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and in grace.

524. There is no doctrine more appropriate to man than this, which teaches
him his double capacity of receiving and of losing grace, because of the
double peril to which he is exposed, of despair or of pride.

525. The philosophers did not prescribe feelings suitable to the two states.

They inspired feelings of pure greatness, and that is not man's state.

They inspired feelings of pure littleness, and that is not man's state.

There must be feelings of humility, not from nature, but from penitence, not
to rest in them, but to go on to greatness. There must be feelings of
greatness, not from merit, but from grace, and after having passed through
humiliation.

526. Misery induces despair, pride induces presumption. The Incarnation
shows man the greatness of his misery by the greatness of the remedy which
he required.

527. The knowledge of God without that of man's misery causes pride. The
knowledge of man's misery without that of God causes despair. The knowledge
of Jesus Christ constitutes the middle course, because in Him we find both
God and our misery.

528. Jesus Christ is a God whom we approach without pride and before whom we
humble ourselves without despair.

529.... Not a degradation which renders us incapable of good, nor a holiness
exempt from evil.

530. A person told me one day that on coming from confession he felt great
joy and confidence. Another told me that he remained in fear. Whereupon I
thought that these two together would make one good man, and that each was
wanting in that he had not the feeling of the other. The same often happens
in other things.

531. He who knows the will of his master will be beaten with more blows,
because of the power he has by his knowledge. Qui justus est, justificetur
adhuc,88 because of the power he has by justice. From him who has received
most, will the greatest reckoning be demanded, because of the power he has
by this help.

532. Scripture has provided passages