Untitled - Saints' Books

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INSTR. vi.] Humility. 309
plause, he shall earn reproach instead of praise. What
a shame, says St. Gregory, to see the teachers of humil
ity become by their example teachers of pride!. You
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may say, I manifest my works to make known the truth,
and to procure praise for the Lord; but I answer in the
words of Seneca: that cannot keep silence about
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thing itself will not be silent about the author."
Every one who hears a priest speaking of his good
works will suppose that he relates them in order to be
praised; thus he shall lose the esteem of men and merit
before God, who seeing him praised according to his
desire, will say to him what he said to the hypocrites in
the synagogue: Amen, I say unto you, they have received their
reward? The Lord has declared that three species of
sinners he hates with a special hatred, and that the first
is a poor man that is
proud. Three sorts my soul hateth,
and I am greatly grieved at their life: a poor man that is
troudj a rich man that is a liar; and an old man that is a
fool?
II.
The Practice of Humility.
But let us come to the practice of humility. Let us
examine what we must do in order to be humble, not in
name, but in reality.
i. To HAVE A HORROR OF PRIDE.
In the first place, it is necessary to entertain a great
fear of the vice of pride; for, as has been already said,
God resists the proud, and deprives them of his graces.
A priest, particularly, in order to preserve chastity, stands
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a
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Doctores humilium, duces superbiae \"Ep. 1. 4, ep, 32.
Qui rem non tacuerit, non tacebit auctorem." Ep. 105.
3 " Amen dico vobis, receperunt mercedem suam." Matth. vi. 2.
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Tres species odivit anima mea: . . .
pauperem
superbum, divitem
mendacem, senem fatuum." Ecclus. xxv. 3.