But  being  humble  of  heart,  He  preferred  to  obey  rather
than  to  command.  He  submitted  Himself  to  His  Mother
and  to  St.  Joseph,  He  fulfilled  all  the  requirements  of  the
civil  and  of  the  ecclesiastical  law.  He  yielded  Himself  up
to  the  hands  of  His  enemies,  and  obeyed  them,  even  to  the
ignominious  death  of  the  Cross.
The  profountiest  veneration  and  respect  were  His  by  in
alienable  right  ;  yet,  through  love  of  humility,  He  waived
His  claim  to  the  homage  of  His  people,  and  chose  rather
to  endure  their  contempt  and  their  bitterest  scorn.  They
loaded  Him  with  the  most  atrocious  calumnies.  They
looked  upon  Him  as  a  blasphemer,  a  liar,  a  cheat,  and
a  seditious  demagogue.  They  preferred  to  Him  a  thief
and  murderer,  and  caused  Him  to  end  upon  the  Cross,
between  two  malefactors,  the  days  of  His  mortal  pilgri
mage.  Thus  did  Jesus  love  humility.  He  chose  it  as  the
instrument  by  which  to  regenerate  the  human  race.  We
fell  by  pride ;  we  are  raised  to  our  former  dignity  by
'humility.
II.  Do  you  love  humility,  and  try  to  foster  its  growth  in
your  heart  ?  Alas !  how  far  removed  are  boys  generally
from  the  lowly  sentiments  which  filled  the  heart  of  Jesus  !
They  are  so  far  from  them,  that  they  take  pride  in  those  very
things  which  Jesus  rejected.  There  are  some  who  pride
themselves  so  much  upon  either  their  noble  or  their  genteel


HUMILITY  OF  THE  SACRED  HEART  465

descent,  that  they  seem  to  think  that  they  have  conferred
upon  the  world  a  signal  service  by  deigning  to  come  into  it.
