HOW HARMFUL PRIDE IS TO OUR SOULS!

 

«My God, make me know what I am, and I need nothing more to fill me with confusion and contempt» Saint Augustine.

 

I. — Yes, dear brothers, to give you an idea of ​​the seriousness of that damned sin, it would be necessary for God to allow me to go and pluck Lucifer from the depths of the abysses, and drag him here to this place that I occupy, so that he himself would paint for you the horrors of that crime, showing you the goods that it has taken from him, that is, heaven, and the evils that it has caused, which are none other than the pains of hell. Alas, for a sin that may last only a moment, ¡a punishment that will last an eternity! And the most terrible thing about this sin is that the more it dominates man, the less guilty he believes himself to be. In fact, the proud person will never want to convince himself that he is proud, nor will he ever admit that he is not doing well: everything he does and everything he speaks is well done and well said. ¿Do you want to take charge of the seriousness of that sin? Look what God has done to atone for it. Why did he want to be born to poor parents, live in darkness, appear in the world not among people of average status, but as a person of the lowest category? Well, because he saw that this sin had so outraged his Father that only He could atone for it by lowering himself to the most humiliating and despicable state, which is that of poverty; Well, there is nothing like not possessing anything to be despised by some and rejected by others.

Look how great the evils that that sin caused. Without him there would be no hell. Without said sin, Adam would still be in earthly paradise, and we would all be happy, without illnesses or misery of any of those that overwhelm us at every moment; there would be no death; we would not be subject to that judgment that makes the saints tremble; we should have no fear of an unhappy eternity; Heaven would be assured to us. Happy in this world, and even happier in the next: we would spend our lives blessing the greatness and goodness of our God, and then we would ascend in body and soul to continue such a happy occupation in heaven. ¡Ah! That say? Without that damned sin, Jesus would not have died! ¡Oh, how many torments would have been avoided for our divine Savior!... But, you will tell me, why has this sin caused worse damage than the others? - Because? Hear the reason. If Lucifer and the other evil angels had not fallen into the sin of pride, there would be no demons, and, consequently, no one would have tempted our first parents, and thus they would have been lucky enough to persevere. I am not unaware that all sins offend God, that all mortal sins deserve eternal punishment: the miser who only thinks about accumulating wealth, willing to sacrifice health, fame and even life itself to accumulate money, in the hope of providing to its future, undoubtedly offends the providence of God, who has promised us that, if we take care to serve and love Him, He will take care of us. He who indulges in excessive drinking until he loses his reason, and lowers himself to a level lower than that of brutes, also seriously insults God, who gave him goods to use them rightly, consecrating his energies and his life to them. serve you. The vengeful person who takes revenge for the injuries received cruelly despises Jesus Christ, who, for so many months or perhaps so many years, has supported him on earth, and even more, provides him with everything he needs, when he would only deserve to be thrown into the flames. from hell. The immodest, by wallowing in the mire of his passions, places himself on a lower level than the most filthy beasts, loses his soul and puts to death his God; He converts the temple of the Holy Spirit into a temple of demons, "he makes the members of Christ, members of an infamous prostitute" brother of the Son of God, he becomes, no longer a brother of demons, but a slave of Satan. All of these are crimes for which words are lacking to express the horrors and the magnitude of the torments they deserve. Well, I tell you that all these sins are as far from pride, in terms of the outrage they inflict on God, as heaven is from earth: nothing is easier to understand. By committing the other sins, we either break the precepts of God, or we despise the benefits of him; or, if you want, we make the works, sufferings and death of Jesus useless. But the proud man acts like a subject who, not content with despising and trampling under his feet the laws and ordinances of his sovereign, takes his fury to the point of attempting to plunge a dagger into his chest, tear him from the throne, trample him under his feet. feet and put yourself in your place. ¿Can a greater atrocity be conceived? Well, this is what the person who has reason for vanity in the successes achieved with his words or works does. ¡Oh my God! how great is the number of those unfortunates!

Hear what the Holy Spirit tells us when speaking about the proud: "He will be hated by God and man, for the Lord detests the proud and the arrogant." Jesus Christ himself tells us "that he gave thanks to his Father for having hidden his secrets from them." proud." In fact, if we go through the Holy Scripture, we will see that the evils with which God afflicts the proud are so horrible and frequent that he seems to exhaust his fury and his power in punishing them, just as we can also observe the special pleasure with which God takes pleasure in humiliate the proud as they seek to elevate themselves. It also happens many times to see the proud fall into some shameful vice that fills him with dishonor in the eyes of the world.

We find an exemplary case in the person of Nebuchadnezzar the great. He was that prince so proud, he had such a high opinion of himself, that he claimed to be considered God. When he was most filled with his greatness and power, suddenly he heard a voice from above telling him that the Lord was tired of his pride, and that, to make him know that there is a God, lord and owner of the earthly kingdoms, it would be for him. taken away his kingdom and given to another; that he would be cast out from the company of men, to go and dwell among the ferocious beasts, where he would eat herbs and roots like a beast of burden. At that moment God so disturbed his brain that he imagined himself to be a beast, he fled to the jungle and there he came to know his smallness. See the punishments that God sent to Korah, Dathan, Abiron and two hundred notable Jews. These, full of pride, said to Moses and Aaron: "And why should we not also have the honor of offering incense to the Lord as you do?" The Lord commanded Moses and Aaron that everyone should withdraw from them and their things, because he wanted to punish them... As soon as they were separated, the earth opened under their feet and they fell alive in hell. Look at Herod, the one who killed Santiago the Apostle and imprisoned Saint Peter. He was so proud that one day, dressed in his royal attire and sitting on his throne, he spoke with such eloquence to the people that there were those who even said: "No, no, this one who speaks is not a man, but a god.”. Instantly, an angel struck him with such a horrible disease that the worms preyed on his living body, and he died like a wretch. He wanted to be considered a god, and was eaten by vile insects. See also Haman, that famous proud man, who. He had decreed that every subject must bend the knee before him. Irritated and enraged because Mordecai disregarded his orders, he had a gallows erected to kill him; but God, who hates the proud, allowed that gallows to serve Haman himself.

We read in history that a loner full of pride wanted to show the firmness of his faith. Having gone to visit Saint Palemon, he showed great displays of pride in his presence, to the point that the Saint told him, charitably, that with so much pride it was very difficult to have the faith that he emblazoned; that, not having anything good about ourselves, we only have to humble ourselves and groan before God asking him for the grace that he not abandon us.

But that poor blind man, instead of taking advantage of such a charitable warning, ran to throw himself into a burning brazier, and God allowed, to test the extent of his pride, that the fire did not harm him. But, after some time, he fell into a very serious and shameful sin against the holy virtue of purity. The demon appeared to him in the form of a woman, who urged him to sin and sat next to him. As her loner tried to hug her, the demon threw himself on him, beat him to death and left him lying unconscious on the ground. Recognizing, at last, his guilt, that is, his pride, he returned to visit Saint Palemon, and with tears in his eyes he confessed his sin. Strangely enough, while he was talking to the Saint, the demon took hold of him, dragged him with fury and threw him into a burning furnace, where he lost his life.