Pride makes us displeasing to everyone: the good, the bad, and even ourselves

November 3, 2021 • 2 min

From The Sinner’s Guide, page 329

Again, O proud man! I would ask you to remember that your pride is displeasing to all—to God, Who resists the proud and gives His grace to the humble; [St. James iv. 6.] to the humble, who hold in horror all that savors of arrogance; and to the proud themselves, who naturally hate all who claim to be greater than they.

Nor will you be pleasing to yourself. For if it ever be given to you in this world to enter into yourself and recognize the vanity and folly of your life, you will certainly be ashamed of your littleness.

And if you do not correct it here, still less satisfaction will it afford you in the next world, where it will bring upon you eternal torments.

St. Bernard tells us that if we truly knew our hearts we would be displeasing to ourselves, which alone would make us pleasing to God; but because we do not know ourselves we are inflated with pride and therefore hateful in His sight.

The time will come when we shall be odious to God and to ourselves—to God because of our crimes, and to ourselves because of the punishment they will bring upon us.

Our pride pleases the devil only; for as it was pride which changed him from a pure and beautiful Angel into a spirit of malice and deformity, he rejoices to find this evil reducing others to his unhappy state.

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