In the Gospel of James, we are warned against arrogance.
“Do not speak evil against one another, brethren,” writes St. James in Chapter 4.
“He that speaks evil against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you that you judge your neighbour?
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain’; whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”
St. Cyril of Alexandria commented: “Every wicked act dulls the sense of our thoughts and gives birth to arrogance. For although it is necessary for each one to examine himself and behave according to God’s will, many people do not do this but prefer to mind the business of others. If they happen to see others suffering, it seems that they forget their own weaknesses and set about criticizing them and slandering them. They condemn them, not knowing that they suffer from the same things as the people they have criticized, and in so doing they condemn themselves. The wise Paul writes exactly the same thing: ‘If you judge another in something, you condemn yourself, for the one who judges does the same things.’”
St. James warns against judging others not because we are all equally good, but because we are all creatures under the judgment of God. The saint also warns against boasting one’s plans without consideration for the will of God. St. James does not condemn planning or having foresight, he condemns the attitude of arrogance.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury. He becomes guilty:
- of rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbour;
- of detraction who, without objectively valid reason, discloses another’s faults and failings to persons who did not know them;
- of calumny who, by remarks contrary to the truth, harms the reputation of others and gives occasion for false judgments concerning them.”
St. James warns against sins of omission by saying, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (Jas 4:17) As Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for evil to prosper is for good people to do nothing.”
Dom Benedict Baur, OSB, wrote, “The person who is practising frequent Confession must be especially watchful about neglected duties (even if, often, they are only little things), about neglected inspirations and graces, about opportunities to do good left unused, about time wasted, about failure to show charity to the neighbour. He must excite himself to a deep and sincere contrition for these omissions and to a firm resolve to strive earnestly against even the smallest sins of omission that are in any way deliberate. If we come to Confession with this determination, we shall receive, together with the absolution pronounced by the priest, the grace to know our sins of omission better and to struggle against them more zealously.”
In James 5:1-6, we are warned of the danger of riches. The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture states: “James’s condemnation of the rich is difficult to hear and even scary for those of us who live in the West and are rich in comparison to the rest of the world. We need to examine whether our lifestyle contributes to the impoverishment or oppression of others (for example, buying goods that were produced unjustly) and consider what we can do to help those who are poorer than we. A modest lifestyle, almsgiving, and charitable works are fundamental to Christian living, and injustice to the poor must be radically excluded. It is equally necessary to do whatever is in our power to bring about a just social order.”
Jesus warns us about riches many times in the Gospel. Riches can create a false sense of security in our hearts. We must find our security in God alone and put our trust in him and not in wealth.
St. Ignatius of Loyola said, “Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to him and if they were to allow his grace to mold them accordingly.”
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我們必須信靠天主，而不是財富
在他的書信中，聖雅各伯在4：11-17中警告不要傲慢。亞歷山大的聖濟利祿評論說：『每一個邪惡的行為都會使我們的思想變得遲鈍，併產生傲慢。因為儘管每個人都有必要檢查自己並按照天主的旨意行事，但許多人不會這樣做，而是寧願管別人的事。如果他們碰巧看到別人困擾，他們似乎忘記了自己的弱點，開始批評和誹謗他人。他們譴責他人，不知道他們也遭受相同的困擾，他們這樣做也是譴責自己。聰明的保祿寫下了相同的事情：「如果你在某件事上評判另一個人，你就是在譴責自己，因為評判的人也做了同樣的事情。」』
聖雅各伯警告不要審判別人，不是因為我們都是相對的好，而是因為我們都是天主審判下的受造物。聖人還警告說，不要誇耀自己的計劃而不考慮天主的旨意。聖雅各伯不譴責有計劃或有遠見，他譴責傲慢的態度。
我們不要彼此詆毀。（雅4：11）《天主教教理》指出：『尊重別人的聲望，禁止對他們可能造成不當的傷害的態度與言語。 下列情況使人成為有罪的:
──武斷，就是沒有充分根據而當以為真，甚或默認，近人在倫理 上的缺失;
──誹謗，就是無客觀健全的理由，揭發別人的缺點與過錯給不知 道此事的人;
──誣衊，是以違反真理的言詞，傷害別人的聲望，使人對他作出 錯誤的判斷。』
聖雅各伯警告不作為的罪，他說：『所以人若知道該行善，卻不去行，這就是他的罪了。』（雅4：17）埃德蒙、伯克，他說：『邪惡興旺的唯一必要條件是好人什麼都不做』。一位靈修作家寫道：『經常領受告解的人必須特別警惕被忽視的職責（即使它們通常只是小事），注意被忽視的啟示和恩寵，注意未被利用的做好事的機會，浪費的時間，注意未能賑濟鄰人。他必須振作起來，對這些疏忽作深切而真誠的懺悔，並堅定地決心認真努力，糾正哪怕是蓄意的最小的疏忽罪行。如果我們帶著這種決心來辦告解，我們將得到恩寵，連同司鐸宣佈的赦免，更好地瞭解我們的疏忽之罪，並更熱心地與之鬥爭。』
在雅各書5：1-6中，聖人警告我們財富的危險。一本聖經註譯指出：『雅各伯對富人的譴責很難聽到，甚至對我們這些生活在西方並且與世界其他地方相比富有的人來說是可怕的。我們需要檢查我們的生活方式是否導致他人的貧困或壓迫（例如，購買不公正生產的商品），並考慮我們可以做些什麼來幫助那些比我們更窮的人。適度的生活方式、施捨和慈善工作是基督徒生活的基礎，必須從根本上排除對窮人的不公正。同樣有必要盡我們所能實現公正的社會秩序。』
耶穌在福音中多次警告我們關於財富。財富會在我們心中製造一種虛假的安全感。我們必須在天主裡找到安全感，並相信祂而不是財富。聖依納爵說：『很少人靈明白，如果他們毫無保留地將自己交給天主，如果他們讓祂的恩寵相應地塑造他們，天主在他們身上可以成就會是什麼。』
