On pride, blame & humility

Oh, Brethren, what is the result of pride? Oh, see what humility can do? What was the need for all these sufferings? For, if from the beginning Man had humbled himself, obeyed God, and kept the commandment he would not have fallen.

Again, after his fall, God gave him an occasion to repent and to receive mercy but he kept his stiff-neck held high. He came to him and said “Adam, Where are you?” instead of saying “What glory you have left and what dishonor you have arrived at?” After that, He asked him “Why did you sin? Why did you transgress the commandment?” By asking these questions, He wanted to give him the opportunity to say, “Forgive me.” However, he did not ask for forgiveness. There was no humility, there was no repentance, but indeed the opposite.

He answered, “The woman whom You gave to be with me” (Gen 3:9-12), he did not say, “the woman deceived me,” but “The woman whom You gave to me,” as if he wanted to say: “This catastrophe has come upon me because of You.” So it is, brethren, since Man is not accustomed to blame himself. He does not hesitate to consider even God as the cause of evil.

Then God came to the woman and said to her, “Why did you not keep the commandment?” as if He wanted to say, “At least you, say forgive me, so as to humble your soul and to receive mercy.” Again, there was no request for forgiveness. She also answered, “The serpent deceived me,” (Gen 3:13) as if she wanted to say, “If the serpent sinned, where is my mistake?”

Why did you act in this way, you pitiable ones? Make a bow of repentance, recognize your fault, be sorry for your nakedness. Neither one of them could blame himself, neither of them had the least bit of humility.  St. Dorotheos of Gaza

How to handle your difficulties

Sage advice from St. Dorotheos of Gaza: 

 

…we are men who have no patience and no desire for a little labor and [no desire] to brace ourselves to accept anything with humility.  Therefore we are crushed [by our difficulties].  The more we run away from temptations, the more they weigh us down and the less we are able to drive them away.  Suppose a man for some reason dives into the sea:  if he knows the art of swimming what does he do when a great wave comes along? He ducks under until it goes past and then he goes on swimming unharmed.  But if he is determined to set himself against it, it pushes him away and hurls him back a great distance, and when again he begins to swim forward another wave comes upon him, and if he again tries to swim against it, again it forces him back, and he only tires himself out and makes no headway.  But if he ducks his head and lowers himself under the wave, as I said, no harm comes to him and he continues to swim as long as he likes.  Those who go on doing their work this way when they are in trouble, putting up with their temptations with patience and humility, come through unharmed.  But if they get distressed and downcast, seeking the reasons for everything, tormenting themselves and being annoyed with themselves instead of helping themselves, they do themselves harm.  If painful experiences crowd in upon us, we ought not to be disturbed; allowing ourselves to be disturbed by these experiences is sheer ignorance and pride because we are not recognizing our own condition and, as the Fathers tell us, we are running away from labor…we want to acquire virtue without effort.

Lack of progress?

Don’t you see that this is why we make no progress, why we find we have not been helped towards it? We remain all the time against one another, grinding one another down. Because each considers himself right and excuses himself, as I was saying, all the while keeping none of the commandments yet expecting his neighbor to keep the lot! This is why we do not acquire habits of virtue, because if we light on any little thing we tax our neighbor with it and blame him saying he ought not to do such a thing and why did he do it - whereas ought we not rather to examine ourselves about the commandments and blame ourselves for not keeping them? 

 

On fruit bearing trees

There are certain kinds of trees which never bear fruit as long as their branches stay up straight, but if stones are hung on the branches to bend them down they begin to bear fruit.  So it is with the soul.  When it is humbled it begins to bear fruit and the more fruit it bears the lowlier it becomes.  So also the saints:  the nearer they get to God, the more they see themselves as sinners. 

On blame and the need for humility

Oh, Brethren, what is the result of pride? Oh, see what humility can do? What was the need for all these sufferings? For, if from the beginning Man had humbled himself, obeyed God, and kept the commandment he would not have fallen.

Again, after his fall, God gave him an occasion to repent and to receive mercy but he kept his stiff-neck held high. He came to him and said “Adam, Where are you?” instead of saying “What glory you have left and what dishonor you have arrived at?” After that, He asked him “Why did you sin? Why did you transgress the commandment?” By asking these questions, He wanted to give him the opportunity to say, “Forgive me.” However, he did not ask for forgiveness. There was no humility, there was no repentance, but indeed the opposite.

He answered, “The woman whom You gave to be with me” (Gen 3:9-12), he did not say, “the woman deceived me,” but “The woman whom You gave to me,” as if he wanted to say: “This catastrophe has come upon me because of You.” So it is, brethren, since Man is not accustomed to blame himself. He does not hesitate to consider even God as the cause of evil.

Then God came to the woman and said to her, “Why did you not keep the commandment?” as if He wanted to say, “At least you, say forgive me, so as to humble your soul and to receive mercy.” Again, there was no request for forgiveness. She also answered, “The serpent deceived me,” (Gen 3:13) as if she wanted to say, “If the serpent sinned, where is my mistake?”

Why did you act in this way, you pitiable ones? Make a bow of repentance, recognize your fault, be sorry for your nakedness. Neither one of them could blame himself, neither of them had the least bit of humility. 

 

On guidance

In the Book of Proverbs we read, Where there is no guidance, a people falls like leaves, but in an abundance of counsellors there is safety.  Prov. 11:14 

You see the force of this saying, brothers and sisters.  You see what the sacred Scripture is teaching us.  It is ensuring that we do not trust in our own strength, that we do not consider ourselves experts, that we do not imagine that we can manage our own affairs. 

In fact, we need help; we need guidance and the aid of God.  There is nothing more miserable, nothing more risky than people having no one to guide them on the road to God.  What does the Scripture say?  Where there is no guidance, a people falls like leaves. 

The leaf at its beginning is always green, fresh and delightful.  Then by degrees it dries up and falls, and after that it is disregarded and trampled on.  Anyone without a guide is like that.  At first he is always enthusiastic for fasts and vigils, for tranquility of mind and for obeying his conscience in everything.  Then by degrees that enthusiasm wanes, and because he has no director to feed and rekindle that flame, he dries up without anyone noticing, he falls down and from then on becomes prey to his enemies who do what they like with him. 

It is different, however, with those who share their thoughts with others and only act after taking the advice, In an abundance of counsellors there is safety.  It does not mean by ‘an abundance of counsellors,’ that one should consult everyone, but that one should always seek advice from those whom one trusts most, and not keep silent about some things while speaking of others. 

Woe to those who say one thing and do another!  One should bring everything out into the open and consult, as I said, about everything.  There is safety then, meaning salvation, precisely in the abundance of counsellors. 

 

 

The cause of all evil & its remedy

Listen to what the Lord Himself tells us, Learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart and you shall find rest for your souls, (Matt 11:29).  There you have it in a nutshell:  He has taught us the root and cause of all evils and also the remedy for it, leading to all good.  He shows us that pretensions to superiority cast us down and that it is impossible to obtain mercy except by the contrary, that is to say, by humility.  Self-elevation begets contempt and disobedience begets perdition whereas humility begets obedience and the saving of souls.  And I call that real humility which is not humble in word and outward appearance but is deeply planted in the heart; for this is what He meant when He said that I am meek and humble of heart. 

The conscience and our accountability

A man needs to satisfy his conscience towards God by not despising God’s precepts, even those concerning things which are not seen by men or those things for which one is not accountable to men.  For example, did he neglect his prayers?  If an evil thought came into his heart, was he vigilant and did he keep control of himself or did he entertain it?  He sees his neighbor saying or doing something; does he suspect it is evil and condemn him?  To put it simply, all the hidden things that happen inside us, things which no one sees except God and our conscience, we need to take account of.  This is what I mean by our conscience towards God. 

Love the sinner, hate the sin

Who hated sin more than the saints?  But they did not hate the sinners at the same time, nor condemn them, nor turn away from them.  But they suffered with them, admonished them, comforted them, gave them remedies as sickly members, and did all they could to heal them. 

 

On the providence of God

Let us be convinced that nothing can happen to us apart from the providence of God. 

When endurance is no longer possible

The grace of God comes swiftly to the soul when endurance is no longer possible. 

Do this and God's will is understood

In the measure that we pay attention and take care to carry out what we hear, God will always enlighten and make us understand His will. 

Check your heart when seeking God's will

If a man really sets his heart upon the will of God, God will enlighten a little child to tell that man what is His will.  But if a man does not truly desire the will of God, even if he goes in search of a prophet, God will put into the heart of the prophet a reply like the deception in his own heart. 

Keeping God's commandments brings its reward

By keeping the Commandments the soul is purified and the mind, too, is enlightened and starts to function as nature intended it to.  The command of the Lord gives light and enlightens the eyes, (Ps. 19:8). 

Suspicions

By accepting a suspicion against the neighbor, by saying, ‘What does it matter if I put in a word about my suspicion?  What does it matter if I find out what my brother is saying or what a guest is doing?’ the mind begins to forget about its own sins and to talk idly about his neighbor, speaking evil against him, despising him, and from this he falls into the very thing he condemns.  Because we become careless about our own faults and do not lament our own death, we lose the power to correct ourselves and we are always at work on our neighbor. 

How the devil harms us

When the devil looks at a man who sincerely desires not to sin, he is not so unintelligent as to suggest to him (as he would to a hardened sinner) that he go and commit fornication or go and steal.  He knows we do not want that and he does not set out to tell us something we do not want to hear; but he finds out that little bit of self-will or self-righteousness and through that, with the appearance of well doing, he will do us harm. 

Hidden corruption made manifest

There is the case of a man minding his own business, sitting at peace and quiet; and when a brother comes up and says an annoying word to him, he is put out by it.  And from the circumstances he thinks that he is justifiably angered, and he speaks against the one who troubled him, saying, ‘If he had not come and spoken to me and annoyed me I should not have been at fault.’  This is a delusion:  this is false reasoning!  It was not the one who spoke that put him in a bad mood.  He only showed that it already existed in him; so that he could, if he chose, make reparation for his fault.  But the man referred to above is like clean-looking winter wheat, externally good and ready to use; but when someone crushes it, its corruption is revealed.  He was sitting at peace but he had this anger inside him and he did not know it.  One word to him from other and the corruption hidden inside him leapt out. 

Our needs and God's provision

It is God, Who is merciful and grants everyone what he needs, Who is building him up when He gives him more than he needs; in doing so He shows the abundance of His love for men and teaches him to give thanks.  When He does not grant him what he needs, He makes him compensate for the thing he needs through the working of the mind and teaches him patience. 

On responding to others

It is no great thing not to judge and to be sympathetic to someone who is in trouble and falls down before you, but it is a great thing not to judge or to strike back when someone, on account of his own passions, speaks against you.  Likewise, it is a great thing not to disagree when someone else is honored more than you are.

Courting disaster

Nothing is more pitiful, nothing more disastrous than to be one’s own spiritual director.