How Can Self-Love Endanger ALL our Virtues?

Meditation for the Morning

Let us adore the dispositions of the heart of Jesus abased with the feeling of His littleness and of His nothingness in presence of the lofty majesty of His Father. (Ps. 38:6). Let us bless Him in this state, wherein He teaches us to despoil ourselves of the vain esteem of ourselves, which is so harmful to our souls and so dangerous for our salvation.

FIRST POINT

Self-Love Corrupts the Gifts of God in Us

The Pharisee and the Publican, by Dore

God has given us a body, the masterpiece of all the visible creation; a mind which feeds upon intelligence and truth, capable of attaining all distances, the height of the heavens as well as the depths of the abyss, which embraces the infinite and cannot content itself with anything less. Now, self-love perverts these so excellent gifts to the extent of converting them into a misfortune, or at any rate into a danger in regard to our salvation. He who esteems his body and takes pleasure in it makes of it an idol of insane vanity, as hurtful to his soul as it is unworthy of his great and eternal destinies. He who holds his talents in esteem attracts to himself the chastisement of the proud, presumes upon his own intelligence, and allows himself to be blinded. Oh, how many will be lost for having adored their own minds and who have had too high an opinion of its conceptions! Why have they not fewer talents and more humility? He who esteems the qualities of his heart and glorifies himself for them puts into it a worm which eats them and spoils them at their root. God has indeed given us the grace of prayer, by which we may obtain all things; but if self-love mingles with our prayer it will be accursed and condemned by God, like the prayer of the Pharisee, who, whilst he was thanking God, spoilt his thanksgiving by the vain complaisance he took in himself. God, to the grace of prayer, has, of course, added the grace of good works and the acts of different virtues, but if self-love is mingled with these good works, the whole merit of them will be lost. He who has a high esteem of his own virtue puts it to death; he who has a high opinion of his own piety kills it; he who takes pleasure in the good works he does spoils his harvest, throws down his edifice, destroys his work. What self-examinations may we not make on this point! How many merits have we not lost!

SECOND POINT

Self-Love Engenders All the Vices

“O esteem of men” said St. Francis Xavier, “what evil you have done, what evil you do, what evil you will do!” Hence comes ambition, with its intrigues and its baseness; we desire to be spoken of, to be raised up beyond what we really are, no matter at what cost, and for the satisfaction of our pride we are ready to over throw society and to make bloody wars. Hence the desire for riches, with its iniquitous proceedings for making a fortune, in order that others may speak of us and that we may attract observation. Hence luxury in our clothing and our furniture, because the common herd looks at and admires such magnificence. Hence the vanity which feeds upon the vapor of praise, which cannot bear to receive a counsel, a reproach, even an inadvertence, and is angry if it suspects that it is not appreciated according to its own estimate, as though it were a monarch that attempts were being made to dethrone. Hence human respect with all its baseness and weakness. What will be aid, what will be thought of me, if I do or do not do such or such a thing? And rather than submit to a word of reproval, duty is sacrificed, (Prov. 24:25; Gal. 1:10) evil done from complaisance towards theirs, and we affect to be worse than we really are. (St. Augustine, Conf. lib. 2 100:9) Hence impatience and ill-temper, which cannot bear either contradiction or reverses. We will not allow that we deserve the least blame, that we deserve to be punished by God and forsaken by men. Hence the calumnies which conscience reproves, the freedom of speech in which we indulge. What will be said if I do not talk in the same way as others? Hence lies and equivocations or reticences, whether employed to justify ourselves when we are guilty or to give others a good opinion of us. Hence such hatred, or at any rate coldness, towards those whom we fancy do not esteem us; hence the kind of adoration for those who appear to have a high opinion of us, the complaints with regard to such as do not render to us the honor we believe to be our due; hence the envy we feel with respect to the merits of others; lastly, the preoccupations of the mind and of the heart, which render all prayer and all virtue impossible. O God! how true it is that self-love engenders all the vices! What a great misfortune it is to be always receiving the incense of praise, what great happiness to be at least sometimes misconceived!

Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.

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This meditation comes from a set of books written by a French priest that have been out of print for over 100 years. Meditations for All the Days of the Year, a 5-volume, 5”x7”,  hardcover set complete with dust jackets and ribbons, is now being reprinted and is available for pre-order for a short time at nearly 60% off suggested retail. More information can be found here.

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