THIRTY-SIXTH LESSON
On Pride.
"Every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."—ST. LUKE 11:11.
Pride is an excessive love of oneself and of one's own merit, the effect of which is to prefer oneself to others, to make everything tend to self and not to God. The sin of the rebellious angels, my children, was a sin of pride; and pride also was the cause of our first father's fall. There is no defeat more general than this: it penetrates into the heart; as soon as we cease to watch over ourselves, it mingles with our actions, by taking away from us the merit of the little good we have done. Pride is hateful in the eyes of God, as the holy Scripture gives us a thousand proofs; and if we want to form an idea of the chastisement reserved to this vicious disposition, let us remember, my children, the punishment of the angels of heaven, and the sad results of the sin of Adam and Eve.
Pride is the source of a very great number of vices, the principal of which are, at least for children of your age: vanity, ostentation, presumption, and the contempt of your neighbor.
Vanity, my dear children, is that vainglory we derive from our personal advantages: it is the wish to be praised, admired. Ah! what can we have a right to glory in? we are such mere nothings on the face of the earth; besides, what do we possess that does not come from God? What have we done, for instance, to obtain all we are so ready to be proud of: our beauty, the gifts of our mind, our birth, our wealth?
A little girl is pretty, or at least she thinks herself so; she is often to be found admiring herself before a looking-glass; she loses a considerable time dressing, and every day she continually teases her mother to buy ornaments which are useless, or only fit for those who are older: this is vanity.
There is quite as much vanity, my children, in being vexed at not possessing certain advantages, as in glorifying ourselves on those we actually possess. Another little girl, sad at not being so beautiful and so much admired as her companions, is quite as vain as she who is proud of her beauty.
And that child who argues on everything and with everybody, who is always discussing, who pretends to have opinions, who obstinately refuses to give in to his elders: here, again, vanity makes him ridiculous.
The second defeat of pride is ostentation. It consists in displaying one's advantages, in attracting the attention of others to them, in order to receive praise. It is often out of ostentation that we do good, almsgiving for instance. But let us take care: for if the world knows our good actions, and gives us praise for them, we then shall have received our reward here below, and we shall not receive it in heaven. Our almsgiving must remain secret between God and the poor. We must ourselves try to forget it, so as to oblige God to remember it; and according to the Gospel advice: what is done by the right hand, should not be known by the left.
Would you believe, my children, that there are persons who glory in the evil they do, even in that which they have not done, and of which most assuredly they are incapable? Well, silliness can reach that point; and I know some children who, towards their companions, glory in being independent, undutiful, very clever at fooling their parents and their masters.
To conclude, then, when pride governs the heart, it often leads us to pretend we may despise others. A child said to God in his prayer, like the Pharisee in the Gospel: "O Lord, I thank thee that I have not, like my companions, such and such a defect." Poor child! remember these words of Jesus Christ: "Every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled," and fear lest he should address them to you; fear lest, by his humility, this child who to you seems so imperfect, should be more agreeable to God than you are yourself.
And what must we think of another child who, because his parents are wealthy, looks down disdainfully upon children less fortunate than he, who passing proudly those whose attire is less grand than his own, makes them feel the difference which exists between himself and them? You could suppose that child to have no heart: let us hope he has only a silly pride, of which, after due reflection, he will correct himself.
May those amongst you, my children, who have recognized themselves in the examples which I have just made, hasten to own it frankly; it will be taking a first step to acquire that virtue of humility, of which our Lord and his holy Mother have given us the example, which was so dear to them. Let us own it, my children, the little good we have in us, God put there himself; evil only comes of our own making.
Where then can we place our vanity? Let us pray God to cure us; let us pray him to teach us to value things only for what they are worth in his eyes, to love only what he loves; what remains does not deserve the devotion of our hearts. With these feelings we shall be without pride for the very small ad-vantages we possess, and quite resigned to the loss of those of which we are deprived. Let us make our happiness consist in obtaining the approbation of the Lord, of our family, and of our conscience. Let us not look for the vain praise of the world, and God, my children, will certainly bless us who have tried to become, according to his example, kind and humble of heart.
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