"He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High" (Luke i. 32). The homage we pay to any one is proportioned to his eminence and greatness. Christ Our Lord is great in every respect.
1. In His natures, the Divinity, and a most perfect and holy Humanity.
2. In His power, for He can do all that He desires in heaven and on earth.
3. In His qualities, which are the Divine Perfections, and the highest degree of all human virtues, splendour, beauty, benevolence, justice.
4. In His relations, to God first, as a Person of the Blessed Trinity, and then to creatures, as their King, Priest, Teacher, and as Son of a Virgin Mother.
5. In His activities, the internal ones of intellect and heart, and His external ones of miracles and beneficence.
6. In the variety of the sufferings of His Passion and their effects.
7. In His possessions, for all things are His.
8. In every place; in His Blessed Mother, at Bethlehem, in the lowliness of Nazareth even, in the temple, on the cross and in death, in His descent to hell, and on the right hand of His Father.
9. In every time; for before Abraham and the world were made He was. He was great in anticipation and prophecy, greater still abiding and working in His Church.
10. One thing remains, that He be magnified in you, and His greatness be shown in its effects on your life. "Now also shall Christ be magnified in my body" (Phil. i. 20). For this greatness He depends on your good-will.
