Chastity And Humility

Unde huius muneris magnitudo, ad quod capessendum pro nostris viribus hortati sumus, quanto est excellentius atque divinius, tanto magis admonet sollecitudinem nostram, non solum de gloriosissima castitate, verum etiam de tutissima humilitate aliquid loqui. Cum ergo perpetuae continentiae professores se coniugatis comparantes secundum Scripturas compererint eos infra esse et opere et mercede et voto et praemio, statim veniat in mentem quod scriptum est: Quanto magnus es, tanto humila te in omnibus, et coram Deo invenies gratiam. Mensura humilitatis cuique ex mensura ipsius magnitudinis data est: cui est periculosa superbia, quae amplius amplioribus insidiatur. Hanc sequitur invidentia, tamquam filia pedissequa; eam quippe superbia continuo parit, nec umquam est sine tali prole atque comite. Quibus duobus malis, hoc est superbia et invidentia, diabolus est, itaque contra superbiam, matrem invidentiae, maxime militat universa disciplina christiana. Haec enim docet humilitatem, qua et adquirat et custodiat caritatem. De qua cum dictum esset: Caritas non aemulatur, velut si causam quaereremus, unde fiat, ut non aemuletur, continuo subdidit: Non inflatur, tamquam diceret: Ideo non habet invidentiam, quia nec superbiam. Doctor itaque humilitatis Christus primo semetipsum exinanivit formam servi accipiens, in similitudine hominum factus et habitu inventus ut homo; humilavit semetipsum, factus oboediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis. Sanctus Augustinus Hippoensis, De Sancta Virginitate Source: Migne PL 40.412-413

Whence because of the greatness of this service, to which undertaking we have exhorted according to our strength, as the more excellent and more divine it is, so the more does it admonish us to say something not only concerning most glorious chastity, but also concerning most secure humility. When, then, those who make profession of perpetual chastity, comparing themselves with married persons, shall discover that, according to the Scriptures, the others are below both in work and wages, both in vow and reward, let it immediately come to mind what is written: 'By how much you are great, by so much be humble in all things, and you shall find favor before God.' 1 The measure of humility for each has been given from the measure of greatness itself, to which pride is full of peril, which lays in greater ambush against the greater. From it follows envy, as a daughter in her train, since pride straightway gives birth to her, nor is she ever without such a child and companion. By which two evils, that is, pride and envy, is the devil, and therefore it is against pride, the mother of envy, that the whole Christian discipline chiefly wars. For this teaches humility, by which love is acquired and kept. Concerning which has been said: 'Charity envies not;' and as though we were asking the reason how it might be that it envies not, he straightway added, 'It is not puffed up;' 2 as though he had said that it has no envy because it has no pride. Therefore the teacher of humility, Christ, first 'emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, made obedient even to death, even the death of the Cross.' 3 Saint Augustine of Hippo, On Virginity 1 Sirach 3.18 2 1 Cor 13.4 3 Phil 2.7-8