"Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart,” St. Bernards remarks, ''What pride is there which the humility of the divine Master cannot extinguish? Verily, it may be said that He alone in reality humbles and abases Himself, and that we, when we seem to humiliate ourselves,' do not lower ourselves at all, but simply take the place which belongs to us. For, being all creatures, guilty perhaps of a thousand misdeeds, we can lay claim to no other right than nothingness and punishment. But our Savior Jesus Christ lowered Himself infinitely beneath that lofty height which belongs to Him.
He is the omnipotent God, the Infinite and Immortal, the supreme Arbiter of all things. And notwithstanding this, He became man, weak, mortal, subject to suffering, obedient even to death. He bore the lack of all temporal things. He, who in heaven, constituted the joy of the angels and of the saints, willed to become the Man of Sorrows and took upon Himself each and all of the miseries of humanity.
The uncreated Wisdom, and of all wisdom the Principle, has borne the shame and mockery due to a fool. The Holy of Holies, and Sanctity in essence, suffered Himself to be reputed a villain and a malefactor. He whom the countless hosts of the blessed in heaven adore, willed to die a disgraceful death upon a cross. And lastly, He who by nature is the Sovereign Good, endured every kind of human misery.
Then, after such an example of humility what ought we not to do—we who are dust and ashes? And what humiliation should ever appear hard to us, who are not only worms of earth but miserable sinners?
- Pope Leo XIII
He is the omnipotent God, the Infinite and Immortal, the supreme Arbiter of all things. And notwithstanding this, He became man, weak, mortal, subject to suffering, obedient even to death. He bore the lack of all temporal things. He, who in heaven, constituted the joy of the angels and of the saints, willed to become the Man of Sorrows and took upon Himself each and all of the miseries of humanity.
The uncreated Wisdom, and of all wisdom the Principle, has borne the shame and mockery due to a fool. The Holy of Holies, and Sanctity in essence, suffered Himself to be reputed a villain and a malefactor. He whom the countless hosts of the blessed in heaven adore, willed to die a disgraceful death upon a cross. And lastly, He who by nature is the Sovereign Good, endured every kind of human misery.
Then, after such an example of humility what ought we not to do—we who are dust and ashes? And what humiliation should ever appear hard to us, who are not only worms of earth but miserable sinners?
- Pope Leo XIII
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