De vana spe et elatione fugienda.

False Hopes and True Humility

Hope in creatures is vain; true confidence belongs to God alone, who favors the humble.

Vain is the one who places his hope in human beings or in creatures. Don't be ashamed to serve others for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, or to be seen as a poor person in this world.¹ Don't set yourself above others, but place your hope in God.² Do what lies within you, and God will stand by your good will.³ Don't rely on your own knowledge or on the cleverness of any living person, but rather on the grace of God, who helps the humble and humbles those who presume in themselves.^✦⁴

Boasting in God Alone

Do not glory in wealth, strength, or talents, but in God who gives all things and offers Himself to the soul that desires Him.

Don't boast in your wealth, even if you have it, or in your friends because they're powerful, but in God, who provides everything and wants to give himself above all things to the one who desires him. Don't exalt yourself over the size or beauty of your body, which is corrupted and defiled even by a slight weakness. Don't please yourself about your humility or your talent, lest you displease God, to whom belongs everything good we naturally possess.

The Peace of the Humble Heart

To preserve humility, prefer others to yourself, for the humble enjoy peace while the proud live in constant turmoil.

Don't think of yourself as better than others, or you may be found wanting before God, who knows what's really in a person. Don't be proud of your good works, because God's judgments are different from those of people — what pleases people often displeases him. If there's any good in you, believe that others have even greater gifts, so that you can hold on to humility. It does you no harm to place yourself beneath other people; it does enormous harm to set yourself above even one person. The humble enjoy constant peace, but in the heart of the proud there is relentless jealousy and resentment.

Read the original Latin

Vanus est qui spem suam ponit in hominibus aut in creaturis. Non pudeat te aliis servire amore Domini nostri Jesu Christi, et pauperem in hoc sæculo videri. Non stes super teipsum, sed in Deo spem tuam constitue. Fac quod in te est, et Deus aderit bonæ voluntati tuæ. Non confidas in tua scientia, vel cujuscumque astutia viventi, sed magis in Dei gratia, qui humiles adjuvat, et de se præsumentes humiliat.

Non glorieris in divitiis si adsint, nec in amicis quia potentes sunt, sed in Deo qui omnia præstat, et se ipsum super omnia dare desiderat. Non te extollas de magnitudine vel pulchritudine corporis, quæ modica etiam infirmitate corrumpitur et foedatur. Non placeas tibi ipsi, de humilitate aut ingenio ne displiceas Deo, cujus est totum quidquid boni naturaliter habemus.

Non te reputes aliis meliorem, ne forte coram Deo deterior habearis qui scit quid est in homine. Non superbias de operibus bonis, quia aliter sunt judicia Dei quam hominum, cui sæpe displicet, quod hominibus placet. Si aliquid boni habueris, crede de aliis meliora, ut humilitatem conserves. Non nocet ut te hominibus supponas, nocet autem plurimum, si vel uni te præponas. Jugis pax cum humili, in corde autem superbi zelus et indignatio frequens.

Scripture echoes

↩Jas.4.6;1Pet.5.5;Luke.14.11;Luke.18.14 — But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.' 1Pet.5.5 — Likewise, younger people, submit to the elders. And all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Luke.14.11 — For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Luke.18.14 — I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than that one; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

Notes

1 ↩amore rendered as 'for the love of' (ablative of cause); amor → love per lexeme policy.
2 ↩Non stes super teipsum: negative jussive subjunctive rendered as 'Don't set yourself above others'; the reflexive teipsum carries an emphatic self-referential force captured by 'yourself.' sed rendered as 'but' (adversative). constitue rendered as 'place' (imperative of constituo).
3 ↩bonæ voluntati tuæ: dative of reference rendered as 'your good will'; aderit (future of adsum) rendered as 'will stand by' to capture the sense of divine assistance.
4 ↩Non confidas: negative jussive subjunctive of confido, rendered as 'Don't rely.' vel rendered as 'or' (alternative). sed magis rendered as 'but rather' (adversative + comparative). de se præsumentes: 'those who presume in themselves' (de + ablative of cause; presump. participle used substantively). gratia → grace per lexeme policy.