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Augustine on Christ's Humility HUMILITY IN THE INCARNATION: Without exception, none of the Fathers has developed the moral aspect of the Incarnation with as much insistence as Augustine. Here also we find an UTTERLY PERSONAL NOTE IN HIS TEACHING: his thesis on the humility of God in the Incarnation is one of his most profound conceptions. In the Divine plan humility is the fundamental lesson of the Incarnation. This is the characteristic of the person of Jesus Christ which left the deepest impression upon his soul as on St Paul, the apostle of the "emptied-out" Christ. The "humble Christ" is the pivotal point of Augustine's Christology. There is no doubt that the Incarnation is the great proof for Augustine of the love of God for us. It is this love which will lead us to love the humility of God, which, in turn, because it is made known through such abasements, destroys our pride. HUMILITY OF CHRIST: In his treatise on the Trinity, humility is presented as the great salvific mystery. "It is profitable to believe and keep implanted firmly and unshakenly in the heart that the humility by which God was born of a woman and led to death by mortal hands with such insults, is the medicine most apt to heal the swelling of our pride and the most sublime sacrament for loosing the bonds of sin." It is precisely because of his humility that Christ is the way. In the 'Confessions' Augustine recounts how the role of Christ as the way of soul BUT ONLY THROUGH HUMILITY was revealed to him at a time when he considered Christ only as an outstanding man: "For I was not humble enough to embrace the humble Jesus, my Lord, nor did I know what lesson His weakness would teach me. For Your Word built Himself a humble home of our clay whereby He intended to .... bring souls over to Himself, healing their pride and fostering their love." "What we must learn of Christ is not that He has formed the world, created all things visible and invisible, that He ....has worked miracles and raised the dead to life .... but what He wants us especially to learn of Him is that He is 'meek and humble of heart' those virtues of self-effacement and silence, virtues disdained and unseen by men." Speaking of his former pride he exclaims., "Where was that charity building on the foundation of the humility which is Christ Jesus?" This is the ordinary theme of his Christmas sermons. "Recognise the teaching of such humility .... Your human pride oppresses you so much that only the divine humility can raise you up." God cannot humble Himself in His Divine Nature but one cannot miss the great lesson of God consenting to be united to a CREATED NATURE. Augustine exalts the lesson of humility less in the life and passion of the Saviour than in the fundamental fact of the Incarnation, decreed and fulfilled by the Word, Christ. Expressed in its most succinct terms, a modern theologian, Fr T. Rees, S.J., writes: "The mystery of the Incarnation is the mystery of the most inaccessible, distant and remote, becoming the most accessible, close and personal". Surely, a phenomenal mystery of love, divine and infinite love. |