The whole life of our Lord on earth was only a series of humiliations. He endured them voluntarily to make amends for the insulted Majesty of his Father, pay the debt of our pride, and give us an example of humility.
He was born in a stable; lived for thirty years unknown to the world. During the three years of his public ministry he allowed envy and calumny to accuse him of being a seducer, an impostor, and possessed by the devil. He was crucified as a criminal between two thieves. Could he have abased himself more?
We, too, should act thus, if we are truly ‘humble of heart’. Instead of seeking praise and honors, we must be hidden from men, that we may please God alone. To shut ourselves out from the world, that our hearts may be free for God only. At least we should not be troubled if we are spoken against, reproved, or humbled.
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, p324
The mystery of Faith
Our Lord’s words cannot be watered down: 'the bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. This is the mystery of Faith’, we proclaim immediately after Consecration at Mass: the touchstone of the Catholic faith.
By transubstantiation, the species of bread and wine “are no longer common bread and common drink, but the sign of something sacred and the sign of spiritual food. But they take on a new expressiveness and a new purpose for the very reason that they contain a new ‘reality’, which we are right to call ‘ontological’.
“For beneath these appearances there is no longer what was there before but something quite different ... since on the conversion of the bread and wine’s substance, or nature, into the Body and Blood of Christ, nothing is left of the bread and wine but the appearances alone.
"Beneath these appearances Christ is present whole and entire, bodily present too, in his physical ‘reality’, although not in the manner in which bodies are present in a place.” (Paul VI, “Mysterium Fidei”, 3 September 1965)
In Holy Communion Christ himself, mysteriously hidden perfect God and perfect man, wishes to communicate divine life to us. When we receive him in this sacrament, his Divinity acts on our soul by means of his glorious Humanity, with a far greater intensity than when he was on earth.
Hidden under the sacramental species, Jesus awaits us in the Tabernacle so we can receive him and be strengthened in his love. Let us ask ourselves what our love is like: How do we prepare ourselves for Communion, when so many people neglect Our Lord entirely, receiving him routinely?
We must say with Peter: “... we have known and believed that you are the Christ” (Jn 6:70); our ‘raison d’etre’.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”’, 2:407-8
Humiliations
“God exalts in the very things in which he humbles. If the soul lets itself be led, if it obeys, if it totally accepts purification, if it lives by faith, it will see an unsuspected light, so wonderful that it will think it had previously been blind from birth.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, 24 March 1931)
If patience is the way that leads to peace; and study, the way to knowledge, humiliation is the only way to reach humility. To have a real, genuine spiritual life, we must take humility seriously.
This concern for humility will bring us to ask ourselves how we should react, to get the best advantage for our spiritual life, to the humiliations which the Lord makes us feel in the depth of our soul and which he causes us to meet in the course of our work.
There are delicate moments in the spiritual life in which the soul feels deeply humiliated. Very clear illuminations from God uncover and emphasize how humiliating can be our wretchedness and deficiencies; our imperfections and defects.
The eyes of our soul are opened. We see we are something we don’t want to be; we notice we feel something we don’t want to feel; we find something attracts us despite the fact we detest it. Many defects, which perhaps we were ignorant of till then, appear, very well defined.
What, then, should our spiritual disposition and supernatural reaction be towards these interior humiliations and external failures that threaten the peace and tranquility of our interior life? Our first reaction must be one of humility.
Accept the humiliation or failure with true humility, with what is called humility of the heart, because there it has its roots; and it is from the heart that it gets all its strength. And not just accepting the humiliation, but loving our own wretchedness and thanking our Lord for letting us really know ourselves.
As a consequence, we will avoid anything which is a kind of interior rebellion against these humiliations or failures. What a lack of humility of heart if we rebelled against this position of humiliation. The goodness and Providence of God put us there so that we mature and become more united to him.
We must also very carefully avoid any kind of self-justification to other people. If you are not truly humble, you will find lots of ways to justify yourself, to feed your pride; your high idea of yourself will produce them with no difficulty. That is the sure way of nipping in the bud all the humility and effectiveness God was reserving for your soul.
Conversation with the Virgin Mary, who is all humility, arises so spontaneously that I prefer not to write it down: I would rather your soul and mine spoke to her in private.
Ref: cf Salvatore Canals, “Jesus as friend”, 1981, pp44-7
Foundation of Our Lady of the Feuillants, in the diocese of Toulouse and Rieux, in the year 1145. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
Our Lady of the Feuillants (Toulouse, France, 1145). (http://www.divinewill.org/feastofourlady.htm; MaryLinks Calendar.htm)
'Notre Dame des Feuillants'. Toulouse, France. 1145. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
Our Lady of the Bernadines (Diocese of Toulouse). (MaryLinks Calendar.htm; http://www.starharbor.com/santiago/m feasts.html); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
Our Lady of the Taper (England, 12th Century). (http://www.divinewill.org/feastofourlady.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
Our Lady of the Taper. Cardigan, Wales. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
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