Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
The Incarnate Word having come upon earth to be our Master, as we have seen in our previous meditation, we will to-morrow take from Him in His cradle a lesson of humility. We will consider: 1st, that in this state He teaches us humility; 2d, that we ought to put this divine lesson into practice. Our resolution shall be: 1st, often to ask the Infant Jesus for courage, never to take counsel from self-love, and never to seek to attract admiration and praise; 2d, to perform all our actions with the object of obtaining humility. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of our Saviour Himself: "Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart" (Matt. xi. 29).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore the Infant Jesus in His cradle as the great master of humility. Let us unite ourselves with the angels, who adore Him all the more profoundly because they see Him in this state of humiliation. Let us share their sentiments, and let us give our hearts to this great God who is a little child, that He may make them humble like His.
FIRST POINT
The Lesson of Humility which the Child Jesus gives us in His Cradle.
Humility is all the more admirable in proportion as the person who humbles himself is more elevated by his nature, and that he places himself lower by his own free choice. Now in this cradle, the dignity of Him who humbles Himself is infinite, and His humiliation cannot be more profound. He who knows all appears as though He were ignorant; He who can do all things appears to be nothing but powerlessness; He who fills immensity is reduced to the form of a little child; and He who is the Eternal Word is mute. O holy humility, how eloquently you speak to human pride, to worldly haughtiness, which desires to raise itself, to make an appearance, and to lord it over others! If Thou, who art so great, so holy, so perfect, art so humble, what ought we to be, we who are so little, so miserable, so full of defects? It is in beholding Thee with faith, hope, and love that all the saints have learned to love humble and modest positions, a hidden life, obscure functions; to take from their exterior and their manners all that is not sufficiently simple and which is impregnated with the desire to please others; to rejoice to pass for less than others, minor, like St. Francis of Assisi; for the last of all, minimus, like St. Francis de Paul. It is still every day, when gazing on Thee in Thy cradle, O Divine Infant, that we understand the words of the Gospel: "Unless you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. xviii. 3). A little child in his cradle does not esteem himself and does not believe himself to be capable of great things. If he possesses good natural qualities of body or of mind, of heart or of character, he does not esteem himself any the more for them; he feels his ignorance and weakness, his powerlessness and his inexperience, and in consequence he places himself below every one. Let him be honored or let him be despised, let him be praised or let him be blamed, it is all the same to him, he pays no heed to what is said, or what is thought, by those around him. It is true that these sentiments have no merit in him, but they ought to be found in us under the form of virtue. May we hence learn to respect Christian littleness, which preserves from so many sins and hides so much greatness.
SECOND POINT
We ought to Carry into Practice the Lesson of Humility which Jesus gives us in the Cradle.
God holds the proud in horror. He resists them; and will not ally Himself with them (James iv. 6). On the other hand, He looks with complacence on humble hearts (Ps. cxxxvii. 6). "If you rise, He flies from you, if you humble yourselves, He comes down to you" says St. Augustine. There can no more be any solid virtue without humility than there can be a house without a foundation, a treasure which is in security without a guardian to watch over and defend it; for humility is the essential basis of the whole of the spiritual edifice; it is the guardian of all virtues, so that devoid of it the most lofty virtue is corrupted and becomes the vile nourishment of self-love, an establishing of man in himself instead of his establishment in God.
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.