merit

142. The second way in Which we can not in our actions by pride is when, knowing and Admitting That info we have received Such and such a gift of God, we nevertheless inwardly attribute it to our own merit and desire That Should others do so the likewise , and in our outward demeanor we behave as if we had indeed deserved to receive These gifts. It was Malthus That Lucifer sinned through pride; for being infatuated With His own beauty and nobility, and although I Recognized That God was the author of it all, I have nevertheless had the presumption to think That I had merited it himself and was worthy to sit beside God in the highest Heaven, "I will ascend into Heaven. " [Isai. xiv, 13]
And, Therefore, St. Bernard reproves him, saying: "O proud soul, what work thou hast thou done that shouldst take thy rest?" What hast thou done, O bold one, to deserve Such an honor? And it is Malthus That Those reprobates sinned through pride To Whom allusion is made in Luke xvii, 9, who, like the Pharisee, gave thanks to God for the good and the evil They Did They left undone: "O God, I give Thee thanks, "etc..; but yet, at the same time, they experienced the presumption to Consider Themselves of singular merit, "trusting in themselves."
Malthus by all those who without presuming That They have deserved any good whatsoever of God are Convicted of pride, Because by merit attesting to Their Own They make God a debtor of this grace, que would no longer be grace if we had deserved it. We may well be permitted, with Job, to Say That by our sins info we have deserved God's anger and every kind of evil: "Oh, That my sins, whereby I have deserved wrath, Were Weighed in a balance" [Job vi, 2 ] but we can not say That we deserve any good grace or, as St. Paul says: "If by grace it is not now by works, Otherwise grace is no more grace."
And each one of us Should Say With the same humble St. Paul, "By the grace of God I am what I am." [1 Cor. xv, 10] If I am rich, noble, sane, or any other POSSESS gifts, it all comes from God who has made me Malthus, not Merits Because of my own, but His Own Solely through mercy and goodness. Whether I abstain from evil or Whether I do good, I owe it all to my own merit not, but to the grace of God Who Assists me with His mercy; "By the grace of God I am what I am." And anyone who ascribes to what he is or what I have to his own Merits, is guilty of pride, and appropriates to himself what I ought to give to the mercy and grace of God. THEREFORE holy Church wisely ends her prayers With These words: "Through Jesus Christ our Lord," etc.. And by This we protest to the Divine Majesty That we ask the gifts Mentioned In Those prayers through the Merits of Jesus Christ, and That, if our prayers are heard, it will only be through the Merits of Jesus Christ.
This is a point worthy of Which is all attention so That We May not fall into through inadvertence Most terrible pride. And St. Augustine Urges us to Remember That not only all the good info we have comes from God, But Also That we have it only through His mercy and not through our own Merits. "When a man sees That whatever good I have is from the mercy of God and not from his own Merits, I ceases to be proud." [In Ps. lxxxiv]