Love of Praise

Love of Praise

For a while now, I have been wanting to write on the topic of desiring praise and recognition. Well, in my reading tonight I came across just that. St. Augustine (354-430) perfectly tackled this issue in Book V, Chapter 14 of City of God (London: Penguin Books, 2003) and I really cannot add or contribute to his writing so I will simply let his words speak for itself.  


"14. Love of human praise is to be checked, because all the glory of the righteous is in God

There can be no doubt that it is better to resist this passion than to yield to it. A man is more like God, the purer he is from the contamination. In this life it cannot wholly be rooted out from the heart, because even those souls which are making good progress are not exempt from the temptation. But at least the greed for glory should be overcome by the love of justice; and so, if things which are themselves good and right 'lose lustre' because of general disfavour, then the love of human praise itself should be ashamed, and yield place to the love of truth. For this vice is an enemy to devout faith, if the greed for glory is stronger in the heart than the fear or the love of God; so much so, that the Lord said, 'How can you believe, when you look for glory from one another, and do not seek the glory which comes from God alone?"48 Again, the Evangelist speaks of those who believed in Christ but were afraid to confess it openly, when he says, 'They loved the glory of men rather than the glory of God.'49
This was not how the apostles behaved. They preached the name of Christ in places where that name was not in 'general favour', and we recall Cicero's statement: 'All pursuits lose lustre when they fall from general favor.' They preached in places where, in fact, Christ's name was held in utter detestation. They kept in mind what they had been told by their good master, the physician of souls, 'If anyone denies me before men, I will deny him in the presence of my Father in Heaven', or 'in the presence of the angels of God.'50 Amidst curses and slanders, amidst the severest persecutions and the harshest punishments, all the clamorous hostility of men did not stop them from preaching men's salvation. The divine quality of their actions, their words and their lives, their triumphs, as one may say, over hard hearts, and their introduction of the peace of righteousness; all these brought them immense glory in the Church of Christ. And yet they did not rest on that glory, as if they had attained the goal of their own virtue. They ascribed it all to the glory of God, whose grace had made them what they were.51 And this was a torch which kindled the fire of the love of God in the hearts of those they guided, the torch was to make them such as the apostles were. Their master had taught the apostles not to be good in order to gain glory from men. He told them, 'Take care not to perform your righteous acts in the presence of men, so as to be seen by them: or you will have no reward with my Father, who is in heaven.'52 On the other hand, so that men should not put a perverse interpretation on this injunction and reduce the influence of their goodness by concealing it, in fear of winning men's approval, the Lord explained to what purpose they ought to seek publicity. He said, 'Let your work shine in men's sight, so that they may see your acts of goodness, and glorify your Father, who is in Heaven'; 53 so the purpose is not 'to be seen of them', that is, with the intention that they should be converted to you, because by yourselves you are nothing, but 'so that they may glorify your Father, who is in Heaven', and so that they may be converted to him, and become what you are.
The martyrs followed in the steps of the apostles. They did not inflict suffering on themselves, but they endured what was inflicted on them; and in so doing they surprassed the Scaevolas, the Curtii, and the Decii54 by their true virtue, springing from true devotion, and by their countless multitude. Those Roman heroes belonged to an earthly city, and the aim set before them, in all their acts of duty for her, was the safety of their country, and a kingdom not in heaven, but on earth; not in life eternal, but in the process where the dying pass away and are succeeded by those who will die in their turn. What else was there for them to love save glory? For, through glory, they desired to have a kind of life after death on the lips of those who praised them."

He continues in chapter 15 by saying

"When such men do anything good, their sole motive is the hope of receiving glory from their fellow-men; and the Lord refers to them when he says, 'I tell you in truth, they have received their reward in full.'... They have no reason to complain of the justice of God, the supreme and true. 'They have received their reward in full.'56"


We must take heed to what Augustine wrote 1600 years ago, for his words are just as true today in 2014 as they were in 415 when he wrote them.



48. John 5:44   49. John 12:43   50. Matthew 10:33; Luke 12:9   51. cf. 1 Corinthians 15:10
52. Matthew 6:1   53. Matthew 5:16   54. cf. Bk IV, 20nn.   56. Matthew 6:2