JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!
On this special day commemorating the life of St. Teresa's faithful companion and nurse, it is a perfect opportunity to look at the virtue of humility in this dear soul who founded the Carmelite religious communities in both France and Belgium. From all accounts, Bl. Anne was a devout and pious soul from a very young age. She was simple and sought to please the Lord in all things, while performing manual labor and shepherding on her family's farm. After overcoming many obstacles within her family to join Carmel, she was able to do so and quickly reached even greater perfection in her practice of charity and humility.
Our Lord told her one day that the most pleasing of all virtues to Him is humility. In today's breviary, the second reading contains an excerpt from Bl. Anne's writings. She speaks of humility as follows:
According to St. Bernard it is the person who keeps silent and says nothing
when things go wrong who is really humble. It is very virtuous, he says, to
keep silent when people are talking about our true faults; but more perfect
when we are slighted or accused without having committed any fault or sin.
And though it is virtuous indeed to bear this in silence, it is more perfect
still to want to be despised and thought mad and good-for-nothing, and to go
on, as our Lord Jesus Christ did, wholeheartedly loving those who despise
us.
If Jesus kept silent, it was not because He hated anyone.
He was simply saying to His eternal Father what He said on the cross:
‘Lord, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ What
infinite love burned in that sacred heart of yours, Lord Jesus! Without
uttering a single word You spoke to us; without a word You worked the
mysteries You came to accomplish– teaching virtue to the ignorant and blind.
What our Lord did was no small thing. Where should we get patience and
humility and poverty and the other virtues, and how could we carry the cross
for one another, if Christ had not taught us all this first, and given
Himself as a living model of all perfection?
Blessed silence! In it You cry out and preach to the whole world by Your
example. Volumes could be written about Your silence, Lord! There is more
wisdom to be learned from it by those who love You than from books or study.
Our Lord became a spring for us, so that we should not die of thirst among
all the miseries that surround us. How truly He said in the Gospel that He
came to serve and not to be served! What tremendous goodness! Can we fail to
be shamed by Your words and deeds, and the patience You show with us every
day? How truly, again Lord, did Yousay: ‘Learn from Me for I am meek and humble of heart.’
Where can we obtain this patience and humbleness of heart? Is there any way
to achieve it except by taking it from Christ as He taught it to us with
those other virtues we need–faith, hope and charity? Without faith we
cannot follow that royal road of the divine mysteries. It is faith that
opens our eyes and makes us see the truth; and where faith is wanting there
is no light, and no way leading to goodness.
