Saint Paisios and the Great Lesson of Humility: How Judging Another Person Can Become Our Own Downfall

“My Christian brothers and sisters, I am telling you these examples so that we may learn to humble ourselves.”

Saint Paisios once had a classmate. One day, people came to him and told him about this woman, who was bringing him canned food, spaghetti, bread, milk, and other provisions.

“Have you ever asked her where she gets all these things?” they asked him.

“No,” the Saint replied. “I have never asked her.”

They then told him that the woman was living a sinful life and that the things she brought him were given to her by men.

The Saint reacted strongly. He rejected the provisions, threw away the food, and drove the woman away.

But what happened next is the heart of this story.

The Saint began to experience a spiritual struggle of his own. He realized that, in judging his classmate, he had fallen into the very danger against which he should have been guarding himself: pride and self-righteousness.

He had condemned another person without fully understanding her circumstances. Instead of responding with humility and compassion, he had passed judgment.

The lesson is profound: we must be extremely careful when judging others, especially when we believe ourselves to be spiritually superior.

A person may appear to be standing firmly in the faith, yet pride can cause that person to stumble. Spiritual gifts are not personal achievements that give us the right to condemn our fellow human beings. They are gifts of God’s grace.

The Saint’s Ascetic Life in the Desert of Sinai

The account continues by describing the Saint’s ascetic struggles in the desert of Sinai.

He lived in extreme simplicity, using a makeshift shelter that could be carried and set up wherever he went. At night, he used it as a bed; during the day, he would fold it up and carry it with him.

In the solitude of the desert, he devoted himself to prayer, repentance, and the struggle against his passions.

He understood how dangerous the praise of other people could be. Human admiration can quietly feed pride, making a person believe that he is holier or more worthy than others.

The Saint’s struggle was not merely against outward temptations. It was also against the thoughts within his own heart.

The Struggle Against Temptation

The story goes on to describe a severe spiritual struggle involving temptation and the Saint’s desperate efforts to overcome it. An example is recounted of an ascetic who inflicted a painful injury upon himself in an attempt to resist his passions.

This should not be understood as an instruction for Christians to harm themselves. The spiritual lesson concerns repentance, vigilance, and humility—not physical self-punishment.

During his ordeal, the Saint continued examining his conscience, asking himself what he had done wrong and why he was suffering such a struggle.

Eventually, according to the account, he remembered the way he had judged his former classmate.

He came to recognize that his own condemnation of her had revealed something within himself that needed repentance.

Overwhelmed with remorse, he fell to the ground, weeping and asking God for forgiveness.

He realized that he had been too quick to judge another human being while failing to examine his own heart.

The Lesson: Never Become Proud of Your Spiritual Progress

My Christian brothers and sisters, this is why I am sharing these examples with you.

We must never imagine that God’s grace is something we have earned or that it makes us superior to other people.

If we stand firm, we should thank God. If we fall, we must repent and seek His mercy.

Spiritual progress is not a reason for pride. It is a call to greater humility, love, and compassion.

The person we judge may be struggling with burdens we cannot see. We do not know the whole story of another person’s life, nor can we see everything that God sees.

The account teaches us that even a person who sincerely desires holiness can fall into the trap of judging others.

The decisive moment comes when we stop blaming everyone else and begin examining our own conscience.

True repentance begins when we have the courage to say: “Lord, have mercy on me. I was wrong to judge another person. Forgive me and teach me to become humble.”

May God grant us the wisdom to examine ourselves before condemning others, the compassion to treat every human being with mercy, and the humility to recognize that every spiritual blessing comes from Him.

Amen.