High Minds

Non alta sapientes. Alta sapere superbia est; nam et diabolus cum alta sapuit, apostatavit. Ne elatio sit in animo, et praesumens forte de incolumitate actus sui, non condoleat fratri suo, sed exprobret quasi peccatori, haec superbia est, quae cum se praeponit, offendit. Quod et Dominus denotat, dicens: Ejice trabem prius oculo tuo, et tunc videbis ejicere festucem de oculo fratris tui. Ipsa enim elatio peccatum est: ac si non sit peccator, quod immpossibile est; fit peccator, dum superbit. Denique dicit Salomon: Superbis Deus resistit. Sed humilibis consentientes Hoc est, ut deposita superbia, alienam causam suam faciat, et suam quasi alienam; ut habeat gratiam apud Deum, quia qui se exaltaverit, humiliabiter. Nolite esse prudentes apud vosmetipsos Hoc in Esaia propheta scriptum est, quod hic quasi proprium ponit; ut justitia communis habeatur, non ut sibi quis justus sit, caeteris autem injustus. Ambrosiaster, In Epistolam Ad Romanos, Caput XII Source: Migne PL 17.160b-c

Not being high minded.... 1 To be high minded is pride, for when the devil had high thoughts, he fell away. Let there be no elation in soul that a man perhaps thinking his own deeds are without spot, does not comfort his brother but denounces him as a sinner, for this is pride, which when it puts oneself first, gives offence. Which the Lord points out, saying, 'First take out the plank from your own eye, that then you might see to remove the spot of dust from your brother's eye.' 2 For this elation is a sin, and if a man be not a sinner, which is impossible, he becomes a sinner when he is proud. Finally Solomon says, 'God resists the proud.' 3 But gathering with the humble... That is, with pride cast down, a man make others his care, and his own something foreign, that he have grace before God, because 'he who exalts himself, I shall humiliate.' 4 Being unwilling to be righteous for yourselves... This is written in the Prophet Isaiah, 5 that here he puts down as his own, that man have common justice, and that he not be just to himself and unjust to others. Ambrosiaster, Commentary On The Epistle of Saint Paul To The Romans, Chapter 12 1 Rom 12.16 2 Lk 6.42 3 Prov 3.34 4 Lk 14.11 5 Isai 5.21