Description
Spiritual pride gives us such confidence in our reason and
judgment that we are not very willing to consult others,
especially our superiors, or to enlighten ourselves by
the attentive and benevolent examination of reasons or
facts which may be urged against us. This state of mind
leads to manifest imprudent acts that will have to be
painfully expiated. It leads also to asperity in discussions,
to stubbornness in judgment, to disparagement which
excludes in a cutting tone all that does not fit in with
our manner of seeing things. This pride may lead a
person to refuse to others the liberty he claims for his
own opinions, and also to submit only very imperfectly
to the directions of the supreme Shepherd, and even to
attenuate and minimize dogmas under the pretext of
explaining them better than has been done hitherto…
Spiritual pride is connected with “pertinacity”. Pertinacity is
a vice that falsifies or disfigures perseverance. It is a false
perseverance which applies the will’s tenacity to something
that it shouldn’t be applied to perseverance inclines us
to persist in doing good; pertinacity makes us persist and
remain fixed in an opinion when there are authoritative
reasons to doubt it. Together with Saint Isidore, Saint
Thomas writes “a person is said to be pertinacious who
holds on impudently” and also those who “abide by their
opinions more than they should”.
Number of pages: 49
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