On one occasion somebody quoted in his presence the maxims of a very great
and very holy person (St. Teresa) on the way to attain perfection.
Despise the world. Despise no man.
Despise yourself. Despise being despised.
"Be it so," observed our Blessed Father, "as regards the three first
sayings, but, in regard to the fourth, to my mind, the very highest degree
of humility consists in loving and cherishing contempt, and in being glad
to be despised. David so acted, when he showed himself pleased to be
despised as a buffoon by his own wife Michol. St. Paul, too, gloried in
having been scourged, stoned, and looked upon as a fool, the off-scouring
and very refuse of the world. The Apostles came forth rejoicing from the
presence of the Councils in which, for the love of Jesus, they had been
loaded with opprobrium, contumely, and contempt. A really humble man
despising himself, is only too glad to find others ready to agree with him,
and to help him to humble himself. He receives reproaches as God's good
gift, and deems himself unworthy of aught else."
He had something, too, to say about the first three maxims. Taking the
world in the sense of the universe, it is, he said, a great stage, on
which are shown the wonders of Almighty God, all of Whose works are very
good--nay, are perfect. But, even taking the word "world" in the sense in
which it is mostly used in Scripture, meaning the company of the wicked, he
said, that we should indeed despise their vices, yet not themselves; for
who knows but that they will in the end, be converted? How many vessels of
contempt have been, by the change of the right hand of God, transformed
into vessels of honour?
To despise no one, which is the second dictum, seems at first sight to
contradict the first, if, by "the world" be meant the vicious and not
merely their vices. It is certainly very right to despise no one, but it
is still more reasonable and more advantageous to ourselves, who wish to
advance in perfection, to value and esteem all men, because created by God
to His image, and because fitted for partaking of His grace and of His
glory.
The third maxim, which tells us to despise ourselves, also needs some
explanation. We ought not under pretence of humility to slight and despise
the graces which God has given us. To do so would be to throw ourselves
over the precipice of ingratitude in order to avoid perishing in the
pitfall of vanity, "Nothing," said he, "can so humble us before the mercy
of God, as the multitude of his benefits; nothing can so abase us before
the throne of His justice, as the countless number of our misdeeds. We need
never fear that the good things God has given us will feed our pride, as
long as we remember that whatever there may be _in_ us that is good, it is
not _of_ us."