200th Subject: The Consequences of Pride and Self-love

Pride goeth before destruction; and the spirit is lifted up before a fall. PROV. xvi. 18.

Pride is the destruction of all virtues, and the principle of all vices. It debases that which is most holy, and it tarnishes the splendor of the most beautiful virtues; it is a poison which corrupts all the good sentiments of the soul; it is a fire which devours everything it meets, and leaves everywhere only ruins and fragments. It is a frightful hail which destroys the beautiful harvest which God had caused to grow and ripen in the soul.

Pride is the tormentor of the heart, for he who is possessed by it can taste neither pleasure nor satisfaction in this world, nor can he expect them in another. The thirst for honors devours him; the fear of contempt tortures him. Always disquieted as to what people think of him, he desires to hear all conversations, penetrate into all hearts. The uncertainty as to the meaning of a smile troubles and agitates him to the point of depriving him of sleep and appetite; a word of applause addressed to another tortures him.

The proud man can neither endure others nor endure himself; he is impatient, choleric, jealous, malignant, vindictive. He avails himself of every opportunity to humble, to mortify all who have had the misfortune to wound his self-love. This miserable vice blinds the soul, renders it insensible to the touches of grace, leads it to conceal its faults and even its sins, even at the holy tribunal of penance; hence sacrileges, hardness of heart, and damnation.

Pride shuts the gate of heaven; the wicked angels were driven from it by reason of their pride. How can those who imitate them enter it? Pride is an evil almost without remedy, since the more proud one is the less he believes himself to be so, the less he seeks to destroy in himself this diabolical vice.

It imports us then, infinitely, to know how it is with us on so important a point, and above all, let us not forget that God resisteth the proud, and that every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled.—ST. LUKE xiv. 2.

Pause.

ACT OF CONTRITION.—Can it be possible, after all the sins which my pride has caused me to commit, all the chagrins which it has occasioned me, and that it would occasion me still, I should wish to nourish it in me! No! my God, no; I detest it, and ask Thy pardon for it, through the merits of Jesus Christ Thy dear son, humiliated, covered with opprobriums, and through the intercession of Mary, the most humble of all creatures.

I make the resolution to......