The Spirits’ Teachings

Pride and Humility

Humility is a much-neglected virtue among you. The great examples that have been given you are followed very little; however, without humility can you be charitable toward your neighbor? Oh! No, because this sentiment puts all men and women on the same level; it tells them they are brothers and sisters and that they must mutually help one another; and it leads them to the good. Without humility, you adorn yourselves with virtues you do not possess, as if wearing clothes to hide the deformities of your body. Remember the One who saves us; remember his humility, which made him so great and placed him above all the prophets.

Pride is the terrible adversary of humility. If Christ promises the kingdom of heaven to those who are poorest, it is because the mighty of the earth imagine that titles and riches are rewards given for their merit, and that their essence is purer than that of the poor. They believe that these are owed to them, and that is why they accuse God of injustice whenever he takes them away. Oh! Such mockery and blindness! Does God make distinctions among you because of your bodies? Is the envelope of the poor not the same as that of the rich? Everything that God does is great and wise; never attribute to him the ideas that are conceived in your proud minds.

You rich! While you sleep under golden roofs, do you not know that thousands of your brothers,who are just like you, are sleeping on straw? Are not the wretches suffering from hunger your equal? These words are revolting to your pride, I know full well. You may agree to give them alms, but to fraternally shake hands with them? never! “What!” you say, “I, a descendent of noble blood, one of the great ones of the earth, equal to those wretches in rags?

A vain utopia of the so-called philosophers! If we are equal, why has God set them so low and me so high?” It is true that your garments are scarcely the same; however, undress both of you, and what difference would there be between you? “Nobility of blood,” you will say. But chemistry has not found any difference between the blood of the nobleman and that of the plebe. That you did not beg for alms? That someday you will not beg from those whom you despise today? Are riches eternal? Do they not end with your body, the perishable envelope of your spirit? Oh! Apply some humility to yourself! Set your eyes upon the reality of the things of this world, upon what leads to greatness on one hand and humiliation on the other. Remember that death will not spare you any more than anyone else; that titles will not save you from it; that it can strike you tomorrow, today, in an hour. And if you shroud yourselves in your pride, oh! Then I feel sorry for you because you are worthy of pity.

You proud! What were you before you were noble and powerful? Perhaps you  were lower than  the  least of  your servants. Therefore, bow your haughty brow, which God can bring down at the moment in which you raise yourself the highest. All humans are equal on the divine scales  and only their virtues distinguish them from one another in God’s eyes. All spirits are of one and the same essence and all bodies are made of the same substance; your titles and your names do not change them in any way. They remain in the grave and they do not give you the bliss promised to the elect. Charity and humility are their titles of nobility.

Poor creature! You are a mother; your children are suffering. They are cold and hungry; bent under the weight of your cross, you go and humiliate yourself so that they might have a piece of bread! Oh! I bow down before you! How nobly holy and great you are in my eyes! Hope and pray; happiness is not yet of this world. To the poor and oppressed who trust in him, God gives the kingdom of heaven.

And you, young maiden, poor child, given to work and privation – why such sad thoughts? Why do you weep? Lift up your gaze, pious and serene, to God, who provides food to the little birds; trust in him and he will not abandon you. The noise of parties, the pleasures of the world make your heart beat fast. You would love to adorn your head with flowers and mingle with the wealthy of this earth. You say to yourself that, like these women who pass you by, nonchalant and laughing, you too could be rich. Oh! Be still, child! If you knew how many tears and nameless sorrows are hidden beneath those embroidered dresses, how many sobs are muffled under the noise of that joyous orchestra, you would prefer your humble solitude and your poverty. Keep yourself pure in God’s eyes if you do not want your guardian angel to return to him, hiding its face with its white wings and leaving you to your remorse, without a guide, without support in this world where you will be lost, waiting to be punished in the next.

Left to themselves when Moses went up on Mt. Sinai to receive God’s commandments, the people of Israel forsook the one true God. Men and women gave their gold and jewels to make an idol to worship. You civilized men and women, you do the same. Christ left you his doctrine; he provided you with an example of all the virtues, and you have forsaken his examples and precepts. With your passions you have all made a God to your own liking: according to  some, terrifying and  bloodthirsty; according to others, uncaring about the concerns of the world. The God you have made is still the golden calf that each of you adapts to his or her own tastes and ideas.

Wake up, my brothers and sisters, my friends! May the voice of the Spirits touch your hearts. Be generous and charitable without ostentation; that is, do the good with humility. Let each of you tear down little by little the altars you have erected to pride. In a word, be true Christians and you will possess the kingdom of truth. No longer doubt God’s goodness when he gives you so many proofs of it. We have come to prepare the way for the fulfillment of the prophecies. When the Lord comes to give you a more resounding manifestation of his clemency, may the Heavenly Messenger find you as one great family. May your gentle and humble hearts be worthy of understanding the Divine Word that he will bring you. May the Chosen One find on his path only the palm branches laid there by your return to goodness, charity and fraternity. Then your world will become a terrestrial paradise. But if you remain insensitive to the voice of the Spirits sent to purify and renew your civilized society, so rich in knowledge and yet so poor in good sentiments… alas! nothing will remain for us but to weep and groan about your fate. But no, it will not be that way. Return to God your Father, and then all of us who have served for the fulfillment of his will shall sing the canticle of thanksgiving to thank the Lord for his unbounded goodness and glorify him for ever and ever. Amen.

Lacordaire (Constantine,  1863)