Luke in his Gospel (Luke 18:11-12) records two different kinds of vanity shown by the Pharisee, one when he praised himself for the sins he did not commit, the other when he praised himself for the virtues that he practiced: and he was equally condemned for each of these vain utterances. For if pride arises in our hearts and leads us to consider ourselves better than those who have committed these sins, we are at once rendered guilty and worse than they in the eyes of God, because, as the Holy Ghost says, “Pride is hateful before God.” (Ecclus. It is most humiliating to reflect upon this, that even though we be exempt from grave sins, yet through some secret disorder within us, we may be as guilty as if we had committed them. And He also fills with His grace those hearts which are emptied of self – that is to say, which have neither self-esteem nor self-confidence and do not rely upon their own strength. 1:2), and He filled with oil all the empty vases with which the widow presented Eliseus: “Empty vessels not a few.” (4 Kings 4:3). God created out of nothing all that we can see in our world when “the earth was void and empty,” (Gen. James: “Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” (Jas. Thomas that it is precisely by pride that our soul is placed in such a state “as to be deprived of all inner spiritual good.” Do you desire grace in this world and glory in the next? Humble yourself, says St. “Grace was there,” the Lord will answer “but you ought to have asked for it with humility and not forfeited it by your pride.” Pride is an obstacle harder than steel, which hinders the beneficent infusion of grace into the soul.Īnd it is the doctrine of St. It will be useless then to excuse ourselves by saying that we fell into such and such a sin from want of grace. One of the worst consequences of our lack of humility will be that it will render the Day of Judgment so terrible to us, because on that day we shall not only have to give account of the graces which we have received and of which we have made a bad use, but also of those graces which God would have given us if we had been humble and which He withheld from us on account of our pride. Oh, if we humble made place for the divine gifts, how great would be the affluence of that grace in our souls! God resists the proud, because the proud oppose Him but He dispenses His graces liberally to the humble, because they live in subjection to His Will.
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