WATANI International
6 November 2011
So many are the sins ensuing from the love of praise and honoring, some of which we mention here:
1. Hypocrisy: Love of praise makes of a person a hypocrite, for a person usually does not give a true image of himself, but conceals the dark sides and reveals only the good that may bring him praise. This in turn would lead to serious faults.
2. Anger and lack of endurance: A person who loves praise and conceals his defects, will of course not accept any blame or criticism. He will even get angry, nervous, raging, and more. He cannot bear that anybody says a bad word about him or mentions a certain defect in him. He rages and is troubled within, and this appears in his dealings with the others. The cure for most cases of anger is that a person rids himself of the love of praise and honoring.
3. Hatred: A person who loves praise hates those who do not praise him, and hates more those who criticize him or praise the others before him, desiring to have all praise for himself!
4. Envy: Love of praise and honoring is among the main causes of envy, for an envious person wants to take the position of the others. He does not bear to see others better than him, and envies those who gain estimation and admiration!
5. Criticism, judgment, slander, and insulting: Such a person likes to see everybody lower than him, so he ascribes faults to the others so that he alone might be blameless. Therefore he falls in judging, defaming and insulting the others, or impairment of their rights.
6. Losing the love of the others is an inevitable result, whether the love of those whom he criticizes or their friends and relatives, or those who hate his way of defaming the others.
7. Love of the first places: Because such a person loves to be great, he fights with the others over the first places, and enters into controversies and causes problems with those who occupy those places, as if they were violating one of his rights, or at least they do not recognize his position and excellence! He wants always to be foremost, more distinguished and respected and awed. Anybody competing him in this will be exposed to his slander and defaming.
8. Love of praise leads to lies and pretence: He would not refrain from lying and pretense if this would gain for him a distinguished place. He may allege that he has certain talents and attributes, which he does not actually have, and may create stories and events to prove this.
9. He may even plot against the others: He may plot against those who occupy distinguished place so as to be alone without a competitor or a partner in greatness or admiration from the others.
10. Love of praise may even lead to more: It may even lead to the desire to replace the others, wishing for instance that a boss dies or fails and be removed away from his position. For this purpose a person may think of ways to fulfill this, such as making complaints against that boss so that an investigation may be made and the boss be condemned and removed away, and his place become vacant! If one##s conscience cannot let him say a bad word about his boss, he may wait for others to do, that he may rejoice. On his part, he will not defend the boss although he is sure of his innocence, yet he would not say a word in his favor! See in how many sins such a person falls due to his vicious heart!
11. Love of praise and honoring makes a person, not only unable to bear disciplining or rebuking, but also a mere word of advice! He cannot bear that someone advises him, for he sees that the others cannot be better, or understand better, than him! It is he who alone knows, understands, advises, guides, and instructs! He may even not bear to see someone giving an advice to another in his presence, for it is he who should give advice. He gets annoyed and boiling within, and this appears on his countenance, and when asked about the reason he cannot mention a reason.
12. He becomes a nuisance to himself and to the others. If anybody asks a question or pays respect to another in his presence, he will feel that he was more deserving of being asked or respected, or of receiving more respect. He will then be vexed within, and cannot bear it. The others also in such a case will not bear him.
13. Love of praise and honoring makes a person hesitating and unstable. He does not adopt a certain principle, nor follows a clear course, but he walks the way that may bring him praise. He colors himself according to the colors and trends of the others. Before the dignified he will be dignified, and before the humorous he becomes humorous. Everything under heaven there is time, it is true, but time to him is a room for praise. Before those who love to talk much, he will talk much to gain their admiration for the ability of talking. For those who love silence, he will keep silent to be praised for it. If defending the truth brings him praise he will defend it, not for love of truth, but to be praised! On the contrary, if defending truth will make the others angry, he will not defend it lest he lose their praise!
He is satisfied with praise, in any way, and by any means, even through getting colored according to the others. In each case he puts on a certain image, a certain form, and a certain action that suits the cae, to gain the desired praise. Before those who like humbleness he would sit with dignity and act in humbleness, and before the proud he would appear in his usual form of greatness which he loves.
14. He is a colorful person, who, for the sake of receiving praise, does not continue in one state. He actually lives in misery and suffering, for he loses his inner peace. He longs for dignity, and if he does not obtain it, he will feel uncomfortable and miserable, but if he gets it, he will rejoice and be pleased, yet for a while, for he keeps miserable, either because of fear of losing such honors, or for aspiring to better honors which have not yet come. Misery and suffering continues with him endlessly.
15. Who loves praise will fall in pride and arrogance, which in turn lead to other evils.
16. Who loves praise will lose his spiritual life completely. Whatever virtues he struggles to attain will be marred, for the love of praise undermines it, or becomes the goal rather than the love of good.
Such a person in spite of all his labor and his work will stand before God empty-handed. He receives his reward here on the earth and will have nothing to receive in heaven (Mt 6: 2, 5, 16). What he did was not for God##s sake, but for his own dignity, and he has got it, what else does he want?
In this way, a person loses the eternal kingdom, and the communion with God and His saints, and in his dispute with the others he also loses their love, for people do not like an arrogant and proud person. They feel disgusted of his striving for praise, and will despise him whenever he attempts to praise himself in their presence.
Mar Isaac truly said, ##who strives for honoring, honors will flee from him, and who flees from honoring consciously, will have it pursuing him,##
How then can man rid himself of the love of praise and honoring? Let this is the topic of next week, God willing.