Lifting Up The Humble

Exaltavit humiles. Humiles sunt ab humo cui prostrati sunt, dicti: eo quod nihil inferius se reputant nisi humum, et se conculcandos omnibus exhibent: et isti exaltari propter hoc merentur. Isa. xl, i: Omnis vallis exaltabitur, et omnis mons et collis humiliabitur. Placet enim Deo ut quaelibet creatura sibi congruentia cogitet. Et ideo qui factus est de humo, humiliari debet: et exaltatio sibi non debetur, nisi per humilitatis meritum. I Petr. v: Humiliamini sub potenti manu Dei, ut vos exaltet in tempore visitationis. Debentur autem humili quatuor praemia per quatuor quae sunt ipso. Est enim in eo sui depressio, sensus suae vacuitati exiguitas, et abjectio, Per depressionem, debetur ei exaltatio: per vacuitatem, impletio: per exiguitatem, gratia: per abjectionem autem sui, gloria. De primo dicitur, Luc xiv: Omnis qui se humiliat, exaltabitur. De secundo dicitur, IV Reg. iv, quod mulier offerentibus sibi fliis implevit vasa vacua, non pauca. Do tertio, Jacob iv, et I Petr v: Humilibus dat gratiam. De quarto, Proverb xxix: Humilem spiritu suscipiet gloria. Sic ergo exaltavit humiies. Ad Philip. ii: Semetipsum exinanivit formam servi accipiens, in similitudinem hominis factus, et habitu inventus ut homo. Et sequitur: Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum, etc. Sanctus Albertus Magnus Commentarium In Evangelium Lucam, Caput I Source: Here p141

He has lifted up the humble. 1 They are humble who are from the earth and to Him are prostrate on it, because nothing is thought so low as earth, and so they exhibit themselves to all as crushed down, and they are exalted because they have merited it. In the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, 'Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill brought low.' 2 For every creature is pleasing to God that has thoughts appropriate to itself. Therefore he who was made from earth should be humble and he should not exalt himself, unless by humility he merits it. In the fifth chapter of the first letter of Peter, 'Humble yourself under the powerful hand of God so that he might exalt you in the time of his visitation.' 3 There should be four rewards for the humble through four things that are his. That is, in his lowliness, in the sense of his emptiness, in his littleness, and in his abjection. Through lowliness exaltation should be his, through emptiness, fullness, through littleness, grace, and though his abjection, glory. Concerning the first of these things in the fourteenth chapter of Luke, 'All who humble themselves shall be exalted.' Concerning the second it is said in the fifth chapter of the fourth book of Kings that the woman filled the empty jars her sons brought her, and they were not a few. Concerning the third, in the fourth chapter of the letter of James and in the fifth chapter of the first letter of Peter, 'He gives grace to the humble.' Concerning the fourth, in the twenty ninth chapter of Proverbs, 'Glory shall lift up the humble of spirit.' 5 So He lifts up the humble. In the second chapter of Philippians, 'He emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant, made in the likeness of a man, and found in the way of man.' And it follows, 'Because of which God lifted Him up.' 5 Saint Albert The Great, Commentary On The Gospel of St Luke, Chapter 1 1 Lk 1.51 2 Isaiah 40.4 3 1 Pet 5.6 4 Lk 14.11, 4 Kings 4.5-6, James 4.6, 1 Pet 5.5, Prov 29.23 5 Phil 2.7,9