Of Sundry Remedies Against Vainglory

ST. BERNARD in his fourteenth sermon on the psalm Qui habitat, on that verse, Thou shalt walk upon serpents and basilsks, and trample underfoot lions and dragons, declares at length how some of these animals do hurt with their teeth, biting; others with their breath; others with their claws; others terrify by their roaring; and so the devil invisibly does hurt and makes mischief for men in all these ways; and he applies the properties of these animals to various temptations and vices whereby the devil makes war on us. Coming to the basilisk, he says: “Of the basilisk there is told a portentous thing, that by even his look he infects men so grievously as to kill them.” And the saint applies this to the vice of vainglory, according to those words of Christ: Take heed that ye do not your good works before men to be seen by them (Matt. vi. 1), as though He would say: “‘Take heed of the eyes of the basilisk.” So the saint says that there is this about the vice of vainglory, that it kills only the blind and the careless, who display themselves and put themselves forward for the vice to see them and do not take care themselves to look at it first, considering what a vain and useless thing this vainglory is; for if in this way you first catch sight of the basilisk of vainglory, it will not kill you nor do you any harm—rather you will kill it, undoing it and turning it all to smoke.

Let this be the first remedy against vainglory, to try to get the first look at this basilisk by setting ourselves to consider and examine attentively how the opinion and esteem of men is all a puff of wind and vanity, giving us nothing and depriving us of nothing, so that we shall be neither better for men’s praising us and setting store by us, nor worse for their disparaging us and persecuting us. St. Chrysostom, commenting on the verse of the Fifth Psalm, For thou wilt bless the just, treats this subject well. He says that these words are used by the prophet to animate the just man who is persecuted and hears hard words said of him by men, not to be alarmed at that or make much account of it. What harm will the contempt of all mankind do him, if the Lord of angels blesses and praises him? On the contrary, if the Lord does not bless and praise him, nothing will avail him aught, not though all the world praises and publishes his merits. He quotes the example of holy Job, who, sitting upon a dunghill, covered all over with leprosy, ulcers, and worms; persecuted and scoffed at by his friends, by his own wife, and by the whole world, yet was, notwithstanding, more blessed than them all because, while men loaded him with insult and spoke ill of him, God spoke well of him, saying that he was a man simple, upright, fearing God, and keeping aloof from evil, and persevering in innocence (Job ii. 3). Here was a man truly great, and the unfavorable judgments of men and the poor opinion that the world entertained of him lost him nothing. St. Chrysostom further says that all our care and diligence should be to be regarded and esteemed before God, because to be so before men takes nothing away from us and brings us nothing in and there is no reason why we should take account of it. The Apostle St. Paul said: J care nothing for being judged and made light of by men; I have no mind to satisfy men; it is God that I seek to satisfy, since He is my judge: He that judgeth me is the Lord (I Cor. iv. 3). St. Bonaventure adds another point. “Be not angry,” says he, “with those that speak ili of you, for what they say is either true or false; if it be true, you must not wonder they dare say what you durst do; if it be false, their detraction can do you no harm.” But if, notwithstanding, some stirrings of sensitiveness should arise, suffer, he says, all with patience, as one suffers a cautery if fire is applied to a wound; for as the cautery cures the wound, so the detraction that you suffer will perhaps cure you of some secret pride lurking in your heart.

The second means that will help us very much for the obtaining of this end, is that which St. Basil, St. Gregory, St. Bernard, and generally all the saints recommend to us; which is to take very great care to let no expressions slip out of our mouths that may turn to our own praise. “Never say anything of yourself that may redound to your praise,” says St. Bernard, “though the person you speak to should be one of your most familiar friends; but, on the contrary, endeavor to hide your virtues with more care than you take to hide your vices.” Father Master Avila used so great a circumspection in this matter that, when it seemed necessary for the instruction of his neighbor to say something of edification that had happened to himself, he recounted it as of a third person, so that the other might not understand that he was the man. Concerning our Father Ignatius, we were told by a prelate of Spain who had known him at Paris that, when he was treating of prayer and persuading others to it, some asked him how he himself got on in prayer, to which he answered: “I shall only tell you what it befits you to know; that is charity and necessity, the other is vanity.” We read in like manner of St. Francis that he was so reserved in this matter, that he not only never discovered to others the favors and particular graces God had communicated to him in prayer, but, when he went from it, he endeavored so to compose himself in his words and comportment that none should be able to perceive what he had in his heart.

In the third place, not content with never saying a word that might redound to our own praise, we should go further and do all we can to keep secret the good works that we do, as we are told in the Gospel: When thou prayest, enter into thy private room and shut the door and there pray to thy heavenly Father in secret. And when thou givest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth (Matt. vi. 6), as though to say: “Don’t let even yourself know.” And when thow fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou mayest not appear to men to be fasting (Matt. vi. 17). Show then more cheerfulness than usual; make a feast of it, because in that province of Palestine, St. Jerome says, they used to anoint their heads on feast days.

Great is the subtlety of this vice, and therefore the Redeemer of the world recommends us so strongly to be on our guard and hide away from it, doing our works in secret, that we may not lose them nor be robbed by this thief. This is the precaution taken by travelers, says St. Gregory, to conceal the money they carry with them; for if they showed and made a display of it, the thief would catch sight of it and rob them. He cites to this effect what befell King Ezechias, who showed the treasures of his house to the ambassadors of the King of Babylon, and the Babylonians afterwards made booty of them and carried them off to Babylon. They also bring into this effect the comparison of the hen, who cackles when she lays an egg and thereupon loses it.

The true servant of God, says St. Gregory, is so far from this that he is never satisfied with stopping short at any good deed that may possibly come to be known, thinking that he has been already rewarded for that, but endeavors to heap up thereupon other good deeds that cannot possibly be known of men. St. Jerome tells of St. Hilarion that, perceiving the concourse of people that followed him and the reputation that his miracles had occasioned, he was much afflicted and wept every day very bitterly; and his disciples asking him what was the occasion of his sadness and tears: “Methinks,” said he, “seeing the esteem that men have of me, that God is paying me in this life for the service which I endeavor to render Him.” This is another consideration and another very good means to aid us against this vice. Be on your guard and do not aspire after the praises of men, for fear lest God should pay you therewith for any good that you may happen to have done in this life. For so He is wont to do, as He Himself tells us in saying to the rich glutton: Remember, son, that thou hast received thy good things in this life (Luke xvi. 25). It is also for the same reason that the saints do counsel us to avoid all sorts of singularity in devotion, because what is unusual most attracts notice, and it is a common saying that he who does what no one else does draws the eyes of all the world upon him. These things are wont to foster in your soul vainglory and pride, whence arises contempt for others.

But because we cannot always hide our good works, especially when we are called upon to contribute by our example to the edification of our neighbor, let this stand for the fifth remedy, to take care to rectify our intention, raising our heart to God and offering Him all our thoughts, words, and actions, to the end that, when vainglory comes to claim a part in them, we may say to it according to the advice of Father Master Avila: “You come too late; all is already given to God.” It will also be very good to make use of the answer St. Bernard made to a thought of vainglory that came to his mind while he was preaching: “I did not begin for you, and I won’t leave off for you.” For we ought not to let the fear of vainglory make us desist from our good undertakings; we must only stop our ears and thereby render ourselves deaf to the praises of men. St. Chrysostom says we ought to behave to the world as a father behaves towards his son while he is yet in his infancy, for whether the child fondle his father or show himself peevish to him, it is all the same thing to the father; he laughs as well at the one as at the other because he looks upon him as a baby, who knows not what he says nor what he does. Let us look upon the world in the same manner and take it for a baby, not having sense to know what it is saying. Father Francis Xavier, Apostle of the East Indies, used to say that whoever would enter into himself and consider what he really is before God, would think that men were making game of him when they praised him and would take their praises for real insults.

Let us conclude hereupon, and make our final remedy against vainglory, self-knowledge, which is directly opposed to it. If we would plunge and sink deep into this, we should quite understand that we have no ground for any approach to vainglory, but much for self-abasement and humiliation; and this, not only looking at our evil deeds and sins, but even looking at the works which seem to us very good and righteous: on examination we should find therein abundant matter for humiliation and shame. St. Gregory often repeats: “All human righteousness, that which we commonly hold and have on our part, is convicted of being unrighteousness if it is judged strictly; kind indulgence apart, our work, from which we look for reward, is often worthy of punishment.” And so holy Job said: I feared for all my works (Job ix. 28), because of the defects and faults that are usually mingled with them when one does not walk cautiously keeping guard over oneself. When vainglory approaches, let us attentively examine and take account at night what the day has been like; we shall find in ourselves a depth of miseries, evils, and faults that we have fallen into in thought, work and word, and omission; and if in aught by favor of our Lord there has been any good done, we shall commonly find that we have failed by pride and vainglory or by laziness and negligence, and by many other faults that we know, and by many others that we do not know, but may well believe that they are there. Let us, then, enter into ourselves, let us take refuge in knowledge of ourselves; let us look at our feet, that is, at the foulness of our works, and that will at once put a spoke in the wheel of vanity and pride rising in our heart.