Thesis on Spiritual Pride

[thesmellypocket 1839]

 

These are a few notes and reflections on my pastoral experience as an assistant Priest in Savoy.

 

 

"Before the mountain, the ant and the aurochs are equally small."-Virtue 7:7.

 

I have been living for the past year in the Principality of Savoy. Fortunately, it does not suffer from many of the problems occasioned by modern times. Most people, if they do not love God, at least have some kind of servile fear toward Him, which, whilst inferior and imperfect compared to the filial fear and loving reverence of the Saints, is at least better than the self-wise tranquillity of many modern persons.

 

Nevertheless, I have noticed a very dangerous spiritual tendency, which has the potential to drag thousands of souls into the Void. Yes, it is very wretched indeed. The faith of the people seems to lack joy. Everything is austerity and the only form of popular piety that exists is executions. A lack of spiritual joy is usually caused by spiritual pride. This deadly sin, contrary to the Commandment of Virtue ch. 7, seeks to exalt itself above others. It glories in ignorance, revels in rash judgement, and seeks not to uplift our brother if he should fall into a serious sin, but rather to grind him into the dust by raving on in spiritual beratings and beatings. This can be spiritually ruinous and the cause of despair in others, the opposite vice to the virtue of Faith according to Saint James II as was recently published by HIH Josephine Augusta. Spiritual pride is often more deadly than other forms of pride because it sees itself as pious - at least other pride is free of that delusion. Hence it is potentially ruinous to the sinner who is berated into despair, but positively destructive to the spiritual life of the man who berates pridefully, because he will do evil and rash judgement and congratulate himself for the act.

 

Not only the Scrolls, but scores of the Saints warn us against this kind of behaviour. The Angelic Doctor, St. Jude, thundered against it: "In the end, we are all below one great Being and we will all be judged differently. Just because you may have been a pagan or nonbeliever once doesn’t mean that you are not a brother or sister of the Creator now. We are all equal and should love each other the same. Now I leave you to think upon this: If you are someone who believes converted heathens, pagans, or heretics, are below you, how would you feel if you were in their shoes?” (On Conversion and Humility.) Furthermore, St. Pius of Sutica, FSSCT, wrote: "I have since learnt this: that any man who refuses to pity his brother when he falls into a serious fault, shows himself to be in great danger of an imminent fall himself. For pride refuses to admit weakness, and hence, as a hot-headed general is easily lured into ambushes, so Iblees can easily overcome those who are assured of their own strength. I do not mean we should not punish transgressors because we ourselves are guilty; but even there we should say: “Thank God I have not done worse”, and punish as men who hate sin, but love sinners. Even when the order of society necessitates the death penalty, Confession should on no account be neglected to be offered to the criminal, so that he who was failed according to the justice of men, might triumph according to the mercy of God - Thy mercy, which endureth forever." (Confessions, I.IX.)

 

This spiritual pride is manifested in contempt for our neighbour. We are constantly on the look out for the faults of others, and will rashly judge them. We will seek reason to persecute them, rather than making reasonable excuse for them as we ought, always giving the most uncharitable and mean interpretation of their actions. I saw this in the square the other day. There was a man, - half-orc, half son of Horen by the flesh (but 100 percent a son of Horen through Baptism) - who was being questioned by a mob in the town square. I will admit that I arrived late to the scene and perhaps something was said which I did not hear. Nevertheless, the people gave him no chance whatsoever to say anything in his own defence. And when he professed his Canonism boldly, men accused him, without basis, of being a liar. One of these gentlemen accused the half-breed of being "born into sin." At this I became angry. It was not this gentleman's sin which made him a half-orc, but his parents. He is not to be held responsible. So I said "Sir, we are all sinners. Leave off from this man." And he said: "I am, but I go to Confession to Father so-and-so." He said this as if some kind of great achievement and excuse to persecute others. For a start, the man he was persecuting himself professed to be a regular churchgoer, and that means probably with a Confessor also. Going to Confession means you must be frail and in need of God's forgiveness. Why, then, refusing to be merciful, do we expect mercy?

 

What do we have which we have not received? And if we have received, why do we glory as if we have not so done? Confession is the pure mercy of God to a poor sinner. When a patient is cured from a bad disease, does he not thank the physician? Would the man say: "How great I must be, I am cured! Those uncured persons are idiots!" Of course not, he owes it to the physician, not to himself. And so remember this: all your progress in the spiritual life is the gift of God, not your own achievement. Without His grace we have nothing to call our own but sin, evil and death. St. Pius said: "Better wine drunk with humility than water with pride." It is better to be faithful in small devotions and remain small in our own estimation than to do many great penances and think how great we are, and how sinful and weak our brother who does less must be.

 

We must therefore kindle in ourselves great distrust of self. We should recognise our pride and therefore our tendency to act in a contemptuous fashion. You know our mortal lot. For some irrational reason we dislike someone who may be perfectly innocent. And then, to feed our hatred, the evil one pours into our ear all kinds of ridiculous fancies. Our sinful self seeks any reason to exalt itself about this person and kindle hatred against him. We must fight this with tooth and nail. When assaulted by such irrational thoughts, we must not entertain them, but batter them down like the minions of iblees they are. 

 

If we had not pride, we would rejoice that even from sin, God can bring good. Even from the kinslayer Owyn, he created His great Prophet and the Captain of His heavenly hosts. Even from the product of an illicit marriage, He can bring out a baptised and practising Canonist. But we are so tainted by spiritual pride that we are blind to His universal love of all men. Remember that every person we are speaking to may themselves be a potential Saint-in-waiting. The great Ven. Bishop Benedict received Pius of Sutica with courtesy even before he became a Canonist, and this helped him on the road to conversion. The man, too, you are berating, could one day be your great superior in holiness - assuming he is not already. 

 

We should not shrink from stamping out injustice and blasphemy. We should not cower from confrontation and having to use harsh words. This would make us cowards. We should not shrink, but nor should we leap to judgement and meanness as our first resort rather than our last. Our inclination, our default stance, should be gentleness, kindness, courtesy and good will. Departing from these things should be a burden which we are forced by necessity to take up. 

 

For, O my sweetness, my God, when shall we see that it is blasphemy to call Thee 'Father' when despising our brother? Too long have we done this blasphemy! Too long have we treated our neighbour with contempt! How dare we proclaim to acknowledge Thy primacy whilst exalting ourselves! How dare we proclaim we love Thee whilst hating what Thou lovest! Open our hearts, O Lord, and there engrave the Law which Thou didst formerly implant in the hearts of all the descendants. Plant there the root of all virtue: humility. And let there grow from her bounty the glorious red rose of charity, which is Thy very heart, for Thou Thyself art Charity. (Proverbs 5:1) And, acknowledging Thee as Father, let us call our neighbour brother: congratulating him when he triumphs, pitying him when he falls, and desiring the good of his immortal soul with all the fervent desire of our hearts, let us all advance as pilgrims back to our true home, Thy kingdom forever and ever. Amen.

 

 

N.B. It is very important for Confessors to stay away from this tendency. It takes humility and faith to come to the confessional. Admonish sinners, yes, but not in the Confession-booth. For the repentant sinner should always be received with utmost sweetness. Only if beration is the only reasonable means to deliver a man from habitual sin should it be used. 

 

NOTE TO CARDINAL PROVIDENCE. Your Eminence, I have completed a thesis, I am familiar with the Mainland Church, and I now can speak Common quite fluently. Fr. Paul can attest to these things. I earlier made you a promise to refrain from using the powers of my ordination - viz., administering the Sacraments. I now ask that such an impediment be removed and I be given full power to exercise my Priestly faculties and celebrate public liturgies. I remain your humble servant,

 

Fr. Petrus the Akritian.

 

Edited September 9, 2021 by thesmellypocket