Гордость

Are you proud of your wealth, are you proud of your ancestors, do you admire your fatherland, physical beauty, and the honors bestowed upon you by everyone? Hear that you are mortal, that you are dust, and to dust you will return (Gen. 3:19). Look at those who lived in similar nobility before you. Where are those vested with civilian property? Where are the irresistible twists? Where are the rulers of the festivities, the famous horse keepers, military leaders, satraps, rulers? Isn't everything dust? Isn't everything a fable? Are not a small number of bones left as a monument to their life? Look into the coffins: can you discern who is the servant and who is the master, who is poor and who is rich? Distinguish, if you have the opportunity, the prisoner from the king, the strong from the weak, the handsome from the ugly. Therefore, remembering your nature, you will never be exalted (1). “God took dust from the ground and God molded man” (see Gen. 2:7). The creation of the world was not completed. The narrative is not interrupted by the insertion of a story about what concerns us, but it is said: “God created man and rested from all His works” (see Gen. 2:2). And when He surrendered to rest, (Scripture) informs us of exactly how God created: “God took dust from the earth.” When you hear the word dust, learn to be fearless. Don't judge a person by his appearance. Why are you so proud? When thoughts like a wormhole come to you and confuse your heart, be filled with memories of creation, of how you were created: “God took dust from the earth and God molded man.” When can you forget about yourself? You then forget about yourself when you tear yourself away from the earth, and if you are never separated from the earth, but have grown together with the earth, then you walk on the earth, rest on the earth, judge on the earth. Whatever you do on earth, great or small, you are always accompanied by a reminder of your insignificance (3). How is a proud person recognized and how is he treated? Recognized because it seeks preference. And he will be healed if he believes the judgment of the one who said: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). However, you need to know that although someone will be afraid of the judgment pronounced on pride, he nevertheless cannot be cured of this passion unless he gives up all thoughts of preference, just as it is impossible to unlearn any language or art without completely ceasing not only to do or say something related to this art, but also to listen to those who speak and see those who do it. The same must be observed in the discussion of any vice (5). Since the Lord affirms that everyone who exalts himself will be humiliated (Luke 18:14), and the Apostle commands: do not be arrogant (Rom. 12:16), - and in another place he says: proud, arrogant, pompous (2 Tim. 3:2, 4), - and also: love is not proud (ου φυσιούται, 1 Cor. 13:4), who is arrogant, who is majestic, who is proud, who is pompous, and who is proud? He is highly wise who exalts himself, thinks highly of his own merits, exalts himself like the famous Pharisee (Luke 18:11 ff) and does not put himself in line with the humble: he can also be called proud, as the Corinthians were accused of (1 Cor. 5:2). And he is great who does not comply with the laws, does not follow the same rule and also philosophize (Phil. 3:16), but invents his own path of truth and piety. Proud is someone who brags about what he has and tries to appear to be something higher than what he really is. The pompous one can either be one and the same with the proud, or close to him, according to what was said by the Apostle: he is proud (τετύφωται), knows nothing (1 Tim. 6:4) (5). You might be interested in: