One thing is inferiority complex and another is humility; one is repentance and another is melancholy.

The Christian must guard against sick conceit, that is, both the feeling of superiority for his virtues and the feeling of inferiority for his sinfulness.

The inferiority complex is one thing, and humility is quite another; repentance is one thing, and melancholy is quite another. A psychiatrist once came to me and began to condemn Christianity because, he said, it creates complexes of guilt and melancholy. I replied: “I agree that some Christians, because of their own mistakes or those of others, are trapped in the guilt complex, but you must also agree that those in the world often fall into an even more serious disease – pride. The religious consciousness of guilt, along with Christ, disappears, finally, through repentance and confession, while the pride of those who live far from Christ does not disappear at all.”

Through these explanations, many of my doubts regarding the psychological problems of Christian life were dispelled. I understood that the Elder wanted us to guard against that pride disguised either in the self-justification of Christian Pharisaism or in the self-blame specific to a guilty Christian conscience. I saw that both the impudence of those who believe themselves to be pure and the audacity of those who feel guilty are, in fact, two sides of the same coin – pride, because the true believer is freed from guilt through Confession and the forgiveness of sins and enjoys this deliverance that Christ has given him; knowing that it is a gift from God, he will be grateful, not proud at all, he is cleansed by the Blood of Christ, not by any achievement of his own. Thus, he rejoices, thanks God, and does not boast, but, moreover, sees all others as good or capable of becoming better through the Blood of Christ.

The Father guided us to the path that, bypassing both evil (sin) and “worse” (pride for virtue), led to humility. Therefore, he strove to defend authentic humility from the danger of altering its meaning. He would tell me, for example:

– Let us be humble, but let us not talk about humility, for this is the devil’s trap, bringing despair and indifference, while true humility brings hope and the work of Christ’s commandments.

Father Porphyry