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Pride Alone Can Destroy a Christian: Evergetinos Hypothesis 29
34:01
The video presents Hypothesis 29 from the third volume of the Evergetinos, which teaches that pride alone is sufficient to destroy a Christian. Those who become puffed up over their accomplishments are abandoned by divine grace and suffer a deadly fall. The hypothesis draws on several sources. From Palladius, it recounts the story of Valens, a monk from Palestine who attained a high measure of asceticism but fell into pride.
He believed angels were conversing with him and accepted a lamp lit by the devil to find a lost needle. When the devil appeared disguised as Christ with torch-bearing demons, Valens worshipped him and declared he had no need of Holy Communion because he had seen Christ. The fathers Chronius, James, and Paphnutius taught that events occur either by God's good pleasure or by his permission, and that pride causes God to withdraw the angel of providence, leaving the monk in the adversary's clutches.
Valens was cured only after a year of chains, prayer, and humiliation. Syncletica identifies pride as the devil's ultimate weapon, the sword he uses last after exhausting gluttony, fornication, and avarice. She prescribes meditating on the words 'I am a worm and no man' and comparing oneself to greater ascetics.
The Gerontikon provides concrete examples: elders deflect praise, assign humiliating tasks to proud monks, and teach that moderation and humility are the royal way. Abba Isidore teaches that it is more profitable to eat meat than to fast and become conceited, and the elders say to pull down a younger monk climbing to heaven by his own will.
A Thebaid monk practicing extreme asceticism was tempted to seek miracles; when he prayed for this power, God sent him to an elder who saw demons of vainglory and pride on his shoulders and assigned him the humiliating task of buying and eating meat, bread, and wine for ten days. Cassian compares pride to a pestilence that destroys the entire soul, not just one part.
He urges guarding the heart by always repeating 'Not I, but the grace of God which was with me' and 'Without me you can do nothing.'
Key moments
- Hypothesis 29 states that pride alone is sufficient to destroy a Christian and that those who become puffed up over their accomplishments are abandoned by divine grace and suffer a deadly fall.
- Valens, a monk from Palestine who attained the highest measure of askesis, fell into pride and believed angels were conversing with him, even accepting a lamp lit by the devil to find a lost needle.
- When the devil appeared to Valens disguised as Christ with torch-bearing demons, Valens worshipped him and declared he had no need of Holy Communion because he had seen Christ.
- The fathers Chronius, James, and Paphnutius taught that events occur either by God's good pleasure or by his permission, and that pride causes God to withdraw the angel of providence, leaving the monk in the adversary's clutches.
- Syncletica identifies pride as the devil's ultimate weapon, the sword he uses last after exhausting gluttony, fornication, and avarice, and she prescribes meditating on 'I am a worm and no man' and comparing oneself to greater ascetics.
- Abba Isidore teaches that it is more profitable to eat meat than to fast and become conceited, and the elders say to pull down a younger monk climbing to heaven by his own will.
- A Thebaid monk practicing extreme asceticism was tempted to seek miracles; when he prayed for this power, God sent him to an elder who saw demons of vainglory and pride on his shoulders and assigned him the humiliating task of buying and eating meat, bread, and wine for ten days.
- Cassian compares pride to a pestilence that destroys the entire soul, not just one part, and urges guarding the heart by always repeating 'Not I, but the grace of God which was with me' and 'Without me you can do nothing.'