Of Some Means to Gain This Second Degree of Humility, and Particularly the Example of Christ Our Lord

TWO manner of means are commonly given for acquiring moral virtues. One is by reasons and considerations apt to convince and animate us thereto; the other is by exercise of the acts of that virtue, as habits are acquired by acts. Beginning with the former kind of means, one of the chiefest and most efficacious considerations that we can make use of to help us to become very humble—or, rather, the chiefest and most efficacious of all—is the example of Christ our Redeemer and Master; we have already said something of it, but there always remains more to say. The whole life of Christ was a most perfect pattern of humility, from His birth to the moment when He expired upon the Cross. St. Augustine dwells particularly on the example He gave us in washing the feet of His disciples (John xiii.) the Thursday of the Supper, when He was now nearing His Passion and death. Christ our Redeemer, says St. Augustine, was not content with the examples of His whole past life, nor with those He was shortly to give in His Passion, now so near, where He was to appear, as Isaias says, the last of men (Isaias liii. 3), and as the Royal Prophet David says, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people (Psalm xxi. 7); but knowing that the hour was now come in which He was to depart from this world and go to the Father, He would show at the end of His life the great love that he bore to His own. Accordingly He rose from the table, laid aside His garment, girt Himself with a towel, poured water into a basin, and threw Himself down at the feet of His disciples, even those of Judas, and began to wash them with those divine hands, and wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. O great mystery! What is it, Lord, that Thou dost? Lord, dost Thou wash my feet? The Lord answered St. Peter: What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. He resumed His seat at table and declared the mystery in right good earnest. Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am: if then I have washed your feet, your Master and Lord, ye also ought to wash one another's feet: for I have given you an example, that as I have done, ye also should do. This is the mystery, that you should learn to humble yourself as I have humbled Myself. So great on the one hand is the importance of this virtue of humility, and on the other hand so great the difficulty there is in it, that He was not satisfied with the many examples He had given and now was on the point of giving us. He knew well our weakness, He had felt well the pulse of our heart, He quite understood the peccant humor of our disease; therefore He insisted so strongly on this particular and left it among His last directions by His last will and testament, the more to impress it on our hearts.

On those words of Christ: Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart (Matt. xi. 29), St. Augustine exclaims: “O wholesome doctrine! O Master and Lord of men, men on whom death came in by pride! What is it, O Lord, that Thou wishest us to learn of Thee? ‘That I am meek and humble of heart. This it is that thou hast to learn of Me.’ Are, then, all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of the Father summed up in this? Is it for this that those treasures are hidden away in Thee, that Thou shouldst tell us as a great thing to come to learn of Thee that Thou art meek and humble of heart? Is it such a great thing to make oneself a little one, that none could ever have learned the lesson, hadst not Thou, great as Thou art, made Thyself a little one?” Yes, says St. Augustine, so great and difficult a thing it is to humble oneself and make little of oneself, that had not even God humbled Himself and made little of Himself, men could never have succeeded in humbling themselves; for there is nothing so ingrained in men’s innermost hearts and nature as this desire to be honored and highly thought of; and thus all this was necessary to make men humble. Such a medicine did the infirmity of our pride require; such a wound, such aremedy. “If this medicine of God having made Himself man and humbled Himself so much for us, does not cure our pride, I know not,” says St. Augustine, “what can cure it.” If the sight of the Lord of Majesty so abased and humbled is not enough to make us ashamed of desiring to be honored and thought highly of and make us count it a gain to be despised and brought low as He was, I know not what can be enough. And so the Abbot Guerric, struck with admiration and profound conviction of so great an example of humility, cries out and says that is reasonable that we should utter and arrive thence at this resolution: “Thou hast conquered, O Lord, Thou has conquered my pride; Thou hast bound me hand and foot by Thy example: I surrender and give myself over to be Thy bondslave forever.”

There is also another marvelous thought to this effect proposed by the glorious Bernard. He says the Son of God saw that noble creatures, high-born and capable of beatitude, whom God had created, were lost by seeking to be like to Him. God created the angels, and at once Lucifer sought to be like unto God. J will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit on the Mountain of Testimony on the side of the north, I will mount above the clouds, I will be like the Most High (tsaias xiv. 13), and he carried others with him. Thereupon God cast them into hell, and of angels they became devils. But thou hast been hurled down into hell, into the lowest depth of the pit (Isaias xiv. 15) God created man, and the devil infected him with his leprosy and his venom. Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil (Gen. ili. 5). They were smitten with a longing desire at what he said, that they should be like God; they broke His commandment, and became like to the devil. The Prophet Eliseus said to his servant Giezzi: Thou hast taken the riches of Naaman, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to thee and to all thy posterity for ever (IV Kings v. 27). Such was God’s sentence upon man, that, as he willed to have the riches of Lucifer, which was the guilt of his pride, the leprosy also should infect him, which was the punishment of that sin. Here, then, you see how man also was lost and made like the devil because he wished to be like God. What will it be well for the Son of God to do, seeing His eternal Father jealous and standing to arms for His honor? I see, He says, that My Father is losing His creatures on My account. The angels sought to be as I am, and were lost; man also sought to be as I am, and was lost; they all bore envy to Me, and sought to be as I am. Now observe: I will come in such a form, says the Son of God, that henceforth whoever shall seek to be as I am shall not be lost, but saved. For this the Son of God came down from heaven and became man. Oh, blessed, exalted, and glorified be such goodness and mercy, whereby God fell in with the great desire that we have to be like to Him, and now by no lying and falsehood, as the devil spoke, but in truth, and by no pride and wickedness, but with great humility and holiness, we may be like unto God. On those words, Unto us a child is born (Isaias ix. 6), the same saint says: “Since God, great as He is, has become a little child for our sake, let us endeavor to humble ourselves and make ourselves little children, that it may not be without profit to us that God has become a little child; for if you do not become as this child, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”