Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 10

by Boudreaux, Florentin, 1821-1894

He is there because He wishes to be there; because He desires to teach us, by this example, to be humble and to love to be unknown and unhonoured. From His manger He preaches humility. All that we see around Him gives out the same lesson. The poor carpenter, whom He has chosen to be His foster-father, is a lesson of humility. The lowly Virgin, whose humility He had regarded, so as to choose her to be His mother, preaches humility. The straw on which He lies, cries out to us : “ Learn of Him to he humble of heart.” The weak form of infancy, the helplessness to which He is reduced, the tears which dim His first view of our unhappy world, all preach humility, and urge the lesson upon us with invincible persuasion. Shall we ever learn it, if the annihilation of the Incarnation and the sweet lowliness of the Nativity fail to teach it to us ?

Surely, we cannot expect to find greater humility than this. But Jesus at Bethlehem is only at the beginning of His career on earth; He has before Him the thirty-three years of His dwelling among men. These years are all radiant with the light of the same loving humility, all eloquent of the same most necessary lesson. Nazareth is a school of humility no less wonderful than Bethlehem, and the mystery of the Hidden Life is nothing but one long example of humility, a loving device of His eagerness to save us from the evils of pride, and to draw us irresistibly to the humility which He has come to teach us. Let not our faith waver; let us not be scandalised in Him, but firmly believe that the unpretending, modest and simple youth whom we see in the house of Mary, in the workshop of Joseph, in the streets of that insignificant Galilean town, is the very God, the Emmanuel, the promised Messias. He it is whom the Patriarchs longed for, and the Prophets foretold ; the Guide and Teacher of mankind ; the Father of the future age ; the Author of a better covenant; the Restorer of our fall ; the King of Israel ; the well-beloved Son of God, in whom are concealed all the treasures of grace, all the power and wisdom and majesty of the Divinity. And yet, what do we behold ?

A plebeian youth, hardly distinguishable from hundreds of His fellows in that city of His abode. What is His occupation ? Not the display of His greatness, nor the manifestation of His power. There is no royalty apparent in Him ; no exercise of authority. He has no followers, no servants, no disciples. He gives no commands, no lessons. He proposes no covenant. He assumes no legislation. He works no miracles. He utters no prophecies. But for thirty years He devotes Himself to the humble duties of His lowly household. Thirty years He spends in helping His mother to do the common drudgery of her humble home, or His father in the laborious occupation by which he supports his dependants. The hands that framed the universe now hold the besom and sweep the floor, or grasp some poor tool at the carpenter’s bench. Such and numberless similar servile employments fill up the far greater portion of His life, thirty of His three and thirty years! And why is this? Can He need such concealment, such abasement?

Would He have been harmed by such poor glory as men might have given Him? Is this the way to he the light of the world, the guide of men ? to make known the truth of God, to establish His kingdom on earth? Will men believe Him to be their promised Redeemer? Will Israel acknowledge Him for its King, if He thus abdicates His dignity and dishonours His royal birthright? Has He no regard for His high destiny, no concern for the great work which He was sent on earth to accomplish ? But why ask all these questions?

We know that He is all-wise. We know that He is always worthy of endless praise in all that He does. Yes, He is displaying His wisdom; He is giving lessons ; He is proposing a new covenant ; He is saving and restoring mankind. But He does it in the wise love with which He loves us; by the humility of His Sacred Heart ; by the annihilation of Himself, that He may draw our hearts after Him into the abyss of His own humiliations and make us learn of Him to be humble of heart. From this profound mystery of the Hidden Life, we can conclude what we should think of those actions which the proud world ridicules in the Saints of God. Men can see no wisdom in the concealment of one’s talents or gifts. They call it folly to despise the honours of the world, whether we possess them already or have reason to expect them; to waste our lives in menial services to the poor, whilst we might shine among men as bright ornaments of our race ; to leave the pomp and the magnificent pleasures of life and hide ourselves in monasteries or in the wilderness, far from the gay throngs of men, and occupied only in doing the will of God.

The world has no praise for such virtue ; it cannot appreciate it, it brands it as stupidity, cowardice or folly. But the world has not received the lesson which was so lovingly given. It is as proud as ever and only more inexcusable in its pride for the very grace which it has rejected. But let us be truly wise and wise unto salvation. Let us beware of the spirit of the world, which is the spirit of pride, the spirit of Lucifer, the origin and bitter source of all our sins and miseries. Let not the wonderful humility of the Hidden Life be wasted upon us, but let it be our model, the object of our life-long imitation. Think not, however, that the humility of the Sacred Heart ceases with the Hidden Life. Humility brought Jesus down from heaven; humility was born with Him at Bethlehem ; humility was His companion in the house of Nazareth. The same humility will accompany Him through all the stages of His public life ; humility will preside at His sufferings; humility will triumph with Him in His ignominious death.