527

Jesus Christ is a God whom we approach without pride, and before whom we humble ourselves without despair.

528

...  Not a degradation which renders us incapable of good, nor a holiness exempt from evil.

529

A person told me one day that on coming from confession he felt great joy and confidence.  Another told me that he remained in fear.  Whereupon I thought that these two together would make one good man, and that each was wanting in that he had not the feeling of the other.  The same often happens in other things.

530

He who knows the will of his master will be beaten with more blows, because of the power he has by his knowledge. Qui justus est, justificetur adhuc,[197] because of the power he has by justice.  From him who has received most, will the greatest reckoning be demanded, because of the power he has by this help.

531

Scripture has provided passages of consolation and of warning for all conditions.

Nature seems to have done the same thing by her two infinities, natural and moral; for we shall always have the higher and the lower, the more clever and the less clever, the most exalted and the meanest, in order to humble our pride, and exalt our humility.

532

Comminutum cor (Saint Paul).  This is the Christian character. Alba has named you, I know you no more (Corneille).[198] That is the inhuman character.  The human character is the opposite.

533

There are only two kinds of men:  the righteous who believe themselves sinners; the rest, sinners, who believe themselves righteous.

534

We owe a great debt to those who point out faults.  For they mortify us.  They teach us that we have been despised.  They do not prevent our being so in the future; for we have many other faults for which we may be despised.  They prepare for us the exercise of correction and freedom from fault.

535

Man is so made that by continually telling him he is a fool he believes it, and by continually telling it to himself he makes himself believe it.  For man holds an inward talk with his self alone, which it behoves him to regulate well:  Corrumpunt bonos mores colloquia prava.[199] We must keep silent as much as possible and talk with ourselves only of God, whom we know to be true; and thus we convince ourselves of the truth.

536

Christianity is strange.  It bids man recognise that he is vile, even abominable, and bids him desire to be like God.  Without such a counterpoise, this dignity would make him horribly vain, or this humiliation would make him terribly abject.

537

With how little pride does a Christian believe himself united to God!  With how little humiliation does he place himself on a level with the worms of earth!

A glorious manner to welcome life and death, good and evil!