Fleshly Pride in the Soul of a Monk

This fleshly pride we spoke of, then, once it has gained entrance into the heart of a monk who is only lukewarm and who made a bad start in renouncing the world, does not let him stoop from his former worldly haughtiness to the true humility of Christ. First of all it makes him disobedient and rough. Then it does not let him be gentle and kind, or be on a level with his brothers and like them. Nor does it let him be stripped and deprived of his worldly goods, as God and our Savior commands. Renunciation of the world is nothing but the mark of putting oneself to death and of the cross, and it cannot begin or rise from any foundations but these: that a man recognize that he is not only spiritually dead to the deeds of this world, but also realize every day that he must die in the body. Yet this pride, on the contrary, makes him hope for a long life, sets before him many lengthy illnesses to come, and covers him with shame and confusion. [a]

If, stripped of everything, he has begun to be supported by the property of others and not by his own, it persuades him that it is much better for his food and clothing to be provided from his own means than from someone else’s, on the strength of that text which, as was said before, those made dense by such dullness and coldness of heart cannot possibly understand: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”