Advent Meditation~By St. Alphonsus de Liguori (December 17)

[Dawn Marie]

THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH

THE INCARNATION

Discourse by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori

December 17, 2014

Discourse 18

 

 

“The Eternal Word from being High made Himself Low”

 

Discite a me, quia mitis sum et humilis corde.

 

“Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart.”---- St. Matt. Xi. 29.

 

Pride was the chief cause of the fall of our first parents, who, not being willing to submit themselves to the obedience of God, thereby caused their own ruin, and that of all the human race. But the mercy of God as a remedy against such destruction, decreed that His only-begotten Son should humble Himself to take upon Himself our flesh, and by the example of His life should induce men to love humility, and to detest pride, which renders them hateful in the sight of God and man. For this end is that St. Bernard now invites us to visit the cave of Bethlehem, saying, “Let us go even to Bethlehem; there we have what to admire, what to love, and what to imitate.”

 

Yes, in that cave we have first of all cause to wonder. What a God!, a God in a stable!, a God on straw!, that God who sits on the highest throne of the majesty of Heaven:  “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated,” says Isaiah, and then where do we see Him? In a manger, unknown and abandoned, with none around Him save a few poor shepherds and two animals!

 

“We have what to love;” we shall easily find one in whom to place our affection, seeing there is a God, who is the Infinite Good, and who has chosen to debase Himself by appearing to the world as a poor Infant, thereby to make Himself more endearing and pleasing to our eyes. As St. Bernard says again, “The more degraded He appears to me, the more dear is He to me.”

 

We shall lastly find what to imitate:  “We have what to imitate.”  We find the Supreme Being, the King of Heaven, become a humble, poor, little Infant, desirous in this way, from His very infancy, of teaching us by His example that which He was afterwards to tell us by word of mouth:  “He proclaims by His example,” says the same holy Abbot, “what He is afterwards to teach by His mouth.”  “Learn of Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.”

Let us ask for light of Jesus and Mary.

 

Who does not know that God is the first, the highest in nobility, and the source whence all nobility proceeds? He is of an infinite greatness. He is independent, for He has not received His greatness from any other, but has always possessed it in Himself. He is the Lord of all, whom all creatures obey:  “The winds and the sea obey Him.”  Truly, therefore, does the Apostle say, that to God alone belong honor and glory:  “To the only God be honor and glory.”  But the Eternal Word, to provide a remedy for man’s disgrace, which was brought about by his pride, having made Himself an example of poverty, (as we considered in the last discourse), to detach man from worldly goods, desired also to make Himself an example of humility, to free Him from the vice of pride.

 

And in doing this, the first and greatest example of humility which He gave was making Himself a man, and clothing Himself with our miseries:  “In habit found as a man.”  Cassian says that any one who puts on the dress of another man hides Himself under it; in like manner, God hid His Divine Nature under the lowly dress of human flesh. “He who is clothed is hidden under His clothes, so the Divine Nature concealed itself beneath the clothing of flesh.” And St. Bernard:  “The Divine Majesty became small, in order that it might join Itself to our earthly nature, and that God and clay, majesty and weakness, the most extreme abasement and the highest grandeur, might be united in one person.” A God to unite Himself to dust!, greatness to misery!, sublimity to wretchedness! But that which must make us wonder still more is, that not only did God choose to appear as a creature, but as a sinful creature, putting on sinful flesh:  “God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.”

 

But the Son of God was not even contented to appear as a man, and as a sinful man, He desired further to choose the most lowly and humble life among men, so that Isaiah called Him the last, the most humble of men:  “Despised and the most abject of men.”  Jeremiah said that He should be covered with ignominy:  “He shall be filled with reproaches.”  And David, that He should be made the scorn of men, and the outcast of the people:  “The reproach of men, and the outcast of the people.”  For such an end Jesus Christ wished to be born in the most abject way that could be imagined. What an ignominy for a man, even though He is poor, to be born in a stable! Who is there that is born in a stable? The poor are born in their huts, at least on beds of straw; stables are fit only for beasts and worms, and the Son of God chose to be born on this earth like a worm:  “I am a worm, and no man.”  Yes, says St. Augustine, in such humility did the King of the universe choose to be born, in order to show us His majesty and power in His very humility, by which He could through His example make those men who are born full of pride love humility:  “Such was the will of the Most High, who is also so humble, to show forth His majesty by very humility.”