327 part ii: meditations for more solemn feasts mountain” you should understand the secrets of a more elevated knowledge, which the Teacher, Jesus, used to explain only to the apostles ascending the mountain with Him. Then He would descend from the mountain to explain to the uneducated crowds the truths of faith that were easier to grasp and practice [f.99r] in order to obtain salvation. And thus, He used to ascend the mountain with the apostles, who were already prepared by God’s grace to comprehend more sublime secrets, and then to descend to the crowds in the flat country, adapting His teaching to their simpler dispositions. He did so to give you the example of adjusting your words and deeds, so that they may bring the fruit of edification and salvation to all; so that you would be simple in teaching and acting among the simple people and would not hesitate to show your education among the learned, not for the sake of praise or admiration, but for advancing the cause of salvation. Today, however, show yourself before Jesus, the Supreme Wisdom present in the Holy Eucharist, as so weak that it would be altogether necessary that He descend to you. For it serves you more to confess your weakness than to pretend that you are strong, when you are not. 2. “[H]e stood in a plain place” (Lk 6:17) [DRB].143 It was proper for the Flower of the plain144 to stand in a plain place, where all, even little children, could behold him, and where He could refresh and invigorate everyone by the heavenly odor of His examples or His words. If He continued to stay on the mountain, not everybody would approach Him, find Him, and look at Him with admiration, resulting in solace and salvation. He knew how to adapt Himself; He knew how to benefit people of any state, nature, talents, and capability. He did not hesitate to 143 The DRB version of this Scripture passage must be used here, since the commentary is based on the use of the words “plain place,” which are not used in more modern translations. 144 Cf. Cant 2:1: “I am a flower of Sharon”; footnote 2, 1: “Flower of Sharon: probably the narcissus, which grows in the fertile Plain of Sharon lying between Mount Carmel and Jaffa on the Mediterranean coast”: NAB, p. 744.
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