The more real power a person has, the less boasting is needed. The less real power he/she has, the more he/she seeks to complement it by boasting. The real athlete very seldom boasts or even speaks of his/her exploits on the field. Missionaries who have spent two or three years in prisons, very seldom refer to their tortures, lest their fortitude be praised. Saints never speak of their holiness; that is why it is very difficult to portray a truly religious man/woman on the stage. Directors usually think that he/she must go around with his/her hands folded, while assuming pietistic attitudes. The real saints keeps his/her virtues hidden. But the man/woman who would impress others with his/her holiness must cultivate a certain tone of voice and even join his/her fingers in an attitude suggestive of prayerfulness. The man/woman who has a right to boast about anything does not have to boast.

Where power is unreal, boasting is used to give the impression of power. The empty wagon always makes the most noise. A person may boast of the college/university he/she attended, by which he/she seeks to have the college/university reflect on his/her knowledge, rather than allowing his/her knowledge to reflect on the college/university. Also, he/she believes that by telling a person where he/she went to school, one will draw conclusions from the college/university, rather than from his/her knowledge or want of it.

There are also people who boast about being self-made men/women and of possessing power and wealth. Such boasters always prove that they become rich very much to their own surprise. They usually start conversations by telling how they started as a poor boy/girl, without a cent. The only time they even begin to appreciate poverty is when they begin to be rich. The boasting self-made man/woman always confuses "having" something with "being" something.

Human beings in a modern age which knows no humility, strive for a false superiority, either directly or indirectly. Directly, those who have an undue sense of superiority become the dictator type. They are overbearing, loud, critical and proud, and constantly use the pronoun "I". Vain people like to prove themselves right, especially in arguments. What is important is not the truth of things but their being right. Another form of direct superiority is found in those who seek to attract attention by noise, odd mode of dress and the like.

Indirect quests for superiority manifest themselves in the dreamers. Unable to achieve superiority in real life, they live in a world of fantasy in which they believe themselves superior. A child who gets sick just before examination time may see that he/she cannot realize his/her fantasy, and thus he/she develops sickness. Without pain, he/she would have been forced to prove the greatness of the smartness of which he/she boasted. Failure to pass would have meant giving up the pretense.

Those have been examples of pride. Pride is an under estimation and an inordinate esteem of one's own excellence. Externals are made substitutes for the internal. The ego is a shell encasing the real self, and the more entrenched we become in our pride, the harder becomes this shell. Pride is at its peak when man/woman cut himself/herself off from any relation to God, and thus makes himself/herself god. He/She elevates his/her relative character into an absolute, very much like a carbon copy calling itself the original. The pendulum of a clock is free to swing as long as it is attached to the mechanism, but once it becomes detached it is no longer free to swing. Man/Woman is free when he/she has a point of suspension to God. When he/she alienates himself/herself in a false independence, he/she eventually grows tired of his false freedom. Eventually he/she looks around for someone to whom he/she can give up his/her freedom, which begins to bore him/her. 

The cure is to be found in the revival of that forgotten virtue of humility. Humility is a virtue by which we recognize ourselves as we really are, not as we would like to be in the eyes of the public; not as our press notices say we are, but as we are in the sight of God when we examine our conscience.

What often passes as religion is nothing but ethics and natural morality. Religion as a Divine force implies something that is non-human; namely, a gift from above/heaven which can be accepted or rejected. God in some way enlightens the mind to see a truth that was never seen before; He strengthens the will to do things about it that were never done before, thus setting before us motives which will persuade the will to accept what is freely given. This gift is called grace, because gratis.

The grace of God is like the light of the sun which is outside the window, If the blinds of our will are down, or if the windows are dirty because of our behaviour, the light will not come in. Human cooperation is, therefore, essential for the entering into a higher and Diviner life that the merely human. All this is a very mysterious and their beautiful vesture, but one cannot see the power of God raising the sap through root and fibre, along stem and branch, and unfolding each bud and blossom.

So it is with the work of salvation. No angels announced that God has commenced His earthly life. He/She who, however, begins to be responsive to the gift, immediately sees that there are tremendous obstacles to be surmounted, mountains of pride and self-righteousness to be laid low, prejudices to be swept away. The consideration that God works in the soul leaves it without either excuse for negligence or ground for despondency.

Anyone with psychological insight can see a kind of interaction going on inside of himself/herself. On the one hand, there is the overcoming and the casting out of evil, and on the other, there is the assimilation and unfolding of good. It is like passing from disease to health. There is a joint working of God and man, man being able to do his part because God works, and God's working requires man's cooperation. The food in our stomach will not avail us for health, unless the organism cooperates. We must at least be able to digest it. God can no more become the spiritual life, light and strength of the soul anymore than undigested bread can become the staff of life.

Most human beings refuse to allow Divine workings in their soul because it requires a change of behaviour. The result is continued mediocrity and ordinariness. Man/Woman without the grace of God is like a body without food. What a starving man/woman is, such is man/woman without God. It would be foolish for a starving man/woman to say: "I cannot take any food until I am stronger." How could he/she expect to be strong without food: One cannot feed on oneself. That is why humanism is insufficient. God is waiting to do His Part; we in secret either cooperate or lose the benefit.

BY  VENERABLE  FULTON  J.  SHEEN 

 - WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY - 

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -