35. Certainly we are to
contemplate in Christ Himself, the chief instruction and pattern of
virginal purity. What further precept then concerning humility
shall I give to the continent, than what He saith to all, “Learn
of Me, in that I am meek and lowly of heart?”21202120 when He had made mention above of
His greatness, and, wishing to show this very thing, how great He
was, and how 430little He had been made for our
sakes, saith, “I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, in that Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and
prudent, and hast revealed them unto little children. Even so, O
Father, in that so it hath been pleasing before Thee. All things
have been delivered unto Me of My Father: and no one knoweth the
Son, save the Father; and no one knoweth the Father, save the Son,
and he to whom the Son shall have willed to reveal Him. Come unto
Me, all ye who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take
My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, in that I am meek and lowly of
heart.”21212121 He, He,
unto Whom the Father hath delivered all things, and Whom no one
knoweth but the Father, and Who alone, (and he, unto whom He shall
have willed to reveal Him), knoweth the Father, saith not, “Learn
of Me” to make the world, or to raise the dead, but, “in that I
am meek and lowly of heart.” O saving teaching? O Teacher and
Lord of mortals, unto whom death was pledged and passed on in the
cup of pride, He would not teach what Himself was not, He would not
bid what Himself did not. I see Thee, O good Jesu, with the eyes of
faith, which Thou hast opened for me, as in an assembly of the
human race, crying out and saying, “Come unto Me, and learn of
Me.” What, I beseech Thee, through Whom all things were made, O
Son of God, and the Same Who was made among all things, O Son of
Man: to learn what of Thee, come we to Thee? “For that I am
meek,” saith He, “and lowly of heart.” Is it to this that all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Thee21222122 are
brought, that we learn this of Thee as a great thing, that Thou art
“meek and lowly of heart?” Is it so great a thing to be little,
that it could not at all be learned unless it were brought to pass
by Thee, Who art so great? So indeed it is. For by no other way is
there found out rest for the soul, save when the unquiet swelling
hath been dispersed, whereby it was great unto itself, when it was
not sound unto Thee.