Caput XXIII. De superbia
God Resists the Proud
Scripture testifies that God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.
God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James✦ 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).
Pride Born from Virtue
Pride is the worst vice because it corrupts good works and is the root of all sin.
The devil's greatest sin was pride. That is why pride is worse than any other vice, since it often grows out of good works themselves, whenever a person takes pride in the good things he does — and so loses through pride what he had gained through love. Pride is the last of all vices to take hold, once a person has been adorned with virtues and then begins to boast in them. The beginning of every sin is pride (Sirach 10:15), for once the soul despises the commands of its Creator, it soon falls into the pit of any kind of sin.
The Fall of the Exalted
Pride's self-exaltation leads to deep ruin and provokes God's wrath.
All pride lies as low as it raises itself high. And the deeper it sinks, the higher it is lifted up. For whoever is raised up by his own pride is condemned by God's justice. Before a person's ruin, their spirit is exalted.✦ Nothing is more to be avoided by a Christian than pride, which provokes the wrath of God.
Humility Restores What Pride Destroys
Humility makes humans like angels, while pride turns angels into demons, and all good belongs to God alone.
For pride made demons out of angels; but humility makes people like the holy angels. The proud want to be praised for what they do not do; the humble shy away from recognition for whatever good they accomplish. Let no one be lifted up by their own good, or seek praise for themselves, even if they do something good; but let them long to praise God in the gifts they have received, because they do nothing good except what God has given them to do.
Read the original Latin
Superbis Deus resistit, humilibus autem dat gratiam (Jac. IV, 6; I Petr. V, 5). Maximum diaboli peccatum fuit superbia. Quapropter omni vitio deterior est superbia, quae saepe et de bonis nascitur actibus, dum homo in suis bonis operibus superbit: et hoc perdit per superbiam, quod habuit per charitatem. Omnium vitiorum novissimum est superbia, dum homo virtutibus ornatur, et in his superbire coepit. Omnis quoque peccati initium superbia est (Eccle. X, 15), dum anima praecepta contemnit Creatoris, mox in cujuslibet peccati corruit foveam.
Omnis superbia tanto in imo jacet, quanto se erigit in alto. Tantoque profundius labitur, quanto excelsius elevatur. Qui enim per propriam superbiam attollitur, per Dei justitiam damnatur. Ante ruinam hominis exaltatur spiritus ejus. Nihil magis Christiano vitandum est quam superbia, quae iram Dei provocat. Nam superbia ex angelis daemones fecit: humilitas autem homines sanctis angelis similes reddit. Superbi cupiunt in se praedicari quod non faciunt: humiles refugiunt, quidquid boni operantur, agnosci. Non elevetur homo in bono suo, nec laudem sibi quaerat, quamvis aliquid boni faciat: sed Deum laudare cupiat in donis suis, quia nihil boni facit, nisi quod Deus donavit ei facere.
Scripture echoes
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