BLESSED JAN VAN RUYSBROEK ~ ‘The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage’ – Chapter III & IV – ‘Of Humility’ & ‘Of Charity’ - pages 31-33
[BLESSED JAN VAN RUYSBROEK – XIII-XIV Century AD; Ruisbroek, Holy Roman Empire/ Groenendael, Holy Roman Empire; Mystic, Spiritual Writer, Doctor Divinus Ecstaticus]“Chapter III ~ Of Humility
Now understand this: we find in Christ, according to His Godhead, two kinds of humility.
The first kind is this: that He willed to become man, and took on Himself that very nature which had been banished and cursed to the bottom of hell, and willed to become one with it according to His personality; so that now any man, either good or evil, can say: Christ, the Son of God, is my brother.
The second kind of humility according to His Godhead consists in this; that He chose a poor maiden, not a king's daughter, for His mother, so that a poor maiden should be the mother of God, who is Lord of heaven and earth and all creatures.
And further, we can say of all the works of humility which Christ ever did, that they were done by God Himself.
Now let us take the humility which was in Christ according to His manhood and through the grace and the gifts of God. In this humility His soul with all its powers bowed down in reverence and adoration before the most high might of the Father; for a bowed down heart is a humble heart. So He did all His works for the praise and honour of His Father, and never and in nothing sought His own glory according to His humanity.
He was humble and subject to the old law, and to the commandments, and also to custom whenever it was right. And that is why He was circumcised, and taken into the temple, and redeemed in the customary way; and He paid His tribute money to Caesar like any other Jew. And He was humble and subject to His mother and to the lord Joseph; and that is why He served them with true reverence according to all their needs. He chose poor and outcast people for His comrades, to live with, and to convert the world: these were the Apostles. And He was lowly and meek among them and among all other men. And He was ever ready for all men in whatever inward or outward need they might be: as if he were the servant of all the world.
This is the first point which we find in Christ our Bridegroom.
Chapter IV ~ Of Charity
The second point is charity, the beginning and origin of all virtues. This charity upheld the higher powers of His soul in quietness, and in a fruition of that very bliss which He now enjoys. And this charity kept Him constantly uplifted to His Father in reverence, in love, in adoration, in praise; with fervent prayers for the needs of all men, offering up all His works to the glory of His Father.
It was this same charity that made Christ stoop with loving faithfulness and kindness to the bodily and spiritual needs of all men. And in this He gave an example to all men, teaching them by His life how to live. He fed spiritually with true and inward teachings all who could understand them: and others outwardly, through the senses, with signs and wonders. And sometimes He fed them with bodily food, as when they had followed Him into the desert and needed it. He made the deaf hear and the lame walk, and the blind see, and the dumb speak, and cast forth devils from men. He raised up the dead; and this should be understood both in a bodily and a spiritual way.
Christ, our Lover, has laboured for us from without and from within, with true faithfulness. We cannot fathom and understand his charity, for it flows out of the unfathomable fountain of the Holy Spirit, and transcends all that creatures have ever experienced of charity; for Christ was God and man in one Person.
And this is the second point: that is to say, charity.”
Image: Gerard van Honthorst – ‘Christ Crowned with Thorns’
Music:
‘O Virtus Sapientiae - O Power of Wisdom’ - Hildegard von Bingen - Accompanied by: Caitlin Foster, Michael Foster, Kashirim Nwobilor, and Michael Terry
>>> youtube.com/watch?v=zScfIqQkjUk