Our good works are no cause for pride, since they are rarely perfect and pure

November 3, 2021 • 1 min

From The Sinner’s Guide, page 329

Another consideration which will help you acquire humility is the thought of the little you have done purely for God.

How many vices assume the mask of virtue! How frequently vain-glory spoils our best works! How many times actions which shine with dazzling splendor before men have no beauty before God!

The judgments of God are different from those of men. An humble sinner is less displeasing in His sight than a proud just man, if one who is proud can be called just.

Nevertheless, though you have performed good works, do not forget your evil deeds, which probably far exceed your works of virtue, and which may be so full of faults and so negligently performed that you have more reason to ask to be forgiven for them than to hope for reward.

Hence St. Gregory says: “Alas for the most virtuous life, if God judge it without mercy, for those things upon which we rely most may be the cause of the greatest confusion to us. Our bad actions are purely evil, but our good actions are seldom entirely good, but are frequently mixed with much that is imperfect. Your works, therefore, ought to be a subject of fear rather than confidence, after the example of holy Job, who says: ‘I feared all my works, knowing that thou didst not spare the offender.’” [Job ix. 28.]

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