Daily Meditation: Monday, October 17, 2011

Pride - a fault of the intellect

10/17/2011

In the Psalms, it is said that God brings down the proud and lifts up the humble. Who are ‘the proud’? All those who, simply because they have a certain intellectual ability, count only on themselves. They don’t recognize the existence of a higher intelligence that governs the universe; they trust only in their limited brain. This is why they will be brought down. In other words, they will be deprived of some of those abilities they prize so highly, whereas those who do not have this absolute self-confidence, who say to the Lord, ‘You alone possess the light. Enter into me, Lord; inspire me,’ possess true humility. Thanks to this humility, their minds become more penetrating, and the mysteries of the universe begin to reveal themselves to them. Pride is a fault of the intellect. The proud rely too much on the way they see and understand things. It never occurs to them that there might be better points of view about things. No, no, their reasoning is faultless. Well, it is hardly surprising if their thinking becomes more narrow and rigid with each passing year.