Of the Fourth Step, Which Is to Desire to Be Run Down, and Go for Little or Nothing, and to Rejoice Therein

THE fourth step to arrive at the perfection of humility is to desire to be run down and go for little or nothing amongst men, and to rejoice in ignominy, affronts, and insults. “The truly humble man,” says St. Bernard, “is he who desires to be held cheap, not for a humble man but for a good-for-nothing, and rejoices in being so reputed by others.” This is the second degree of humility, and in it consists the perfection thereof; and therefore, he says, humility is compared to spikenard, a small herb and sweetsmelling, according to the text of Canticle. My spikenard hath given forth its odor (Cant. i. 11); for then does the odor of this spikenard travel abroad and spread to others when you not only hold yourself cheap, but wish and desire that others also should despise you and hold you cheap.

St. Bernard observes that there are two sorts of humility: one in the understanding, which is when a man, studying himself and seeing his misery and vileness, thinks little of himself and judges himself to be worthy of all contempt and dishonor; the other in the will, which is when one wishes to be held cheap by others, and desires to be despised and set at naught by all. In Christ our Redeemer, he says, there was not that former humility of the understanding, for Christ could not hold Himself cheap or worthy of contempt and dishonor, because He understood Himself right well and knew that He was true God and equal to the Father. He took it not for a kind of usurpation to hold himself equal to God the Father, and nevertheless made little of himself and demeaned himself to taking the form of a servant (Phil. ii. 6-7). But He had the second humility, that of heart and will, since for the great love that He bore us He chose to abase and degrade Himself and appear vile and contemptible before men. And so He says: Learn of.me, because I am meek and humble of heart (Matt. xi. 29) and of will. But in us both humilities must have place, for the first without the second is false and deceitful. To wish to appear and be counted by others different from what you really are, is falsehood and deceit. He who is truly humble and in all sincerity has a poor opinion of himself, despising himself and thinking little of himself, should rejoice that others also despise him and think little of him.

This is what we have to learn from Christ. See how heartily and with great good will He embraced insults and affronts for love of us. Not content with abasing and demeaning Himself by becoming man and taking the form and habit of a servant—He Who is Lord of heaven and earth—He would take the form and habit of a sinner. The Apostle says: God sent his Son in the disguise and likeness of a sinful man (Rom. viii. 3). He could not take sin, because that could not have place in Him; but He took the brand and mark of a sinner, since He chose to be circumcised as a sinner, baptized among sinners and publicans as though He were one of them, and made less account of than Barabbas and judged far worse and more unworthy of life than he. Finally, so great was the desire that He had for suffering affronts, scorn, and reproaches for love of us that He thought that hour long a-coming in which, inebriated with love, He was to be stripped naked like another Noah exposed to the scorn of men. I have a baptism wherewith to be baptized, a baptism of blood, and how I long for it to be carried into effect! With desire I have desired that this hour should come for eating this passover with you (Luke xii. 50; xxii. 15), in which there shall be seen nothing but marks of scorn and reproaches never witnessed before, buffets and slaps on the face given as to a slave, His face spat upon as though He were a blasphemer, His person clad in a white garment like a fool, and with purple like a mock king, and above all, the scourges, a punishment for robbers and felons, and the torment of the Cross in company with thieves, which at that time was the most shameful and ignominious style of death that there was in the world. This is what with great desire Christ our Redeemer was desiring. J was expecting reproaches and affronts, says the prophet in His name (Psalm lxviii. 21), as a man expects a thing very agreeable and much to his liking, for of such things is expectation and hope, as fear is of things sad and painful. And the Prophet Jeremy says: He shall be glutted with reproaches (Lam. iii. 30). There He was, desiring that hour to be glutted with reproaches, marks of scorn and insult, as though it were a thing He greatly hungered after, and was very much to His liking and quite to His taste—for love of us.

Now since the Son of God desired with so great desire these marks of contempt and insult and took them so willingly and eagerly for our love, though He deserved them not, it will be no great thing for us, worthy as we are of all contempt and disdain, to desire for His love to be held at least for what we are and to rejoice in receiving the ignominious and contemptuous treatment that we deserve, as did the Apostle St. Paul when he said: Wherefore I rejoice in my infirmities, in injuries, affronts, privations, persecutions and distresses for Christ (II Cor. xii. 10). And writing to the Philippians, speaking of his imprisonment, he asks them to share the joy that he felt at seeing himself thus put in chains for Christ (Phil. i. 7). He felt such abundance of joy in the persecutions and hardships that he suffered, that he wished to share that joy with his companions, and so he invited them to be partakers of his joy. This is the milk that the holy apostles sucked at the breast. of Christ. And so we read of them that they went glad and rejoicing when they took them in fetters before presidents and synagogues, and reckoned it a great consolation and favor of God to be found worthy to suffer affronts and injuries for the name of Christ (Acts v. 41). In this the saints who came after them imitated them, as did St. Ignatius [of Antioch], who, when they were taking him to martyrdom at Rome with many insults and injuries, went with great joy, and said: “Now I begin to be a disciple of Christ.”

This is what our Father wished us to imitate, and charged us therewith in words of great emphasis and weight. “They who enter and live in the Society,” he says, “must take notice and reflect before our Creator and Lord to what a degree it aids and advances spiritual life to abhor entirely and not in part all that the world loves and embraces, and to take up with all the strength that we can command whatever Christ our Lord has loved and embraced. And as worldly men, who follow the world, love and seek with great diligence honors, fame, and the reputation of a great name on earth, as the world teaches them, so those who walk in spirit and follow Christ our Lord in earnest, love and desire intensely everything to the contrary, that is to say, to be clad in the same dress and livery as their Lord for His divine love and reverence; in so much that, when there is no offense of His Divine Majesty, nor any sin imputable to their neighbor, they would desire to suffer injuries, false witnesses, and insults, and to be held and accounted fools, without themselves giving any occasion for the same, out of desire to look like and imitate in some sort Jesus Christ our Creator and Lord.” In this rule there is summed up all that we can possibly say on humility. This it is to have left and abhorred in good earnest the world and that which is the subtlest thing in it, to wit, the craving and desire to be highly regarded and well thought of. This it is to be dead to the world and true religious; for as those in the world desire honor and reputation, and rejoice therein, so we should desire disgrace and marks of contempt, and rejoice therein. This it is to be of the Company of Jesus and Companions of Jesus, that we should keep Him company, not only in name, but in His slights and insults, and be clad in His livery, being outraged and despised by the world with Him and for Him, and be glad and rejoice therein for His love. Thou, O Lord, wert publicly proclaimed a wicked man and set between two thieves as a malefactor; allow not me to be proclaimed a good man, for it is not reasonable that the servant should be held in more honor than his Lord, and the disciple than the Master. Since, O Lord, they persecuted Thee and despised Thee, let them persecute me, despise me, insult me, that so I may imitate Thee, and show myself Thy disciple and companion. Father Francis Xavier used to say that he took it for an unworthy thing, for a man who ought ever to bear in mind the insults they offered to Christ our Lord, to take pleasure in any honor and veneration that men paid to him.