“Do
you desire to be great? make yourselves little. There is a mysterious connexion
between real advancement and self-abasement. If you minister to the humble and
despised, if you feed the hungry, tend the sick, succour the distressed; if you
bear with the froward, submit to insult, endure ingratitude, render good for
evil, you are, as by a divine charm, getting power over the world and rising
among the creatures. God has established this law. Thus He does His wonderful
works. His instruments are poor and despised; the world hardly knows their
names, or not at all. They are busied about what the world thinks petty
actions, and no one minds them. They are apparently set on no great works;
nothing is seen to come of what they do: they seem to fail. Nay, even as
regards religious objects which they themselves profess to desire, there is no
natural and visible connexion between their doings and sufferings and these
desirable ends; but there is an unseen connexion in the kingdom of God. They
rise by falling. Plainly so, for no condescension can be so great as that of
our Lord Himself. Now the more they abase themselves the more like they are to
Him; and the more like they are to Him, the greater must be their power with
Him.” —John Henry Cardinal Newman, “Sermon 22: The Weapons of Saints,” in The Newman Reader: Parochial and Plain
Sermons, Volume 6
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Cardinal Newman - On the purpose of a Liberal Arts Education. One of his many, many remarkable writings.
Post a Comment