This is the second step in the career of our King, again a species of self-annihilation: Exinanivit semetipsum. It is also an example of His love for men, of His boundless zeal for their salvation and glorification. He stooped down to earth in order to raise man to Heaven.
Colloquy with the Lord incarnate:—gratitude, love; promise to follow Him, to humble self, to labor for the good of souls. Ask for the help of Mary. Our Father—Hail Mary.
CONSIDERATION
On the Imitation of Christ
The main truth that St. Ignatius inculcates, both in the meditation on the Kingdom of Christ and in all the subsequent portions of his Exercises, is that man must be perfected by imitating Christ, by making himself like to the Son of God made man, according to the words of St. Paul: “Whom God foreknew he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren” (Rom. viii, 29).
The intense love of God, which the Saint conceived during his retreat at Manresa, prompted him to make himself as like to Christ as, with God’s grace, was possible; and the zeal for the salvation of souls, which he learned from the example of Christ, urged him to form a band of men like to himself, or rather like to the God-man, a select band to be, as it were, a bodyguard of the Divine King in the holy warfare, undertaken to establish the Kingdom of God. This is the spirit of the Society of Jesus, and of all religious Orders, and to some extent of all who wish to attain perfection. For this purpose the principal means to be used is the study of the life of Christ, which is to be the chief occupation of the exercitant during this and the following days. It is not a work of human skill, but one of the direct influence of the Holy Spirit; He alone can produce in the heart of man the supernatural likeness to the Son of God. As He sanctified St. Ignatius, so He sanctifies all those who faithfully and generously perform these exercises.
We may, in some respects, compare the process of sanctification to the work of a painter who produces an exquisite likeness of a distinguished personage on his canvas. The first outlines of the supernatural likeness of a child of men to the Son of God are traced by the Divine Artist in the Sacrament of Baptism. The infant’s soul receives the precious impress as the unconscious canvas receives the colors, without its own co-operation. Yet already then the difference is immense between a mere child of earth and an adopted child of God. But very much remains to be accomplished by the Holy Ghost before the likeness is perfected. And this increase of sanctification is the most important work that is being done on earth from generation to generation: “For the perfecting of the Saints—for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. iv, 12).
Most of this further sanctification is to be produced by the Holy Ghost in our hearts with our co-operation: He teaches us how to make ourselves like to Christ, while He aids us to do it. For His teaching does not consist in simply suggesting to us what we must do, as we teach a child its Catechism; but He acts as does a music teacher with his pupils, who makes them constantly practise what they are learning. It is by their own efforts that they are to acquire the art. So the Spirit of God makes us like unto Christ by helping us to act as Christ did, to practise the virtues of which He has given us the example. In this consists the sanctification of the soul, in the imitation of Christ.
How Christ acted during His whole career, from His incarnation to His ascension, this is the study of the second, third and fourth weeks of the Exercises. We will here call attention to some of the characteristic traits of His life on earth.
1. His conduct was diametrically opposed to that by which Adam and Eve had forfeited their original happiness. They had aspired to rise above their own condition and become like unto God. For the Devil had said: “God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen. iii, 5). Christ, on the contrary, while being God, stooped down and made Himself man; and He continued lowering Himself more and more, becoming the poorest child on earth, born in a stable, laid upon straw, “a worm and no man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people” (Ps. 21), condemned to a shameful death, and, as a criminal, crucified with thieves. If then we wish to be like Christ, we must practise humility.
2. Another characteristic trait of Christ’s conduct is seen in the means He used to establish the Kingdom of His Father. He could have made the colossal power of Rome His tool to effect that purpose, or have employed the wisdom of the philosophers or the elegance of the writers of that classic age. But instead He used ignorant and timid men, and first gathered into His fold the poor and despised of the earth, as St. Paul expressed it: “For see your vocation, brethren, that there are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but the foolish things of the world hath God chosen that he may confound the wise, and the weak things of the world hath God chosen that he may confound the strong, and the base things of the world, and the things that are contemptible hath God chosen, and things that are not, that He might bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in His sight” (I Cor. i, 26-29).