The Greatest Enemy is the self-denial
The Greatest Enemy is the self-denial
The greatest enemy of a human being is his own “self.”
And the heaviest burden a person carries on his shoulders throughout his life is his own self.
This self that wants to be everything… wants to appear, to grow, to triumph, and for everyone else to disappear before it, and for all values, ideals, and commandments to vanish before its desires.
His arrogant self, which sees in itself more than its true reality.
If a person conquers his self, he becomes an قوة لا تُقهر، and a fortress that none can reach… If he is able to delay his self, so that it does not precede his eternity, nor precede others… If he is able to subdue its desires and lay down its pride, then he can walk in the path of the Lord without stumbling…
Therefore, the virtue of self-denial was the first virtue, or the starting point in the spiritual life, so that no barrier may exist between man and God. Thus, the Lord said: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…” (Luke 9:23).
Place yourself last among all. Train it to rejoice in the lowest place, and to prefer others over itself in everything—through giving, sacrifice, and love.
Train it to put God first, with His books and commandments, and to place the public interest before personal interests, and then to place people’s comfort before its own comfort… Thus it makes itself last of all… this is self-denial.
In every matter, do not place yourself first. Learn to give. Give first all that you have, then give yourself. And if you lose all things and count them as rubbish for the sake of the love of God and people, then you will have gained everything…
Do not say: if I follow these principles of self-denial, I will lose myself! For the Lord Jesus Christ said:
“He who finds his life (himself) will lose it, and he who loses his life (himself) for My sake will find it…”
Self-love precedes every sin. It precedes pride, lust, adultery, anger, revenge, laziness, gluttony, and the love of money… etc. But one may say: how can I not love myself?! This is natural. Who can hate himself?!…
Yes, you can love yourself. But it is not right to love it with a wrong love…
The one who lives in the path of pleasure does not truly love himself, but rather destroys it… and loses his eternity, as the Lord Jesus Christ said: he who finds himself will lose it…
[1] An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III in El-Keraza Magazine, Year Six, Issue Five, January 31, 1975
