Of Some Other Human Considerations to Help to Make Us Humble

St: CHRYSOSTOM upon those words of St. Paul: Not to be high-minded rather than right minded, but to be minded unto sober-mindedness (Rom. xii. 3), proves very systematically that the proud and arrogant man is not only an evil and sinful man, but stark mad. He quotes to that effect Isaias (xxxii. 6): The fool shall utter foolish things; and from the foolish things that he utters you may understand he is a fool. See, then, the follies that the proud and arrogant man gives vent to, and you will see that he is a fool. What is it, then, the first proud creature said, that was Lucifer? J will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit on the Mountain of Testimony on the side of the north, I will mount above the height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High (isaias xiv. 13- 14). Was there ever such madness? And in the tenth chapter the prophet puts other words—still more arrogant and insane, of Asur, King of the Assyrians, who boasted that his powerful hand had overcome and subjected all the kings of the earth. My hand hath found as it were a nest the strength of peoples; and as eggs are gathered that are deserted, so have I gathered in the whole earth, and there was none to move a wing and open his mouth and utter a cry (Isaias x. 14) “Could madness further go?” asks St. Chrysostom. And he quotes many other words of proud men, plain evidences of their madness. Hearing them, you could not tell whether they were merely the words of a proud man or of a man who was literally mad, so mad and extravagant are they. And we see that, as madmen move us to laughter by the insane things they say and do, so also the proud afford matter of laughter and conversation by the arrogant language they use, redounding to their own praise, by the authoritative demeanor that they assume, the notice that they claim for themselves and their doings, and the high notion they have of them. St. Chrysostom adds that the folly of the proud is worse, and worthy of greater blame and ignominy than that of the born idiot, since in the latter case there is no fault or sin, but in theirs there is. Hence follows another difference between those two kinds of madness, that born idiots inspire compassion and move all beholders to grief and commiseration for their affliction, but the madness of the proud inspires no compassion nor pity, but laughter and scorn.

Thus the proud are mad, and so we treat them as such. As we fall in with what a madman says to keep the peace with him, though in fact the thing is not so, and you do not think it is so, but you have no mind to contradict the man, because he is mad: that is the way we behave with the proud. This humor of pride has such a reign in the world at this day that one can scarcely converse with men without flattering them and saying of them what really is not the case; nor do you take it to be so, because the person you are speaking with has such a passion for being told that his doings give satisfaction and are well thought of, that to satisfy him and gain his good will you find no better expedient than to praise him. This is one of the vanities and follies that the Wise Man says he saw in the world, the wicked being praised for being in high places as if they were good. I saw the burials of the wicked, who in life were in the holy place, and were praised as though they were good; but that too was vanity (Eccles. viii. 10). Many a time they praised you for what you had done badly and for that which even to them appeared badly done; and the joke of the thing is that to others they had already told the truth and spoken their real minds, but to you, as the price of giving you satisfaction, sometimes they stickle not at telling a downright lie; at other times they seek circumlocutions and roundabout expressions, short of lying, to be able to speak well of what they take to be a bad performance. That is, they treat you as a madman, and fall in with what you want said. The person you are speaking to understands that this is your humor and that you delight in being dealt with in this manner. And the tit-bit of the entertainment is, after you have preached or done something of that sort, to tell you that you came out very well, that everybody was much pleased. They treat you thus to keep you well satisfied and gain your good will, as perchance they have need of you. What this serves for is to make you more of a fool; for they praise what you have spoken or done badly, and thereby set you more in the way of doing it another time.

The men of today dare not speak their minds, for they know that truths embitter—veritas odium parit. They know that, as a man in a mad frenzy resists medical appliances and spits at the doctor who endeavors to treat his case, so the proud man resists good advice and correction. And therefore men have no mind to tell another what they know he cannot stomach, for no man wishes to buy himself trouble; rather they give him to understand that they think well of what they think a poor performance; and the other is so taken up with himself as to believe them. Hence also it will be seen how true it is that we said in the last chapter, how great vanity and folly it is to take account of the praises of men, since we know that at the present day all that is empty compliments, deceit, flattery, and lying: so that some hence even explain the noun cumplimiento, cumplo y miento, “He humored and lied,” “He lied to humor you.”

Moreover, the proud, says St. Chrysostom, are abhorred by all—by God, in the first place, as the Wise Man says: Every arrogant and proud man is an abomination before God (Prov. xvi. 5). And of seven things that God abhors, He puts pride in the first place (Prov. vi. 16). And not only before God, but also before men they are abhorred. Pride is hateful before God and men (Ecclus. x. 7). As those who have diseased livers and bowels emit a stench that none can endure, such are the proud (Ecclus. xi. 32). The world itself gives them herein the fee of their pride, punishing them in that which they were aiming at. It all turns out to them the other way about; they think to be regarded and esteemed by all, and they come to be regarded as fools. They look to be sought after by all, and just the other way about—the proud man is by all the world abhorred; abhorred by his betters because he wishes to equal them; abhorred by his equals because he wishes to lord it over them; abhorred by his inferiors because he makes exorbitant demands upon them. Hence servants speak ill of their master and cannot endure him, when he is proud. Where there is pride, there shall be discredit (Prov. xi. 2). On the contrary, the humble man is regarded and esteemed, sought and loved by all. As children are very lovable by their goodness, innocence, and simplicity, so, says the glorious St. Gregory, are the humble; such simplicity and plainness of speech, and manner of acting without pretense or duplicity, gains all hearts. Humility is the loadstone which draws hearts to itself; all seem to wish to cherish the humble.

To make an end of persuading us that it is folly to desire and strive after the esteem and good opinion of men, St. Bernard constructs an excellent dilemma, concluding thus: Hither it was folly of the Son of God to abase and demean Himself so much as to choose contempt and insult, or it is great folly on our part so much to desire the honor and esteem of men. But it was not folly on the part of the Son of God, nor could it be, though to the world it seemed so. So says St. Paul: We preach Christ crucified, a scandal to the Jews, and a folly and infatuation to the Gentiles; but to them that are elected to the faith, whether from Jews or Greeks or Gentiles, it is Christ the proof of the omnipotence and wisdom of God (I Cor. i. 23). To the blind and proud heathen it appeared folly on the part of Christ; but to us, who have the light of faith, it appears sovereign wisdom and infinite love. But if this is sovereign wisdom, it follows that ours is folly, and we are the fools for making so much account of the opinion and esteem of men and the honor of the world.