O humankind, why do you complain about the calamities that you have heaped upon your own heads? You have despised the holy and divine morals of Christ. Do not be surprised, therefore, that the cup of iniquity has overflowed on all sides.
Troubles have become widespread. Who is to blame except you yourselves, who incessantly seek to crush one another? You cannot be happy without mutual benevolence, but how can benevolence exist with pride? Pride is the fount of all your ills; so devote yourselves to destroying it if you do not want to perpetuate its devastating consequences. There is only one way offered to you for this, but it is foolproof: take as your invariable rule of conduct the law of Christ, the law you have rejected or falsified in its interpretation.
Why do you hold such high regard for whatever shines and enchants the eyes rather than what touches the heart? Why is the vice found in opulence the object of your adulations, while you have only a look of disdain for the true merit that lies in obscurity? Let rich debauchees – lost in body and soul – appear anywhere and all doors are opened to them and all eyes are on them, whereas hardly anyone will concede a gesture of greeting to moral persons who live by their labor! As long as the consideration granted to persons is measured by the weight of the gold they possess or by the name they bear, what interest could they possibly have in correcting their defects?
The opposite would occur if the defect of gold were criticized by public opinion in the same way as the defect of tatters. Pride, however, is indulgent toward anything that pleases it. “This is a time of cupidity and money,” you say. No doubt about it; but why have you let material needs encroach on good sense and reason? Why does anyone want to rise above his or her brothers and sisters? Society today is suffering the consequences of this fact.
Do not forget that such a state of things is always a sign of moral decadence. When pride reaches extremes, it is an indication that a downfall is close at hand, for God always punishes the arrogant. If he sometimes allows them to ascend, it is to give them time to reflect and mend their ways under the blows that he gives to their pride from time to time in order to warn them. Instead of humbling themselves, however, they rebel. Then, when their cup is full, God brings them down suddenly, and their downfall is all the more terrible the higher they have ascended.
Poor humankind, whose selfishness has corrupted every pathway, take heart once again, nonetheless. In his infinite mercy, God has sent you a powerful remedy for your ills, an unexpected aid in your affliction. Open your eyes to the light: there are the souls of those who are no longer on the earth and who have come to call you to your real duties. With all the authority of their experience, they will tell you how the vanities and grandeur of your temporary existence are a small thing in comparison with eternity. They will tell you that there the greatest is the one who was the humblest among the small of your world; that those who loved their brothers and sisters the most are also those who will be loved the most in heaven; that the powerful of the earth, if they abused their authority, will be reduced to obeying their servants; that, in short, charity and humility, those two sisters who walk hand in hand, are the most effective means for obtaining grace before the Eternal One.
Adolfo, Bishop of Argel (Marmande, 1862)