Whatever perfection the just man may recognize in himself, he is like the
palm tree, which, says the Psalmist, the higher it rears its lofty head the
deeper down in the earth it casts its roots.
And certainly, since all our perfection comes from God, since we have no
good or perfect gift which we have not received from the Father of Lights,
we have no reason to glorify ourselves.
Truly, we can do nothing of ourselves as of ourselves, all our sufficiency,
in good, proceeding from God. Our vanity is such that as soon as we begin
to suspect we are not guilty, we regard ourselves as innocent, forgetting
that if we do not fail in one direction we do in another, and that, as St.
Gregory says, our perfection, in proportion to its advancement, makes us
the better perceive our imperfections.
Without purity how should we recognise impurity? It is light which makes
us understand what darkness is. Many people not discerning in themselves
certain particular vices think that they possess the opposite virtues, and
are deceived.
Again, seeing themselves freed from some earthly passions they imagine
themselves to be clothed in heavenly affections; and thus their ill-advised
heart is darkened, they feed upon wind, and walk on in the vanity of their
thoughts.
Our Blessed Father, reflecting one day upon the condition of his soul
and feeling it to be enjoying great peace owing to its detachment from
creatures, made his own the sentiments of the great Apostle, who, though
not feeling himself guilty of anything, yet did not therefore consider
himself justified, and who forgetting the past pressed on always
farther and farther, never thinking that he had yet reached the goal of
perfection.[1]