Point I. The Humility of JESUS.
We cannot contemplate this stage of Our Lord's life without being struck first of all by the humility and self-abasement of it, by the way in which in some sense He annihilated Himself that He might do His Father's Will. St. Paul says: "He emptied Himself ... being made in the likeness of men" (Phil. ii. 7). He stripped Himself, robbed Himself of all that He possessed: Semetipsum exinanivit. We know that Mary, His created Home, was chaste and pure, that no breath of sin had ever touched her, that the Holy Spirit Himself had overshadowed her and had undertaken the preparation and the adornment of the earthly Tabernacle of the Word; but pure and holy though she was, Mary was only a creature and He was the Creator. He was God and she was one of the human race. His place was on the highest throne of Heaven and yet "He abhorred not the Virgin's womb" but there lived hidden from the sight of all, like any other infant and yet wholly unlike, because He had full possession of His faculties and intelligence. In the manger He will be seen, and so will be loved, pitied and worshipped; there will be many consolations which will go far to lessen and soften His humiliations, but here, He is alone, hidden; His very existence not even suspected. He has annihilated Himself, made Himself nothing. He could have taken our nature, had He so wished, without all these humiliations; why then did He despise not the Virgin's womb? Because this is to be His principle all through His life, He will love "unto the end." He will leave nothing undone that He could possibly do. He came to do His Father's Will and He will do it thoroughly. He will bear all the humiliations because He wants to be my Model and to teach me that there is only one way of learning humility.
Point II. The Humility of Mary.
Mary, though she cannot see Him, is sharing intimately all His humiliations. She knows as no one else can all He is going through; and because she is His Mother she feels more intensely than anyone could what His humiliations are, she can never forget them. She shares all with Him and He lets her; her sympathy is His consolation. Of all the virtues of the interior life, humility is the one which is the most strongly marked in Mary, and perhaps more strongly during these nine months than at any other time. It was her humility which attracted the Eternal Word from Heaven to take up His dwelling in His earthly Tabernacle. It was her humility which made her visit her cousin Elizabeth. It was her humility which made her sing in her Magnificat of the great things God had done for her and how He had regarded the low estate of His handmaid. It was her humility which made her ready to suffer any humiliation rather than disclose God's secret to St. Joseph. It was her humility which made her incapable of resenting all the humiliations she had to bear at Bethlehem on Christmas Eve—and all this humility, all this power to bear humiliations, came from the fact that she was living an interior life, living a hidden life with her Son, looking at everything from His point of view and not from her own.
Point III. "Learn of Me."
Now let me turn from the interior life of Jesus and Mary to my own. Jesus lived His interior life for me. If He allowed Mary to share it, He will allow me, for He said once that He counted as His Mother all those who do His Will. His Will is quite clear: "Learn of me for I am humble." Dare I go to the "Gate of Heaven" and say that I want to learn to be humble, that is, that I want to copy Jesus and Mary in their humiliations? It takes a great deal of courage to ask for humiliations, and perhaps it is almost impossible to do so without some pride lurking in the request; but what I can do is to be so anxious to learn to be humble as He bids me, that I ask for strength to bear the humiliations that He sends. How do I bear them? Do I say: Oh well, it is a humiliation, I must bear it! or, Oh well, I shall never learn humility without humiliations! or: I am always getting humiliations, some people are, but I gladly accept them! All such speeches have their source, not in humility but in pride. Can we imagine Mary talking like this? Humiliations will never do their blessed work of making me humble if I thus use them to attract attention to my supposed virtue. A humiliation is spoiled the moment it sees the light; it has no strength left in it wherewith to produce humility. Do I want to be humble? Then let me go to that quiet retreat where Jesus is humiliating Himself for me, let me take all my humiliations there. When I am left out, forgotten, despised, when my help is unasked, my opinion disregarded, when things are said of me that are hard to bear, when reflections are made on my actions, let me go at once to where Jesus is hidden and hide myself and my pain there, my one fear being lest anyone but He should suspect my pain, and this not from stoicism or natural self-restraint, so pleasing and consoling to self, but because I am afraid of spoiling my chance and preventing the humiliation from doing its work. If I can only deposit it safely in His Heart before another sees it and robs me of my jewel, all will be well. He who suffered all those humiliations for me, will know how to ease my pain, He will tell me what a consolation it is to Him that His child understands and is trying to make a faithful copy.
Colloquy. O Mary, "Gate of Heaven" keep the gate wide open and beckon me in whenever you see me in danger of falling through my pride. You know the dangerous moments, please forestall them for me, and when I am safe, and listening to the Sacred Heart beating for me, the pain of the humiliation will be turned into joy and perhaps I shall make Him feel that His humiliations have not been in vain.
Resolution. To examine myself to-day on how I take my humiliations and to resolve how I will take them for the future.
Spiritual Bouquet. "Learn of Me for I am humble."