HUMILITY: QUOTES FROM ST. CLEMENT OF ROME AND ST. LEO THE GREAT

CHRIST BELONGS TO THE HUMBLE

“Let us then be humble, brethren, and let us put aside all boasting and ostentation, all anger and fits of wrath, and let us fulfil that which is written … For it is to the humble that Christ belongs, and not to those who exalt themselves above their own flock. The Lord, Christ, although he held the sceptre of greatness, did not come into the world with the trappings of arrogance or pride, although he could have done so, but rather with the spirit of humility, in fulfilment of that which was said of him by the Holy Spirit: “I am a worm, and no man; scorned by men, and despised by the people.” … Consider, brethren, the example set before us: to this extreme has the Lord humbled himself. What, then, is it fitting for us to do, we who through him have been placed under the yoke of his grace?”
St Clement of Rome.

CHRISTIAN WISDOM CONSISTS IN TRUE VOLUNTARY HUMILITY AND SPIRITUAL CHILDHOOD.

“Christian wisdom does not consist in a torrent of words, or in keen disputation, or in the desire for glory and praise, but rather in true and voluntary humility, such as our Lord practised and taught convincingly from the time of his birth until his sufferings on the Cross. Thus, when his disciples were arguing over who was to be the ‘greatest in the kingdom of heaven, calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them, and said, Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’
Christ loves childhood: he experienced it in his own body and soul. Christ loves childhood: for children are teachers of humility, models of innocence, and examples of meekness. Christ loves childhood: he guides the actions of adults towards it, he makes the elderly go back in years, and with his own example he guides those whom he destines for the eternal kingdom.”
St Leo the Great.

 

Photo: Our Lady of LaVang (Vietnam) found in the National Shrine of Immaculate of Conception in Washington DC.