All honour and glory belong to God alone. He assures us that He will give His glory to no one, but reserves it for Himself alone: "I will not give my glory to another." (Is. 42:8) In all good works we must distinguish two things: the fruit or the utility and the honour. God has ordained and wills that the entire fruit of the good work shall fall to man's share, but that the honour shall be His alone. If anyone with his good works seeks honour and praise from men, he inverts the order established by God and does Him a great injury and injustice; for God demands that men, insignificant worms of the earth, whose chief end is to praise and glorify God, should occupy themselves in glorifying Him. Let us therefore guard against seeking our own glory in anything, but rather have God's glory in view in all our actions, according to the admonition of the Apostle: "Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all things to the glory of God." (I Cor. 10: 31)
God hates and punishes no vice more than pride. How much God detests this vice may be learned from Christ's conduct towards the Scribes and Pharisees. Christ was all mildness even towards the greatest sinners; He pardoned the public sinner Mary Magdalen, the publican Zacheus, the thief on the cross, and He invited all sinners to Himself with the consoling words: "Come to Me all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you." (Matt. 11: 28) But He conducted Himself in an entirely different way towards the Scribes and Pharisees, whose chief vice was pride. He showed them no mercy or mildness, He pronounced woe upon them repeatedly, and declared that eternal damnation would be their lot. He who wishes to draw down upon himself God's displeasure need only be proud.
Pride makes men miserable even here on earth. St. Augustine says: "Pride brings forth envy as its legitimate child, and the bad mother is always accompanied by her bad child." When the proud man sees others esteemed, and himself slighted, anger and envy at once arise in his heart; he gets excited, peace departs from his soul, and he feels nothing but ill-humour and discontent.
Only those exercises of virtue and good works which have the glory of God for their object are meritorious and have a claim to a reward in heaven. On the other hand, whatever is done for one's own glory is destitute of supernatural merit, and is valueless before God, no matter how praise-worthy and great it may appear in the eyes of the world. The Scribes and Pharisees did much good, but because they were filled with ambition and pride, Christ declared that they had already received their reward. St. Bernard says: "As pride is the origin of all vices so it is also the ruin of all virtues. No matter how many good works a man may have done, how many virtues he may have practiced, if he takes pride in them he becomes the most deplorable and miserable of men." St. Basil says: "Ambition does not indeed prevent us from doing any good works at all, but it waits till we have done them and have laboured very hard; then it robs us of them, and snatches out of our hands the palm due to us."
"Never suffer pride to reign in thy mind, or in thy words: for from it all perdition took its beginning." (Tob 4: 14) Let us frequently think of the awful consequences which pride draws after it; consider our misery, and keep the example of Jesus and His saints before our eyes, that we may learn of them to be meek and humble of heart. Let us suppress every vain, self-complacent thought, and never forget that all the good qualities of mind or body we possess are an unmerited gift of God, to whom alone all honour is due; they are talents entrusted to us; and since much will be required of him to whom much has been given, the more graces and favours we have received the more we should tremble at the thought of the rigorous account we must one day give of our stewardship. Let us strive for the honour and glory of God always; and for meekness and humility for ourselves. "Be you humbled, therefore, under the mighty hand of God; that He may exalt you in the time of visitation." (1 Peter 5: 6)