Our Lord was not known by the great, and He knew no person of influence. On the contrary, the rich and the great are His enemies, because He is poor and hails from Galilee, He used to be surrounded by the poor, the untutored, the coarse-mannered. As a general thing, only the poor and the lowly followed Him and formed His auditory. Others came only to surprise Him in His words. If, however, one or two great men among the people were attracted to Him, they hid, they came to Him by night. There was a kind of shame attached to being seen with Him.
--St. Peter Julian Eymard
