examination of the heart 276 Holy Communion itself does not interfere with your salvation. Comply, therefore, with St. Gregory, who warns: “Today’s Holy Gospel compels me to say that you should be fearful and greatly circumspect about even the good things you do, lest through your upright deeds you actually desire human favor or others to be in debt to you, lest the desire for praise creep in, and what is shown outwardly be deprived of its reward inwardly.”122 3. “that I am not like other men” (Lk 18:11). Consider that with these few petty words this Pharisee prepared his own annihilation. You, however, will be able to draw from them life if you would say with a Pharisaic mouth, but not in the Pharisaic spirit: “I am not as the rest of men,” meaning by this that others are devout and you are spiritually dry; that others are humble, and you are proud; that others are eager, and you are sluggish; that others are patient, meek, obedient and you are impatient, lacking in meekness, disobedient; that others produce grapes in the vineyard of the Lord, and you the wild vines; that others cheerfully make the journey of perfection, and you who just began making it have already abandoned it; that others are thirsty for work, and you for idleness; that others are pure, and you are impure; that others are adorned with virtues, and you abound in imperfections; that others are worthy of eternal glory for their good works, and you deserve eternal disgrace for evil deeds; finally, that others are rightly favored at this very sacred table with well-deserved consolations, while you quite deservedly dread that the earth may open under your feet and swallow you, full of malice, who so boldly dare to open your impure mouth to receive the immaculate Lamb. Consider in this manner that you are “not like the rest of men,” and again, lowering yourself below hell, cry out with a groan: “God, be merciful to me” (Lk 18:13). 122 Gregorius Magnus, XL Homiliarum in Evangelia: Liber I — Homilia XII (Matth. XXV, 1-13), in: PL, vol. 76, Ateliers catholiques du Petit-Montrouge, Paris 1857, p. 1118 (n. 1476). Cf. GFGH, p. 68 (Homily 10).
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