Pride is a contempt for men, the cause and principle of rash judgments and unjust condemnations, the impure child of praise, the mark of a fatal sterility in souls, the obstacle to the outpouring of heavenly gifts, the forerunner of the hardening of the heart, the fertile cause of the greatest faults, the hearth or matter of spiritual epilepsy, the inexhaustible source of anger, the door to dissimulation and hypocrisy, the strongest rampart of demons, the faithful guardian and stubborn preserver of our sins; the fatal cause of inhumanity and inflexibility of heart, the extinction of all feeling of piety and compassion and the author of harsh and severe laws. Pride is a merciless judge, a mortal enemy of God, and the infamous root of all blasphemies.
The final degree to which vainglory can attain gives existence to pride; contempt for others, the insolent ostentation of the labors one endures, the love of praise and the aversion to reprimands, are the nourishment that gives it the growths it seeks to attain; finally, the renunciation of God's graces and help, a presumptuous confidence in one's own strength, diabolical inclinations form the frightening perfection of pride.
Do we wish to avoid falling into the abyss dug for us by the demon of pride? Let us first pay attention that it is through the thanksgivings we render to God that he usually slips in and establishes his dwelling in our hearts; for he is too cunning and too well-advised to lead us all at once to renounce God. I have seen several who, while giving thanks to God with their mouth, inwardly rose up against Him through thoughts of vanity.
We have a striking example of this sort of person in the Pharisee of the Gospel. Was it not with his mouth, and not from the depths of his heart, that he said to God:
"Lord, I thank You." (Lk 18:11)?
If we see a soul fall into some fault, we can boldly pronounce that pride was in its heart and that its faults are the sad consequences of this vice. We count twelve vices that cover our soul with shame and ignominy. Now, a great personage told me that pride, which is the twelfth, could, by itself alone, occupy in a soul the place of the other eleven.
A proud monk is always in opposition and contradiction with his brothers; but he who practices humility is of a contrary disposition. Cypress trees push all their branches upward and never lower them toward the earth; such are persons dominated by pride: they do not know what it is to bend under the yoke of obedience. The proud man absolutely wants to dominate his fellow men; and, although he knows that this domination leads him to certain ruin, he would rather perish than not dominate.
Now since it is written that "God resists the proud" (James 4:6), who could have pity and compassion for these wretches? Since they are abominable in the Eyes of the Lord, all those whom pride stains and profanes, who would dare hope to be able to purify them?
The reprimands and corrections made to them are for them only fatal occasions for new falls, the temptations of the demon constantly push them into new sins, and the abandonment by God completes the hardening of their heart. Men have still quite often obtained healing from the first two spiritual evils, that is to say, from resistance to corrections and from the temptations of demons; but can the same be said of the hardening of the heart, which is humanly incurable?
Whoever has an aversion to reprimands and cannot bear them proves that pride is gnawing at his heart. He who, on the contrary, out of love seeks them, shows that he is happily exempt from this vice.
If pride, all by itself, could make Lucifer fall from the highest heavens into the abyss of hell; would humility, all by itself, not be capable of raising us to the heavenly splendors?
Pride plunges us into the most frightful misery; for it shamefully strips us of the merit and fruit of our labors and our penance. "They cried for help, but there was no one to save them." (Ps 18:41) And again: "They cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them." (Ibid.).
Now, this misfortune undoubtedly happened to them only because they did not take the trouble to work with humility to remove from themselves the fatal cause of the evils from which they sought deliverance.
A very experienced elder in the science of spiritual things was one day charitably exhorting a brother filled with pride to courageously fight this vice and to practice holy humility. Now here is the response this fool gave him:
"You are mistaken, father; I am not what you think: no, I assure you, I am not a proud man."
But this wise elder immediately replied to him:
"My son, could you give us clearer proof that you are, than by assuring us that you are not?"
It is therefore of extreme importance for those who are subject to pride to have a wise and prudent director, to choose the most common and most contemptible way of life, to read assiduously and meditate often on the beautiful examples of the saints, and to have constantly before their eyes the actions they performed, even if they seemed to be beyond the strength of human nature; it is at least by using these different means that the unfortunate slaves of pride can have some hope of being delivered from this vice.
It is a shame for us to glory in things that are not ours; but is there less shame in being proud of the gifts we have received from God? Is this not an action that announces the ultimate degree of folly? If you want to glory, do so; but let it be for the actions you performed before being born; for, as for those you have performed since your birth, they are gifts from God as much as your existence.
If you wish, to be your own work, the virtues you practiced before the union of your soul with your body; but those you have practiced since are favors of the Lord's Goodness, as much as your soul; and if you have sustained some combats and made some efforts, without your body having had any part in these efforts and combats, I still agree that you attribute to yourself alone the merit and glory; but has not your own body always been the instrument through which you practiced such and such a virtue, and performed such and such a good work?
Now surely your body does not belong to you; it belongs to God, it is He who gave it to you. Your labors, your efforts and the effects they have produced, everything in you must therefore be attributed to God, as things that essentially belong to Him. Do not cease to distrust yourself and your own strength until the sovereign Judge has pronounced your sentence; for you see in the Gospel that even he who had already taken a place at the wedding feast table was cast out of the hall, and it was ordered that, bound hand and foot, he be thrown into the outer darkness (cf. Mt 22:13).
Do not exalt yourself in your heart, you who are but mud and corruption; remember that an infinity of heavenly spirits, created in holiness, were mercilessly cast out of heaven because of their pride. Once the demon has been able to establish his dwelling in the hearts of those he has subjected to his will, he appears to them during their sleep, and even while awake, sometimes in the figure of an angel, sometimes in the figure of a martyr, then he reveals to them some mysterious secret, pretends to give them some precious graces.
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It is thus that by deceiving these wretches, and by taking from them a remnant of faith and reason, he completes their perdition. Let us never forget that even if we had suffered a thousand deaths for the love of Christ, we would still be very far from having been able to pay what we owe Him, for there is an infinite difference between the blood of a God and that of the servants of God: it is the dignity, and not the substance of this blood, that must be considered.
Furthermore, if we take the trouble to examine ourselves attentively, and if we only compare the life we lead with the life of our fathers who lived before us, who present in their persons such excellent models of the rarest virtues, and shone in their century like radiant stars, we will be forced to admit that we have not really taken a step to follow in their footsteps; that we are very unfaithful to the commitments of our holy vocation, and that we all too often continue to lead a worldly and profane life.
A good and true monk is one whose spirit and heart are never lifted up by thoughts and feelings of vanity, and whose senses are not moved by the sight and presence of sensible objects. Consider with the same eye he who, when he sees his enemies, provokes them to combat, and when he sees them flee before him, pursues them like wild beasts.
He who is continually enraptured in God, and who, by the desire to unite more intimately with Him, sees with regret his days prolonged. He for whom the practice of virtue has become as natural and familiar as the corrupting enjoyment of sensual pleasures is to worldly people and those who resemble them.
Source: Saint John Climacus – The Ladder of Divine Ascent