XXXIIII. De Superbia.

XXXIIII. De Superbia.

Pride is the first image that declares itself, for it is the beginning of all vices and the source and womb of all evils, since it cast the angel out of heaven and expelled man from Paradise. It also lays traps for souls that wish to return to life through good works, so that it may take away their heavenly reward at the end of their deeds. For a person is often lifted up by their good deeds, and thus, through pride, they are deprived of the blessed reward. It has a face like a woman, because it has turned all its will toward the first angel who fell from heaven, leading to folly; with it, it also cast the first woman out of Paradise, just as it often leads men astray with soft temptations. But his eyes are fiery, because his intention burns with malice. And the nose is stained with filth because it lacks discernment and is sullied by foolishness. A closed mouth is because it loves no truth in words, but denies God and everything good in its heart. He lacks strength in his arms and hands, because his might and actions lead not to life, but to death. On both shoulders, his wing is like that of a bat, because he deceitfully prepares an imperial defense for himself, both in heavenly and earthly matters: where he does not join himself to the right flight of justice, but rather to a deceptive and nocturnal confidence; so that his right wing is directed toward the East, while the left wing tends toward the West, because he opposes God in the heavens and runs toward the Devil in the earthly realm. He has a proud heart, because he always carries the swelling of vain greatness in his heart. In this, the legs and feet are like the legs and feet of locusts, because they show the burden of their journey with a vain and unstable glory; they demonstrate and move in this way, so that they lack both belly and back, since they provide no pasture of usefulness and offer no strength to anyone's support, with which one could persevere in good. But you see that the head and the rest of its body are covered neither with hair nor any garment; this shows that pride walks about in the mind and in its actions, foolish and naked, without the hair of wisdom and without the clothing of salvation, as is shown to you; except that it is wholly fixed in the aforementioned darkness, because it lies in every way in the perversity of infidelity, except that like the thinnest thread, like a golden circle, it is stretched from the top under its chin to the surface of both jaws, since it offers no honor or love, but contempt to the one who knows God, who comprehends all things, and this it has produced from the very beginning of its pride up to that foolishness outwardly, as if only on the surface; where, gnashing and biting, it has opposed itself to God, whom it could not overcome. But just as it fell shamefully prostrate then, so now, the more it rises higher in the minds and actions of foolish people, the more it drags them down into the depths with it, and yet it wants no one to be like it, as it demonstrates above. Humility resists those who are proud, and it encourages people to shun it.