[Meditationes seu Contemplationes devotissimae]

humanity is seen and divinity is adored. They offered gold, frankincense, and myrrh, offering more in mysteries than in conscience. In the gift of gold, royal dignity; in the vapor of frankincense, divine majesty; in the species of myrrh, the humanity of one who is to be buried is demonstrated. By their example, you, O faithful one, offer to the Lord the gold of faith, the aromatics of piety, the holocausts of chastity; and also have spiritual myrrh, which may condition you so that you are kept unharmed from all corruption of sins.

The eighth, concerning the offering of Christ in the temple

A large decorative red initial S begins the text.Stupendous, clearly, is the humility of our Savior, which, initiated from the very beginning of His incarnation, continuously showed itself in ineffable degrees of growth, even unto death. For He humbled Himself in the nativity, having Himself as a poor man; in the circumcision, showing Himself even more as a poor sinner; as a servant-man; as a poor man indeed, in that He, the possessor of heaven and earth, chose the offering of the poor to be offered to God for Himself. But as a sinner, insofar as He wished to be expiated by offerings—He who had come as the fountain of purity to make a purgation of sins—as a servant-man, in that He Himself, who had come to redeem the world, wished to be redeemed legally. All these things the Son of God did not for Himself, but for us ourselves, both to fulfill the law and to liberate us from the burden of the law, and as an example of humility. What an admirable example of humility! His most blessed Mother, most devoutly compliant, although she was singularly above the law—whose womb, not knowing man, had become the temple of the Holy Spirit—did not refuse to be subjected even to legal institutions, although she was liberated from all subjection to the law. "Truly," says Bernard, "O blessed Virgin, you do not have a cause, nor do you have need of purification; but never had your Son need of circumcision. Be one among the women; your Son remains, as He is, in the number of the children." Admirable and immense is the humility of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of His blessed ever-Virgin Mother. He indeed, who gave the law, did not disdain to be subjected to the decrees of the law; and He who had been conceived and born without sin and all human concupiscence was, as if polluted and unclean, deferred to the temple of the Lord, and there, with His undefiled Mother, He wished to be purified with a legal sacrifice. Behold, O faithful soul, you have in Christ and in His glorious Mother a multiple example of humility, a medicine for pride, and a foundation of virtues.