Ch. VI: Certain Methods by which we may strive to overcome Ambition and Vanity

319. THE first means of all is to be fervent and persevering in begging from God the grace to root out these vices from our soul. Although this is a remedy for all the diseases, without exception, to which we are subject, it may be called a specific for the cure of ambition and vainglory. And this is so true, that St. John Chrysostom goes so far as to say that prayer is the only remedy against these two vices. "There can be no other remedy," he remarks, "against vainglory but prayer; and prayer itself, unless you take heed, will become the parent of vainglory." The reason of this may be found in the ease wherewith this insinuating vice mingles with our every action, as we have already shown. So that no other than the Almighty Hand of God has power to uproot it, when once it has established its dwelling in our hearts. But this effectual help is vouchsafed only to long, earnest, and fervent prayer. Hence, if any one feel prone to this vice, he must resolve to beg of God the amendment of it in all his prayers; to entreat this favour in all humility, acknowledging before God how insufficient is man of himself: he must ask earnestly for it with hope, awaiting with absolute trust the help of the Divine Goodness, which is ever most ready to shed favours upon us, especially when we make petitions for graces which are in perfect conformity with the Divine Will. By constant prayer of this nature we shall at length find that this vice has been uprooted from our hearts; the work having been done gradually, if not all at once.

320. In order to conceive a firm and vivid desire of the extirpation of the said passions, that thus our prayer may be fervent and availing with God, it will be of great use to consider, in addition to the motives alleged in the foregoing Chapters, how contrary to the spirit of Christ is the spirit of ambition and vainglory. When our Blessed Lord was in the wilderness and was tempted by the devil to the sin of ambition, He spurned 'the tempting fiend with indignation, saying, Get thee hence, Satan. Again, when the people were about to make Him their King, Jesus took to flight, and withdrew to a mountainous country to escape the honour. He made repeated declarations of His abhorrence of praise, and showed this abhorrence in deeds: as when He imposed silence on the demons who were proclaiming Him the Son of God: as also when He commanded the leper whom He had healed not to make public the miraculous cure which had been wrought by His Divine Hands. Intending by such acts, as St. John Chrysostom observes, to set us a powerful example of the abhorrence with which we ought to shrink from worldly honour. In place of such honour and such glory, Christ chose dishonour, humiliation, contempt and confusion: His choice was to be filled with reproach, contumely, and outrage. By considerations such as these, a devout person will certainly succeed in awakening within himself a lively confusion at being so unlike his Divine Master, and an ardent desire of uprooting from his heart vices so unbecoming in a follower of Christ. And thus prayers will become more fervent, glowing, and more availing.

321. The second means is, that the person be fully persuaded, first; that whatever good he may possess in the order of nature or the order of grace, is a pure gift of God; and next, that of himself he is only sin and nothingness. He should allow the grand maxim of St. Paul to sink deep into his heart, What hast thou that thou hast not received? that is, gratuitously, from God. But if thou hast received all things as a gift from God's beneficent hands, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received? Why vaunt it? Why take complacency in it? Why seek for praise on its account, as if it came from thyself and not from Him, as though it were not His but thine own? The same Apostle further adds that we are unable, of ourselves, to conceive a good thought unless God bestow on us the power, and that by our own strength we are incapable of forming it. How much less capable are we of forming devout affections, and carrying out virtuous designs, doing holy actions, and whatever else wins the esteem and praise of people in the world!

322. "Wouldst thou know," says the Prophet Osee, "what thou hast of thine own? I answer: thy sins and thy everlasting ruin." The many sins we have committed in times gone by; the countless imperfections of the present; the grievous crimes into which we should surely fall at every moment if God upheld us not by His Almighty Arm; the everlasting damnation which had been our lot long since had not the mercy of the Almighty interposed in our behalf; all this is our own; in this no one else can claim a share. But if there be in any one of us some good quality, or if we do any action that is praiseworthy, this belongs to God, Who of His mere goodness bestows it upon us.

323. Wherefore St. Bernard, so penetrated with this truth of faith, upbraids with great vehemence those vainglorious persons who rob God of His honour and appropriate it to themselves. "Whence thy glory," he says, "vile and loathsome dust? Is it from thy holy living? But this is not the work of thy spirit, but of the Spirit of God, by which thou art hallowed. Or is it thy power of working miracles that invests thee with brightness? But thy hands are only the instruments of such miracles; God alone, by His supreme power, is the worker in all these wonders. Thou art puffed up peradventure by the applause of the people, whom thine eloquence delights. But tell me, who has given thee a tongue, and knowledge and fluency? Are not these the pure gifts of God? Is not thy tongue, while thou preachest, in the power of God Who uses it even as a writer uses his pen when he writes? All these things, properly considered, are talents intrusted to thee by the Lord in order that thou mayest traffic with them; and thou hast a charge of giving, when called upon, a strict account of the increase thou shalt have earned." Such are the maxims with which the heart and mind of every Christian should be deeply impressed, so that when the first motions of vanity and complacency are felt he may reject them with disgust, and render to God in its entirety whatever glory and honour may accrue from each one of the gifts of the Almighty. But, what is more, by a deep and repeated consideration of this truth, we may come at length to be enabled to regard our own excellence with as much detachment as if it belonged not to ourselves but to some one else, and to feel no uprising of vanity when the thought of it comes to our mind, or when we hear it extolled by the lips of another.

324. St. Jerome records that St. Hilarion had attained this degree of perfection; for at the age of seventy, although he had before his eyes the great monastery which he had founded, the immense multitude of monks who dwelt there in the most perfect austerity and regularity of life; although he saw the people who thronged to him from every part of the world, either to be healed of their diseases, or to be freed from the demons, or at least to receive his blessing; not only did he never rejoice in his heart at this extraordinary popularity, and at the great account which the whole world made of him, but on the contrary he sobbed most bitterly. And when they asked him why he wept so abundantly, and why he broke forth into such piteous lamentations, he replied: "Because the world imagines there is something good in me; because I fear that God will recompense me in this life for any service which I may have done Him; because, on account of the throngs that press around me, I can no longer enjoy the quiet of the solitude which I have sought for in the desert." Unmistakable tokens these that he was in nowise attached to this applause, to these marks of reverence, and to the high esteem in which he was held by men, but that he referred all to God, and was in his own heart as detached from them as though he was not the object of these honours. But what the holy Doctor adds donavit os, et sapientiam. Nam lingua tua quid, Calamus scribæ? et hoc ipsum mutuo accepisti. Talentum creditum est, repetendum cum usurâ. Serm. 13 in Cant.

further, is worthy of special notice: "Others may wonder at the great miracles of this Saint, at his prodigious abstinence, his profound humility, his deep insight into divine things; for my own part, what astounds me is that he could, with such magnitude of soul, have trampled under foot the great glory and high honour which so many obsequious crowds flocked to pay him. And this my wonder is increased when I remember that not only persons of low degree pressed around him, but that ecclesiastics, priests, bishops, and entire communities of monks gathered together at the door of his cell; that high-born ladies, nobles, governors of provinces, and persons of rank and influence, flocked to see him, merely to receive a drop of oil or a morsel of bread blessed by his holy hands. Yet so many and such honours availed not to arouse within this saintly old man a single movement of vanity; but left him in trouble and affliction, because he was not allowed to remain in his beloved solitude, forgotten, abandoned and unknown."

325. To the astonishment expressed by St. Jerome we may add that of St. Bernard, who, when speaking of those noble souls that made no account of the glory of the world, says, that it is a great and extraordinary virtue to be unconscious of your own greatness at the very time that you are doing great things: to be in ignorance of your holiness while it is apparent to all the world, yourself alone excepted: to be admirable in the sight of others, but contemptible only in your own eyes. "This is a virtue," writes the Saint, "which I deem more stupendous than all other virtues fratrum secum habitantium, turbasque eorum, qui diversis languoribus, et immundis spiritibus occupatos ad se deducebant, ita ut omni genere hominum solitudo per circuitum repleretur, flebat quotidie, incredibili desiderio conversationis antiquæ recordabatur. Interrogatus a fratribus quid haberet? Cur se conficeret? ait: Rursus ad sæculum redii, et recepi mercedem in vitâ meâ. Homines Palestinæ, et vicinæ Provinciæ æstimant me alicujus esse momenti, etc. In Vitâ Ejusd.

put together." To attain this virtue, however, there is no other method than the one which we have marked out above, which is to meditate without ceasing, and to distinguish between what we have of ourselves and what comes to us from God. If to these considerations there be added a ray of light from above which, as was observed at the beginning of this Chapter, God will never withhold from him who asks it in humility faith and perseverance, we shall be enabled to make so fair a distribution, that the soul will never ascribe to itself any gift or excellence by which it may see itself to be adorned, nor any honour which it may receive on that account; but being fully despoiled and entirely detached from everything, will refer all to God, and even amid applause and homage will ever remain in deep self-abasement, knowing full well that of itself it can lay claim to nothing except to its many miseries.