“It is befitting that I keep silent, seeing that God has covered me. If God permitted that I be uncovered, would I be able to utter a word?”
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Before the Just Judge
Category: BEST OF
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But how unhappy are those poor, weak souls, who are divided between God and the world! They will and they do not will; they are lacerated at once by their passions and their remorse; they are afraid of the judgments of God and of the opinions of men; they dislike the evil, but are ashamed of the good.
—Francois Fenelon, Spiritual Progress
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To the extent that you pray with all your soul for the person who slanders you, God will make the truth known to those who have been scandalized by the slander.
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Have you ever found yourself in the presence of someone who fills you with light and good? In that presence, have you perhaps simultaneously felt somehow exposed and ashamed? You don’t even have to exchange words with someone like that, to know that you are in the presence of holiness. People—or places—that are pure, transparent, holy can simultaneously inspire and expose us. They give us an inkling of what it might feel like to experience the presence of God. Can we endure that degree of love and beauty?
—Peter Bouteneff, How to Be a Sinner -
Because they understood vainglory to be a recurrent and serious problem, the early Fathers recommended several practical strategies against it—most of which did not involve sneaking off and slandering yourself before city officials. For example, you could try to avoid excessive attachment to glory by avoiding any attachments to human opinion at all. So one Desert Father offers this advice on how to make “death to the world” one’s spiritual vocation: A brother came to see Abba Macarius the Egyptian, and said to him, “Abba, give me a word.” So the old man said, “Go to the cemetery and abuse the dead.” The brother went there, abused them and threw stones at them; then he returned and told the old man about it. The latter said to him, “Didn’t they say anything to you?” He replied, “No.” The old man said, “Go back tomorrow and praise them.” So the brother went away and praised them, calling them “Apostles, saints, and righteous men.” He returned to the old man and said to him, “I have complimented them.” And the old man said to him, “Did they not answer you?” The brother said no. The old man said to him, “You know how you insulted them and they did not reply, and how you praised them and they did not speak; so you too if you wish to be saved must do the same and become a dead man. Like the dead, take no account of either the scorn of men or their praises.”
—Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, Vainglory: The Forgotten Vice
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Likewise we ought to read simple and devout books as willingly as learned and profound ones. We ought not to be swayed by the authority of the writer, whether he be a great literary light or an insignificant person, but by the love of simple truth. We ought not to ask who is speaking, but mark what is said. Men pass away, but the truth of the Lord remains forever. God speaks to us in many ways without regard for persons.
—Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ -
“If you desire salvation, you must be like the dead. You must think nothing of the wrongs men do to you, nor of the praises they offer you. Be like the dead. Thus you may be saved.”
—Saint Macarius the Great
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