Signs of the Love of Honor

Pergmayr, The Truths of Salvation, 1882, pp. 200–203

First sign.—To have a great esteem of one's self. This is the peculiar effect of this deplorable passion. Religious who are subject to it believe that their talents, their prudence, their way of acting, and their virtues are such that no one can justly find any fault therein. They foolishly imagine that every one should esteem them, they think that they are fit for every office. It is their due and theirs alone. All that is important belongs to them by right. Others in their estimation are devoid of all talents, utterly wanting in prudence, and are thoroughly mean and contemptible. Those who are thus disposed pompously swell with pride, and are in fact an abomination before God.
Second sign.—To love exceedingly and earnestly to seek esteem and honor. All who are thus besotted have an immoderate desire of praise. They wish to be preferred to others, and if it does not happen they become exceedingly sad. They rejoice when others are reprehended and humbled. They are afflicted when others are praised and exalted. They neglect much good and commit much evil to please men.
Third sign.—To fear humiliations, to fly from them, or to bear them reluctantly. The slightest humiliation, how little soever it may be, disturbs proud and ambitious persons. A command or an office which seems to them not honorable enough, a reprimand or censure of their conduct, a look of contempt, the least suspicion under which they fall, a harsh word, a contradiction, a sour countenance, a refusal is enough to trouble them. This is an infallible sign that pride is their master, master of their minds, master of their hearts. Hear what St. Francis de Sales says: "Those who complain of cross words must be very tender indeed, because only words were uttered which died away immediately. I am much displeased when I hear religious say they have been offended by an abusive expression, for there is a great difference between the buzz and the sting of a bee. We must be extremely delicate, and have ears amazingly sensitive if we cannot bear the hum of a fly."
Fourth sign.—To be too much troubled and grieved at contempt and injuries. There are occurrences which are very painful to human nature; as suspicions, false accusations, detractions, public humiliations, abuse and contempt. If religious become sad and afflicted and murmur thereat, it is an evident sign that their corrupt nature is not yet overcome, and that the love of honor is deeply seated in their hearts. The greater their sadness, the greater their trouble and confusion, the deeper are the roots of pride.
First degree.—To contemn all esteem and love of men, and to judge one's self as truly unworthy of honor in the sight of God. An humble soul must infallibly believe that whatever is good in it is entirely the work of Divine mercy; therefore, not to it but to God all praise by right belongs. It must be fully convinced that in itself it is naught but nothingness and sin, and that consequently contempt is its due. "Humility," says St. Francis de Sales, "makes us like poor beggars who think themselves the most contemptible and meanest of all mortals."
Second degree.—To hate all praise and all esteem of men, and if possible fly from it. We should never seek human praise, and when, nevertheless, it is given us, we must interiorly have a real horror of its emptiness. We must always desire the lowest place, and rejoice when others are preferred. We must live to God in secret, and conceal our good works from the eyes of men. "If God, by His grace," says St. Francis de Sales of himself, "has made me fit to practise some works of holiness, and used me as an instrument to do some good, I would wish on the day of judgment, when all the secrets of the heart shall be revealed, no one but God alone to know them, and, on the contrary, all men to know my wickedness."
Third degree.—To bear without trouble false accusations, suspicions, rash judgments, calumnies, abuse and contempt. Those who love humility are not surprised at wrongs done them. They believe they are treated justly, and bear these with calmness and resignation. This is the saying of St. Francis de Sales, "Who is he that sins not, and who in consequence deserves not punishment?" If this punishment is inflicted, let us think that we have offended God, and that it is very just that a creature as an instrument of His justice punishes us. These three degrees are necessary to arrive at union with God.
Fourth degree.—To accept and suffer wrongs with joy. "Oh, how pleasing would afflictions be," says St. Francis de Sales, "if we had truly a desire of salvation! How precious would such occasions be, because they furnish us with the means of practising humility, a virtue so pleasing to God."