St. John of Ávila: "Humility and the Visitation"

Introduction

St. Juan (John) was born in Almodóvar del Campo in Spain; in 1513, he went to study at the University of Salamanca, but he left in 1517, before obtaining a degree. Back home, he lived an austere pious life, which attracted the attention of a passing Franciscan friar, who recommended he resume his studies. Juan finally obtained a degree at the University of Alcalá de Henares, studying philosophy and theology. In spring 1526, he was ordained and celebrated his first Mass in the church where his parents (who had died during his studies) were buried; he then sold his famiy estate, gave the proceeds to the poor, and decided to become a missionary to Mexico. While in Seville, preparing for his journey, his fervor and learning became known to a local priest; being informed by the priest, the archbishop convinced Juan to stay in Andalusia. His preaching was well-loved, but it was strong against the aristocracy; his critiques of wealth were so strong that he was denounced to the Inquisition in 1531 and imprisoned in 1532, but he was exonerated and released in 1533. At the end of 1534, Córdoba became his base of operations for his missionary work; he probably received his Masters in Theology at Granada in 1538. He had ideas of forming a fratneral society; in his early years of priesthood, he had lived in such a community, as well as during his studies at Granada, and in Córdoba, between 1546 and 1555. However, the success of the Jesuits made him disperse any plans for a future order. He spent the last years of his life in Montilla, near Córdoba, where he died and was buried. He was canonized in 1970 by Bl. Pope Paul VI and declared a Doctor of the Church in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI.

St. John's most famous work is Audi, filia [Listen, daughter], a long treatise on the spiritual life. He also wrote a number of sermons, spiritual conferences, and treatises, a few biblical commentaries, and a couple hundred letters. The below selection comes from a collection of treatises on Mary and Joseph; specifically, it comes from Treatise 5 of the collection, on the Visitation. This excerpt covers about half the treatise, taken from the middle of the work.

 

From On the Festivity of the Visitation of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Our Lady

 St. John of Ávila
(1499-1569)

To thus see how great a humility was that of the Son of God in abasing Himself, Saint John first says how great was His height: Cum omnia tradidisset ei Pater in manus [When the Father handed everything over into His hands] (Jn 13:3), to thus know how to ponder well her humility, first see how high she is. Lady, do you not agree with Him Whom you carry enclosed in your womb, Who is such that, for you to be His Mother, you are the highest creature on earth and in heaven; and Who is the reason that you serve no one, and all serve you? If it was such even before having conceived such a Son, that He gives you a name above every name which is owed to a pure creature, that is, of being called Mother of God, the humility was not such when you abased yourself, because the highness which you have was not such: but, you, Lady, being so high and exalted with a title of such greatness, to make yourself little with humility, is, after the humility of your Son, the highest thing of all, because you, who abase yourself, are the highest of all. Scripture says: Odit Dominus pauperem superbum [The Lord hates the proud pauper] (Sir 25:2). Because God gives him poverty for this, so that he descend from pride and humble himself: and not doing this is a more horrid ugliness, because it is pride without occasion, and not with occasion. As the pride of this one is more abominable, so the humility of the rich is more lovable; because, as the other had occasion for being humbled and was proud, so this one had it for being proud and is humble.

It is not much, no, that we humble ourselves, since we have so many poverties that invite us to it: but, in the Virgin, where all is clean, whiter than snow, without any spot of sin, there, such humility is a thing worthy of admiration, with which she made herself loveable to God and drew Him to her: the words of the Virgin are: Quia respexit humilitatem [Since He looked at humility] (Lk 1:48). Now may it be as the original says, parvitatem [littleness], now as the Latin Saints expound it to us, by the virtue of humility, all comes into one. And it is thing to be pondered that she alleges neither Faith, nor Hope, nor Charity, which are the greatest of the virtues, but respexit humilitatem, because, although it is not greater, it is fundamental and it is the cause of the conservation of the others. To the humble, the Lord gives grace, and, if He gives it to them, He shows well what He wants of them: in such a way that one’s loss of grace is a signal of having lost humility: Non veniat mihi pes superbiæ: & manus peccatoris non moveat me [Let the foot of the proud not come to me: & and let the hand of the sinner not move me] (Ps 36:11). If you do not have that evil foot, you will not fear that evil hand: Ibi ceciderunt omnes qui operantur iniquitatem [There fell all those who worked iniquity] (Ps 36:12). And not only in losing grace, gratum faciente [in performing grace], but in losing the taste for grace. And so Saint Bernard had this rule, that, when devotion failed him, he said: Superbia inventa est in me, & declinavit Dominus in ira a servo suo &c [Proud was found in me, & the Lord declined in wrath from His servant etc.].^[1]

And, that which is much to be looked upon, that the Lord loves so much that a man be humble, that, although it be at the cost of permitting him falls, He permits him to fall because he is humble: Punit Deus latentem superbiam manifesta libidine [God punishes latent pride with manifest lust], says Saint Augustine,^[2] and he is seen in Nebuchadnezzar, because, by pride, he was tossed out from among men, to dwell with the beasts, and so he wandered seven years until he knew and adored God, and said: That to whom he wants to give the Kingdom, it is his, and he retreated from what he had said, that, in the strength of his arm, he had built Babylon. O how much truth is contained in this, among the proud, that God removes from them what He had given them, because they did not know nor give thanks that He had given it to them, and permits them to fall into sins, not human, but bestial, until He bewilders them and makes them distrust their own knowledge and strengths, and says to them: Septem tempora mutabuntur super te [Seven times will change over you] (Dan 4:16)! O how many things pass in these seven times, until one is humbled before God, and before men, for Him! What blows, temptations, falls, until pride falls: and then the man is ready to be lifted, and to help lift others. There is an example in Saint Peter. And humility does not only attain and conserve grace, but it is a signal which lets one understand that grace is there, as, in him who does not have it, pride is the signal of its absence: Initium omnis peccati, superbia, & qui tenuerit illam, adimplebitur maledictis [The beginning of every sin is pride, & he who has it, will be filled with curses] (Sir 10:15). The gloss says: vitiis [with vices]. The great are not wont to wander alone, nor also does pride wander alone, and so humility is not found alone: Evidentissimum electorum signum humilitas, & reprobatorum superbia [A most evident sign of the elect is humility, &, of the reprobate, pride], says Saint Gregory;^[3] and we are clearly allowed to understand this in that the Virgin, conceiving the Son of God, later makes an act of humility in going to see and serve her who was lesser.

O marvelous thing, that the one full of God is humbled more in serving his neighbor, and is depreciated more in his own eyes, and how much more does God raise him than he is abased! This deed is from heaven, since, on earth, it is not done: but the Virgin did it as taught by God, and we ought to marvel much at this, but not count it among those works which Saint Gregory says: Quæ sunt admiranada, non imitanda [Which are to be admired, not imitated],^[4] that if the humility of the Son commands us to imitate it, also that of the Mother. Let us all imitate the humility of the Virgin, for she is a mirror for all. Look (says Saint Jerome) upon her whom you love, and let us honor with imitation she who we honor with reverence. “Let the maiden (says Saint Ambrose) learn to serve the old women, to honor them and esteem them; because there is much reason that, as much as the maiden is cleaner, she may be humbler, and so the older can and ought to learn to both take and humiliate themselves to the younger.”^[5] Subiecti omni humanæ creaturæ propter Deum, omnes invicem humilitatem insinuantes [Subjected to all human creatures because of God, all suggesting humility to each other] (1 Pet 2:14; 5:5). Saint Peter says that if this counsel were taken, there would not be the evils that there are. From pride, all evils, from humility, all goods: Discite a me, quia mitis sum, & humilis corde, & invenientis requiem [Learn from Me, since meek am I, & humble of heart, & you will find rest] (Mt 11:29). On the contrary, unrests of pride come to avenge, to complete with vain splendor. Unhappy from pride is he who loses God and loses rest. He who has God, knows himself in humility: as the grain of weight goes to the depth, the empty nothing goes to the top of the water; and the tree full of fruit is bowed down until abased with the weight, the one with leaves alone is straight and lush. Do not believe that there is sanctity without humility, nor may you even be raised to the third heaven, like Saint Paul, if you do not hold yourselves worthy of hell, inasmuch as it is your part; that, through lack of this, the word is full of heretics, holding themselves to be more than the past Saints, and than all the Church. O frightening matter, that a people so profane and carnal might hold itself to be more than such Saints of such superhuman life, who are like angels in comparison with some beasts! Let one not (says Saint Augustine) believe another in the things of God, unless because one holds him better than himself; since who dares to compare himself now with the past Saints?^[6] Since the stones give voices, how much difference is there? And since those were more friends, to whom God revealed His secrets, that each one would discover his heart to his friend, better than to anyone else: Vos autem dixi amicos &c [But I have called you friends etc.] (Jn 15:15).

And in the affairs of God, there is little part for ingenuity, or study, or tongues, except the teaching of God, and God has spoken this better to His Church, and to the Saints, Virgins, Martyrs, and of the greatest life, than to a lost people; because if there is knowledge of God on earth, His friends have it; but such is the blindness of pride, that it does not let itself see even the clearest. God is not there, Whose spirit is humble and meek; but the spirit of pride is Lucifer, and the King of the proud. He who would have any conjecture of what belongs to God, let him be humble and imitate the Virgin, who, being pregnant with God, goes to visit the one pregnant with a man: she does not go to speak, she does not go to chat, she does not go to show off her dresses and beauty, but to serve the old and pregnant woman, since there have to be visits and entrance for this; she did not recount news, she did not speak ill of the absent, but she served through work and the edification of the word, benefitting mother and son. Remember this, ladies, when you go to visit each other, healthy or sick, let it be for edification, not to draw more sins. O happy the person whom you visit, Lady! O how much truth will she speak: Visitatio tua custodivit spiritum meum [Your visitation guarded my spirit] (Job 10:12). Since what one gives anew is not much from what one guards. O happy the house where you enter to visit! What good will there be that you do not bring with you, since you bring God with you? The Virgin never walked alone, all the virtues accompanied her, since they beautified her more than all gold. The angels accompanied her like their Queen and Lady; but look at Whom she bears in her womb, and you will see how rich and accompanied she truly goes, and to give Him to the house where she enters! What good will she not give who bears God in herself?

 

Footnotes: [1] St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Song of Songs LIV.8 (PL 183:1042A).

[2] I have not yet found a source for this quote; so far, I can only find it in this treatise of St. John.

[3] See St. Gregory, Moralia in Job XXXIV.XXIII.56 (PL 76:750A): Evidentissimum reproborum signum superbia est, at contra humilitas electorum [The most evident sign of the reprobate is pride, and against the humility of the elect].

[4] See St. Gregory, Dialogues I.1 (PL 77:157A): Sed haec, ut praediximus, infirmis veneranda sunt, non imitanda [But these things, as we said before, are to be venerated by the weak, not imitated].

[5] I have not been able to find the sources for the quotes by Jerome and Ambrose; the fact that St. John quotes them in translation, rather than in the original Latin, makes it much more difficult to place them.

[6] As with the previous quotes, I have been unable to find this one, as it is only in translation.

 

Source: Obras del Venerable Maestro Juan de Ávila, Clerigo, Apostol de la Andalucia, Tomo Quinto (Madrid, 1798), 141-148. 

Originally posted at https://bpotto.github.io/Undusted-Texts/treatises/juan_avila_01.html 

Translation ©2018 Brandon P. Otto.  Licensed via CC BY-NC.  Feel free to redistribute non-commercially, as long as credit is given to the translator.