Caput XX
The Terrible Power of Pride
Three vices — pride chief among them — are declared by Scripture and example to be the enemy's greatest weapon against religious and all humanity.
Truly, these three vices — through which the hostile enemy gains his greatest advantage over those who profess the religious life, and indeed over the whole human race — how greatly are they to be feared by mortals! Not only do the teachings of the Old and New Testaments declare this, but the examples themselves make it plain.
Satan's Fall: The First Lesson in Humility
Satan, the highest of God's creatures, fell through pride, and Christ himself recalled this fall to keep his disciples humble even in the midst of miraculous gifts.
For the one who is the beginning of the ways of God fell first, through pride. This is why the Savior, to keep his disciples from becoming proud because of the power of signs they had received, calls the fallen angel back to their memory, saying: I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven (Luke✦ 10:18).✦
God's Warning to Job: Pride Before the Fall
God revealed to blessed Job the glory Satan once possessed and lost, so that Job might tremble at his own capacity for elation.
Concerning this one, God also hints to blessed Job at how marvelous were the things in which he stood, and what he lost, so that, once frightened, the man might consider what he himself would suffer from the guilt of his own elation if he grew proud — since God did not want to spare by striking him the one whom he had raised in creating him to the glory of such brightness.
From the Greater to the Lesser: If Angels Fall
If an angel set above the angels was cast down for pride, how much more should an exalted human fear the same judgment.
Let a man consider, therefore, what one exalted on earth deserves, if even an angel, set above the angels, is cast down!
Heaven's Judgment as Earth's Warning
Through Isaiah, God declares his sword drunk in heaven, warning that if he did not spare the proud angels, neither will he spare the proud on earth.
And so through the prophet he says well: My sword has been drunk in heaven (Isa.✦ 34:5), as if he were saying openly: With what wrath will I strike the proud of the earth? Consider, if I did not even spare those whom I created in heaven beside me, to strike them down for the vice of their elation.✦
Pride's Hidden Dominion Over the Soul
Through pride Satan fell and through it he conquers all who yield to it, corrupting even virtues into instruments of self-glorification.
It was through this vice that Satan fell, and through this same vice he strikes down anyone who despises himself. Once this vice has taken root in the heart, it hands a person over not only to whatever sins there may be, but makes even the virtues he has perhaps practiced serve his own pride, as he seeks empty glory from them.1
Pride's Many Masks: Worldly and Spiritual
The enemy tempts some through worldly things and others through spiritual things, so that pride may arise from wealth, eloquence, lowly status, or even heavenly gifts.
Some he tempts through worldly things, others through spiritual things. One person swells with pride over wealth, another over eloquence, another over the lowest things, another over heavenly gifts.
The Most Dangerous Pride: That Which Hides in Holiness
Pride is most perilous when it arises from virtues, for in the seemingly holy it goes undetected, and it rules most harshly over those richest in wealth or holiness.
Yet it is one and the same thing that takes place before the eyes of God, even though in the hearts of different people it is clothed in different guise so that it cannot be recognized — unless perhaps it is more dangerous when it springs up from virtues, since in someone believed to be holy, no one presumes to accuse him of it.2 It rules more harshly, however, over those who are richer — whether in wealth or in virtues — because among them it has all the more material for swelling with pride, in that it is supported by greater power or by more praiseworthy holiness.
Read the original Latin
Sane tria haec vitia, per quae maligno hosti maxime, et religionis professores, et insuper omne humanum genus succumbit, quam sint pavenda mortalibus non solum Veteris ac Novi Testamenti sententiae, sed ipsa quoque manifestant exempla. Nam ille qui est principium viarum Dei, primus per superbiam corruit. Unde et Salvator, ne discipuli de accepta signorum potestate superbirent, prolapsum angelum eis ad memoriam revocat, dicens: Videbam Satanam sicut fulgur de coelo cadentem (Luc. X, 18). De quo etiam beato Job Deus tam mira in quibus fuit, et quae amisit insinuat, ut territo homini ostendat quid ipse, si superbiat, de elationis suae culpa passurus sit, si feriendo illi parcere noluit, quem creando in gloria tantae claritatis elevavit. Consideret ergo homo quid elatus in terra mereatur, si et praelatus angelis angelus prosternitur? Unde et bene per prophetam dicit: Inebriatus est in coelo gladius meus (Isa. XXXIV, 5), ac si aperte diceret; qua ira feriam superbos terrae perpendite, si ipsos etiam quos in coelo juxta me condidi percutere pro elationis vitio non perperci.
Per hanc ergo Satanas corruit, per hanc unumque hominem se spernentem sternit. Haec si in corde recepta fuerit, non solum quibuslibet vitiis hominem tradit: sed de ipsis quoque virtutibus, quas forte egerit, sibi hanc servire facit, dum de his vanam gloriam quaerit. Alios autem ex temporalibus rebus, alios ex spiritualibus tentat. Nam alius intumescit auro, alius eloquio, alius infimis rebus, alius coelestibus. Una eademque res tamen ante Dei oculos agitur; quamvis in diversorum cordibus diverso, ne cognosci valeat, amictu pallietur, nisi forte quia tunc periculosior est, cum de virtutibus pullulat, quoniam in eo qui sanctus creditur nullus hanc arguere praesumit. Ditioribus autem, vel divitiis, vel virtutibus ob hoc durius dominatur, quia apud illos eo majorem intumescendi materiam habet, quo in eis majori potestate, aut laudabiliori sanctitate fulcitur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.10.18 — He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning."
- ↩Luke.10.18 — He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning."
- ↩Isa.34.5 — For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of my ban, for judgment.
- ↩Isa.34.5 — For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of my ban, for judgment.
Notes
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