us!

8. In His doctrine.- He has come to destroy the law! He deceives the people! he blasphemes! He is the enemy of God!

9. In His reputation.- He is condemned by all the tribunals, Jewish, Herodian, and Roman. He is delivered up to every possible physical torment. Like the greatest criminal, He is crucified publicly in full daylight, between two thieves, and at a time of the year when Jews and strangers crowd into Jerusalem from all parts.

10. In His disciples.- Betrayed by one, denied by their chief, and forsaken by all, Jesus sees even the small section of the community that had hitherto been His adherents lost to Him.

What is left to this humiliated One?

II.Interior humiliations.- Let us go farther. Upon the ruins of exterior honor pride can still stand erect and prolong resistance. Routed elsewhere, it will take refuge in its sense of personal worth, as in a citadel as yet unassailed. It is by this moral force that man is greatest. Under the brute strength that oppresses him, he remains unconquered.

Too often, alas! this greatness of soul is unstable because it is made up of of pride.

Jesus is set before us in the shame of His apparent weakness. Even before His Passion He appears to be vanquished. Feelings of fear take hold of Him- Coepit pavere,... and He breathes them forth as if He cannot suppress them- Tristis est anima mea usque ad mortem!...

He is so overcome that a sweat of blood bursts from His trembling limbs.... He seems so little like Himself that He repulses the long-desired chalice. He is so cast down that He seeks help from His Apostles and accepts it from an angel!

O beautiful and profound humility- in aspect so human, and in intention so compassionate!

III.Spiritual humiliations.- There is another kind of pride, more rare but not less pernicious, and this is a spiritual pride. Formidable in the midst of approbation, it is no less so in ignominy.

Despised, calumniated, persecuted, we still find, as did Jesus on Calvary, a few sympathetic friends. If our attitude is dignified, if our words bespeak lofty sentiments, and if we manifest a soul superior to misfortune, sympathy becomes admiration. And should God, by some sign of special protection, grant us the aureole of martyrs, admiration is transformed into enthusiasm!

Ah! what dangers beset the soul that is not very humble! What a pedestal for its pride!

Jesus chooses unmitigated humiliation. He wills it in all its spiritual nakedness. On the Cross no discourse, but a kind of stupor, broken by occasional words that are like sobs! No radiance of the soul; everything in Him is somber as the night that enfolds Calvary! His Father is pitiless; Jesus cries out that He has forsaken Him!

Already abandoned by men, He is now abandoned by God. Nothing, nothing on earth or in heaven, but humiliation!

His abasement is consummated and He dies in it. Oh! this Crucifix that rears itself everywhere before our eyes, with its bent head, its livid Face, its distressing lassitude, is the image of the humiliated Man. It is indeed the very image of humility, even more than that of sorrow. When sorrow ceases, that poor Body suspended to the gibbet remains in humiliation.

Oh! what an example for us, and what a help!

Resolution.- To kneel today three times before a crucifix, asking Jesus to make me understand this humility.


Fifth Meditation
Exercise XIX
The Need for Abject Humility

First Point: Reasons for it.
Second Point: Our example.
Third point: Our law.

Evening Preparation.- O Jesus, yesterday I surveyed with emotion all the infamies Thou hast suffered, all the distress Thou hast endured; I saw Thee forsaken by all, despoiled of everything, Thine incredible abasement only too evident. There is no doubt that Thou didst will to be the Man of Humiliations. I see it and I feel it. But why hast Thou willed it? This I have not yet grasped.

Was it only to make Thyself a great example? No, for then, though I see humiliation, I do not see the humility that can sincerely say: "This is justice!" Yet in coming into the world Thou didst utter these words; Thou didst repeat them in Thine abasement, for Thy lowered eyes speak them, Thy troubled brow, Thy trembling limbs; Thy whole attitude attests the guilty one!

O Jesus, everything in Thee is necessarily sincere, even to the expression of a look, and the simple movement of a muscle. A voice comes forth from all these lamentable things repeating: "It is justice. I deserve it."

O Jesus, wilt Thou not today make me understand it?-and understand so truly that I shall never again forget.

If humility is justice for Thee, what is it, then, for me?

This is not a matter of mere sentiment, but of strict reasoning. It is a starting-point upon which depends the whole course of life; abject humility, once recognized as necessary, means a revolution in the whole of my moral nature.

Meditation

First Prelude.- Let us set against the picture of accumulated humiliation of yesterday's meditation the moral hideousness of sin. This latter surpasses the former in horror. The cause contains the effect; sin results in these humiliations that are only its just penalty.

To see sin as synonymous with the ignominy of the spitting, the blows, the bleeding nakedness, the infamous death.

Second Prelude.- To ask the grace to accept humiliation on principle, as a matter of justice and for the love of Jesus.

I.The reason for it.- Let us compare carefully two texts of Scripture.

This is the first: Exinanivit semetipsum formam servi accipiens- "He took upon Himself the form of a servant." This is Jesus as we saw Him before His Passion. He made Himself nothing in making Himself man. Had this design been realized in the terrestrial Paradise, among the splendors of original nature, He would still have found Himself face to face with the All and the nothing, the Being Supreme in Himself and the created being; and even then His Incarnation would have been an annihilation, and His humility the sense of His nothingness.

But a second text completes the idea of this virtue by showing it such as was fitting to fallen man. Humiliavit semetipsum usque ad mortem , mortem autem crucis. Humiliavit- He is like a despised object thrown upon the ground. Usque ad mortem- like a guilty man dragged forth to die. Mortem autem crucis- an ignominious death, the death of capital punishment, the kind of death that exposes the executed criminal, with his distorted features, his nakedness and his torments, to the gaze of the crowd.

This is no longer the God Incarnate, it is God the Redeemer. It is not the humility of annihilation, it is the humility of abjection. It is no longer neglect, but spite. The origin of this growing virtue is no longer nothingness but evil.

II. The Example.- Let us contemplate Jesus covered with every infamy. He bears the sins of the whole world. Qui tollit peccata mundi. He is responsible for it, He is charged with it- Qui peccata nostra ipse tulit. Sin is His own thing, He is the personification of it- Eum pro nobis peccatum fecit. He is not only charged and clothed with it, He is penetrated and devoured by it; it is a leprosy that consumes Him. He is an object of horror to God, of disgust to His people- Ut percussum a Deo et humiliatum.

Listen to the exclamation of Jesus: Vemis sum et non homo. Sound the depth of humiliation in these words-"I am no longer a man, but a worm of the earth"- a worm that is trodden under foot and that hides itself in the depths of the earth. To be humiliated is to be humbled to the ground, but Jesus goes farther. What a picture!

Let us try to understand the secret thoughts of the Savior.

Every virtue shows itself in its love for its proper object, and consists in a practical inclination tending towards it. Here the object is abasement. The first degree is acceptance, then comes desire, the quest, and finally satisfaction.

It will be extremely profitable to recall to our memory either the words or the circumstances that display these sentiments in our Lord.

Let us in silence contemplate them reigning in His Heart.

III.The Law.- Is it really true that this humiliation of Jesus is to be the model for us? Is it really true that in order to be Christians our humility must incline us to judge ourselves worthy of contempt?

Or are we rather to look upon it as an admirable excess, an unparalleled stimulus calculated at least to constrain us to ordinary humility?

Doubtless such an example is stimulating, but it is something entirely different: it is a law, or rather the revelation of a law and its authentic promulgation.

It is not a question of being satisfied with words and of holding vague sentiments. Let us dig to the roots of this truth.

Under what title did Jesus submit Himself to such abject humiliation? In His capacity as the Man-God? No, but in His capacity as Redeemer, and in that capacity alone.

As our Redeemer, He is our Representative and our Surety. Now the attitude adopted by my representative is exactly what is proper to me, what is incumbent upon me, and is my clear duty.

The price paid by my surety is the extent of my debt. The abject humility of Jesus does not create an obligation, it only exhibits it.

The duty of such humility existed for us sinners, but we did not know it, and without Jesus we should never have known it. He comes, He takes our faults, He knows the humiliation they deserve; and He submits to this humiliation, He wills it, and even loves it.

And when He says to us: "I am humble of heart," it is as if He said: "Be humble, for it is the law, and I have submitted to it for thee. But it is before everything else, thy law; then submit to it also."

O Jesus, what a lesson! and I have never really understood it.

Yet everything pointed to it, well-known phrases, my own observations, the very nature of things; I must have known it, and yet this truth seems to be something quite new. It is because at last I understand it. Oh! I thank Thee for having revealed it to me. Thou hast seen my goodwill, my desires, and above all my needs, and in Thy mercy Thou hast said: "Let My own abject humility open the eyes of this poor soul at last!"

Resolution.- If humiliation is my law, why am I irritated by it? I will suffer with meekness everything that is painful to my pride.


Sixth Meditation
Exercise XX
Humility of Abjection- Its Mysterious Nature

First Point: It is a kind of mystery
Second Point: This mystery is explained by the mystery of sin.
Third point: Original sin sufficiently explains it.

Evening Preparation.- Tomorrow's meditation explains and completes the two preceding ones- or rather, it establishes their conclusions by irrefutable proofs. These proofs, we may remark, result primarily from our faith, and this explains the sort of anxiety that fastens upon our reason, for the reason is afraid of profundities, even of logic, where it cannot follow. In the darkness, even though it is conscious of truth, it is not reassured, for it would fain see it clearly, and in its own light.

Our first duty, then, is not to mistrust our reason, but its habits. Reason looks upon everything as strange with which it is not familiar; it treats all that is beyond it as imaginary, and disdainfully calls profound doctrine mysticism. What is to be done in this case? We appeal from bad reason to logical and just reason. Are the dogmas of faith true? Does abject humility result from these dogmas? These principles once demonstrated, their conclusion must be admitted, though such humility may remain a mystery, like other mysteries of the faith.

We believe and affirm, and still we are undecided, so obstinate is nature, so true it is that our will no more than our reason is able to suffice unto itself.

From this disposition proceeds a second duty, that of imploring grace, that Divine help, which will enable us to make the difficult passage from recognized proof to free and entire adhesion.

O my God, establish me at last in the truth, create in me an unshakable conviction! Such a conviction is rarer than we think, and yet even conviction is not virtue, and it is the virtue itself that Thou dost look for in me.

The virtue is a facility that offers to humiliation a gentle welcome! it is the holy habit that peacefully bears the burden, since Thy Will imposes it. In some souls it becomes a love that opens its arms to them, and that sometimes even invites them.

O my God, what need I have of Thy powerful grace! O Jesus, Thy past example does not suffice me; come into me, come Thyself and live it again in me!

Meditation

First Prelude.- To remember that Jesus regarded His Passion and death as lesser evils than the evil of original sin. With Him let us plunge our eyes into the mystery of this sin as into an abyss- an abyss so dark that though the eyes tire with gazing, they distinguish nothing; and so deep that the ear does not catch the sound of the fall of the stone thrown into it. Jesus possesses what is lacking to us: let us see with His eyes and judge according to His penetrating mind.

Second Prelude.- Ask the grace to abandon myself to Jesus, that I may follow Him with confidence and love along the way of humility.

I.There is something mysterious in humility of abjection.- It is mysterious to the rationalist, who thinks it absurd; it is so even to us, who, alas! regard it, at least practically, as a pious excess.

In order to better our ideas, it will be as well not to isolate the Divine Master from the more enlightened among His servants. It is always He, because His mind was in them, but in them He seems nearer to us and more like us.

Let us recall the epithets that the Saints heaped upon themselves: "An abyss of malice," "An abortion," "The scum of humanity," etc.

They considered themselves unworthy to speak, unworthy even to live. Such expressions were familiar to them, and are to be found in the mouths of them all. They are like echoes from Calvary, sounding across more than nineteen centuries; echoes of the same kind of humility, the only humility that is ever canonized.

Their humility was logical and passed from words into actions. Though despised and persecuted, they were meek; though betrayed and struck, they bore all with a joyous smile; when they were called wicked, they declared they were worse; when forsaken, they were contented. They looked upon themselves as useless, and the good they did they attributed to God, Who, they said, accomplished His work less with their aid than in spite of them.

This is what they say, this is what they feel, and- we must try to realize it-this is what they truly think.

Let us notice more especially those who have been transformed by humiliations; they aspire to contempt as the ambitious aspire to glory; and when God asks them what prize they will choose as the recompense of their travail they answer: "To suffer and be contemned for Thy sake!"

We are confounded before them, for they are men like ourselves, often less guilty and always more deserving.

II.This humility is explained by the mystery of sin.- Man would understand the humility of abjection if he were capable of sounding to its depths the abyss of sin. Jesus Christ explored its somber depths by the double light of His infused knowledge and of the Beatific Vision.

The holiness of the Infinite Being, His majesty, His goodness, His supreme beauty, all the splendor of the Divine attributes inundating His Soul with their brilliant light, showed Him the degree of love, respect, and praise that are due to God.

Then the scene suddenly changes. Sin attacks this Beauty and Splendor, aiming its blows at the Divine Honor as if it would destroy It. At this sight He Who bore the sins of the world is overwhelmed with horror and confusion. Let us contemplate Him in His Agony, weighed down with anguish. Listen to His strangely depressed words: Transeat a me- "Let this chalice pass from Me." See the sweat of blood that bears witness to the conflict.

Yet, without hesitation we may say that the holy Humanity of the Savior Itself did not know all the disorder, all the outrage contained in sin; only His Divine Nature had a full realization of it.

I am ashamed, O adorable Father, to find that I have measured sin by its exterior appearance, or by the knowledge of it that reason gives! Yet even to the mind of Jesus, sin was, in some sense, a mystery. Ah! I begin to see that I know nothing of humility, and that I shall never know everything!

The mystery is to be found in sin alone, and not in humility, which is the only logical outcome of it. It is, in fact, the state that is proper to the sinner, the just sentence that he ought to pronounce against himself. But how can he pronounce it if he is incapable of estimating the gravity of his fault? He has one resource, and that is to see with eyes more penetrating than his own, to judge, not according to the opinion of men, but by the standards of God. The Saints did this, and this is why the celestial folly of their self-abasement is the highest wisdom. "Learn of Me," once again the Savior says to us. Why should I seek anywhere else? Humility is a virtue almost wholly supernatural, high as heaven, deep as hell.

How weak and circumscribed reason appears in the presence of the revelation!

III.Original sin imposes such a humility.- To clear away the last traces of uncertainty, let us ask the grace to understand how the Saints, who had not committed any serious sin, could yet be abjectly humble. Also, they are not responsible, as Jesus was, for the sins of others.

This is true, but they were tainted with original sin, and their participation in the fall justifies, even in them, abject humility. We must once more frankly acknowledge it, this is still a mystery that is explained by another mystery.

But the reality of original sin is a defined dogma that throws the light of faith on the subject that we are considering.

Original sin effects the whole of humanity. It was chiefly on its account that Jesus was Incarnate, that He died, and that He made Himself so humble.

Now every man, even the most just, bears this shameful stain, the object of God's aversion. It is also true that he bears its humiliating effects, even unto death.

Do not our errors, our illusions, our rebellious thoughts, and the evil propensities that trouble the blood and the brain, work like leaven, towards all kinds of sin? We are in constant danger. There is not a single sin that man has committed that I may not become capable of committing.

And if such a misfortune has not happened to me, may it not be because the supreme temptation, with all its insidious preparations, has not yet presented itself? Countless examples of unexpected failure prompt this fear and this humility. Misericordia Domini quia non sumus consumpti-"Lord, it is by Thy mercy that I am not consumed.

Oh Jesus, I resist no longer, i believe in Thy humility and in that of the Saints. I blush to think of mine, with its reserves that I now yield up Thee. Do I need to understand when Thou dost teach? I do not even need to hear; I have only to contemplate Thee. In thy exterior humility I have a living picture that instructs me, and from afar I endeavor to surmise Thine astonishing interior humility.

But as humility is a practical virtue that mingles itself with every sentiment and action, I wish to practice it with generosity, and without measuring the obligation that binds me.

Perhaps I may thus arrive at a better understanding of the secret of the Saints.

Resolution.- Since the knowledge of sin and that of humility go together, I will make my confessions serve to this double end: a sincere contrition, and humiliating accusations. Have I not been rather careless in this matter?

Instructions on the Next Meditation

I

We are coming to a consideration of that delicate point in humility, the putting of ourselves below others. Several questions arise here. Does this virtue demand this of us? Is it of precept or of a counsel? Ought we to carry it to the point of really persuading ourselves that we are the least among men?

Let us begin by recalling several indisputable truths.

First truth.- At the Last Supper, our Lord placed Himself at the feet of every one of the Apostles, even at the feet of Judas; and later He declared that this abasement should be our law. S.Paul recalls this obligation in these words: "Treat others as your superiors." Nothing is clearer from a practical point of view. All the Saints without exception have followed this rule of conduct, and the Church has never canonized a lesser humility.

Thus we see what we considered as excesses are made legitimate and glorified.

Second truth.- Humility is the sense of our guilty resistance to grace, of our faults, and of our defects. Now this sentiment, when it is real, takes complete possession of the soul, veiling from the eyes the faults and defects of others, and making her sincerely seek the lowest place as that most suitable to her unworthiness. This tendency to self-depreciation has always been regarded as essential to the perfection of this virtue.

Third truth.- An indirect but very strong reason for this law of humility is found in its connection with the law of Christian charity, of which it is the surest safeguard. This throws a wonderful light on the subject, for it appears that charity can only grow in the space made for it by humility.

II

From these truths it results: (1) That abasement before others really does enter into the exigences of humility in this sense, that we should despise no one, and should prefer ourselves to no one, in an absolute sense. (2) That beyond this, self-abasement is of counsel only, and has no limits assigned to it except those dictated by prudence.

III

But is this counsel of abasement at the feet of all men to be a practical rule? Would it be in accordance with good judgment? In other words, in placing myself at the feet of all, must I really believe that it is my rightful place? Certainly, for the Divine Master, the implacable enemy of all hypocrisy, would not ask us to do anything that would be a contradiction of our inmost feelings.

How can we form such a conviction? and how can it be sincere? This is what we are going to study in tomorrow's meditation.

We may clear the ground by observing that, from now, we must base our estimate of self upon the manner of its close, for it is this that ranks us.

Now an impenetrable veil conceals the future- our own and that of the very man whom we despise.

This impossibility of preferring ourselves before anyone allows us sincerely to place ourselves beneath all. It is a matter of simple prudence, indeed, but we shall see that humility counsels it.

Coming to closer grips with the question, must we ask if perfect humility exacts that we should, in a numerical sense, consider ourselves the lowest among others? We frankly answer: No. To be the lowest, precisely the lowest, of the multitude of persons who fill the earth, is speculatively improbable, and if each must think himself so, all must be wrong but one! But this detracts nothing, as we shall soon see, from our previous conclusions.

Practical inclination remains, and it is in this that humility consists.


Seventh Meditation
Exercise XXI
The New Commandment: To Place Ourselves at the Feet of All

First Point: It is humility that Jesus means to teach us here.
Second Point: This humility is of supernatural order.
Third Point: Reasons that confirm it.

Evening Preparation.- The nature of this meditation, well understood, is such as profoundly to modify our ideas. Though apparently obscure, the reasons for a self-abasing humility are, au fond, extremely cogent. Its demands are the demands of a wise God Who knows human nature through and through. Were men dominated by it, an immense peace would possess them, and no duty would be found too hard.

I will begin by allowing to my mind complete freedom to examine the subject. What is conventional and superficial results in nothing solid either in conviction or virtue.

On the other hand, I must beware of prejudice that emanates either from nature, refractory to these ideas, or from human opinion, that is blind in such matters.

I must remember that supernatural truths, once ascertained, become, like intellectual truths, principles, whose consequences must be admitted.

But above all I will pray, I will invoke the heavenly light, and when I am fully convinced once more I will pray that the vital sap of a like humility, permeating all my sentiments, may give to my charity towards my neighbor the kindliness and charm that are its fruits.

O Mary so humble! O Jesus, utterly humble! Why should I fear to abase myself as low as you?

Sacred waters of humility that flow only into lowly valleys, transform into an oasis the arid sands of my barren pride!

Meditation

"And when supper was done(the devil now having put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him), Jesus riseth from supper and layeth aside His garments; and having taken a towel girded Himself. After that, He putteth water into a basin, and began to wash the feet of the disciples, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. He cometh,therefore to Simon Peter. And Peter saith to Him: Lord, dost Thou wash my feet? Jesus saith to him: What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter....

"Then after He had washed their feet, and taken His garments, being set down again, He said to them: Know you what I have done to you? You call Me Master and Lord; and you say well, for so I am. If, then, I, being your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do also. Amen, Amen, I say to you: the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither is the Apostle greater than He that sent him.

"If you know these things, you shall be blessed if you do them."

First Prelude.- To represent to ourselves the large upper room furnished. Outside, the last rays of daylight rest upon the long draperies of the window. Inside, the torches are gleaming. In the midst stands the table, surrounded by rich divans and prepared for the Pasch. Outside, Jerusalem lies silent.

Second Prelude.- To ask for a holy self-abasement before everyone.

I. It is humility that Jesus means to teach us here.- Everything proves it, the action itself and also the words of the Master.

The meaning of the action.- In every age, men and especially Orientals, have used material representations to impress upon the mind their most important lessons. Now, what action can better express humility than that of washing the feet? The feet! Those lowly members that tread the earth and are soiled by it! But here it is not any kind of humility, but humility with regard to men.

Humility without parade: Jesus does not ask to be helped. Resolute humility: He does violence to S.Peter. Extreme humility: He kneels at the feet of the lowest of men, Judas. Let us study all these significant details.

The intention of the Master.- By this action Jesus intends to give a new form to the relations of Christians with one another, otherwise the solemnity of the lesson would exceed the importance of its object. He calls the attention of the Apostles to it: "You have seen what I have just done." He explains His motive: "I have done it to give you an example." He takes pain to point out that the obligation arising from this: "If I, your Lord and Master, etc." He dwells on the importance of this precept by calling "blessed those who will understand and will do it."

This is no incidental or equivocal lesson; it is a lesson prepared, explained, and attested: it is complete and indisputable.

We must not, however, for a moment imagine that the lesson was to be specifically applied to the actual washing of feet. This would be to convict the infallible guardian of sacred tradition, the Church, of unfaithfulness. The usage, often difficult of practice, has disappeared. It was but a symbol of which humility was the reality, and its immortal, flexible spirit adapting itself to changing customs has not ceased to animate Christian society.

II.This humility is of the supernatural order.- What is this humility, that even the chief of the Apostles "cannot understand now, but will understand later"? It is not mere ordinary humility, it is supernatural humility, that the Holy Ghost alone can impart.

Ordinary rational humility is humility before God, than which nothing is more natural. It is also modesty, the curb to our pretensions that human wisdom prescribes. But abasement before our fellows, even before the evil, in fact before everyone-this attitude of the greatest at the feet of the least, that was the attitude of Jesus-this God alone can teach and impose upon man.

But why should I put myself beneath everyone? and how can I sincerely do so, since everyone should do the same in his turn? Is not this an exaggeration, contrary to good sense, a pious fiction that cannot be put into actual practice?

No, it is not an exaggerated theory, it is the universal teaching of the masters of the spiritual life, commencing with S.Paul. "Let each esteem others," he says, "better than themselves."

It is not a mere fiction, it is an essentially Christian inclination. All the Saints have considered themselves the least among men; and if there is one thing that surprises us more than their superlative virtue, it is their profound conviction of their own worthlessness.

The secret of this lesson is to be found in a consideration of our own condition. We must bring to this matter an unbiassed mind, for we are frequently disconcerted by truths that run counter to current opinion.

III.Reason foe this humility.- In all of us there is both good and evil. The good comes from God, and we have no right to be proud of it as if it were our own. The evil, on the contrary, comes from ourselves, and we observe all the shame of it. Such is our position in the eyes of Divine justice.

Now, in the matter of good and evil, man finds himself in a very different position. according as it is a question of the good and evil that is in himself and the good and evil that he sees in his neighbor.

In his own case he is bound to judge, for he knows himself and his conscience, and he feels himself responsible. He sees the evil that is in him, and he can and ought to admit it.

But when it is a question of his neighbor, he is no longer judge, for he is not competent to be so. Guilt depends on the intention, and of this he is ignorant; ingratitude is in proportion to graces received, and of these he has no knowledge; and the whole sum of worth depends on the final result, and this he cannot estimate.

Of his own state he is certain, of his neighbor's he can only form conjectures. In his own case it is his duty to judge; in his neighbor's, mark the warning: Qui judicat fratrem detrahit legi- "He who judges his brother transgresses the law."

If I have no right to judge others, how can I prefer myself to anyone?

O Divine Master! penetrate my soul with this doctrine, that seems to me so strange; to judge others has hitherto seemed to me as just as to judge myself. Men do it everyday; they are in the wrong, and I as much as they.

O Jesus, have pity on my poor reason, that scarcely knows how to assent to such humility. Grant to me the strength of mind to embrace it, and the strength of will to act accordingly.

In others I must see only the good that comes from God. In myself I must see good as a Divine work, and evil as my own.

O wise partiality, that makes life peaceful and its relationships delightful!

O sublime point of view, that mingles in one the two eminent Christian virtues, charity and humility! Humility discovers God in our neighbor, and charity loves Him there.

This is a new precept, and it is not surprising. Since God became man all is changed, everything is made new, and if by His Almighty Will and by a mysterious bond this God incarnate perpetuates Himself in each man, is it astonishing He should command that a supernatural respect be paid to him?

Resolution.- If I have no right to judge anyone, how can I prefer myself to anyone? To show myself today more deferential to everyone.