Lent 1- Pride
The goal of the Christian is to live a life that becomes more and more Christ-like. St. Paul teaches,
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5).
… Sin is what stands in the way of this. It is sin that leaves us estranged from God. It is the disease of the soul that prevents us from being fully healed. Sin puts us out of sync with God and the world He made.
God grants the virtues as antidotes to counteract sin- humility cures pride; kindness cures envy; charity cures greed; diligence cures sloth, temperance cures gluttony; chastity cures lust; and forgiveness cures anger. …
The archetypal pattern of sin is the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The serpent suggested to Eve that God is a liar and that eating the fruit of the tree would result in something good that God wanted to keep from them. When Eve grabbed hold of the fruit we read that she saw
“the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate” (Gen 3:6).
When we sin, we don’t do something wrong because we believe it is bad. We do what is wrong because we actually believe it is good. We come to believe (even if it is subconsciously) that God has lied to us and is trying to keep us from something good.
There are theologians who believe that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge was something they would have been ready to receive from eventually, but they weren’t ready for it. They usurped God’s timing. … Similarly, we can look at the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness and they aren’t necessarily temptations towards evil. It isn’t evil for Jesus to feed himself when he is hungry. It isn’t evil for him to show himself to be the messiah, which is what would have been proved by throwing himself from the pinnacle of the Temple. And it isn’t wrong for Jesus to take his place as the ruler of the world. … But, the way of attaining these things is where the temptation is.
The root of the sin in the Garden of Eden is pride. Adam and Eve, in their pride, decided that they knew better than God. … St. Gregory the Great, along with St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas, along with many others, believed that pride was the source of all other sins. Evagrius of Ponticus, who lived in the 4th century, said
There are theologians who believe that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge was something they would have been ready to receive from eventually, but they weren’t ready for it. They usurped God’s timing. … Similarly, we can look at the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness and they aren’t necessarily temptations towards evil. It isn’t evil for Jesus to feed himself when he is hungry. It isn’t evil for him to show himself to be the messiah, which is what would have been proved by throwing himself from the pinnacle of the Temple. And it isn’t wrong for Jesus to take his place as the ruler of the world. … But, the way of attaining these things is where the temptation is.
The root of the sin in the Garden of Eden is pride. Adam and Eve, in their pride, decided that they knew better than God. … St. Gregory the Great, along with St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas, along with many others, believed that pride was the source of all other sins. Evagrius of Ponticus, who lived in the 4th century, said
“in the whole range of evil thoughts, none is richer in resources than self-esteem [an inflated self of self-importance]; For it is to be found almost everywhere, and like some cunning traitor in a city it opens the gates to all the demons.”[1]
… For that reason, it makes sense that we deal with pride as the first sin in our series on the 7 Deadly Sins.
… Our society seems to have embraced pride as a good thing. The Methodist bishop Will Willimon says,
… Our society seems to have embraced pride as a good thing. The Methodist bishop Will Willimon says,
“pride has moved from being the chief of the Seven, the root of much evil, to being the root of all virtue, a positive good to be lovingly practiced and cultivated. … Our political life seems dominated now by the politics of self-assertion, and our therapies are mostly the relentless psychology of vaunted self-esteem. The great sin for us is not Pride, but low self-image” [2]
… Our society has come to value high self-esteem, and has called humility un-healthy. Pride has become admirable. Entitlement is common, and a person’s right to pursue self-fulfilled happiness leaves responsibility and relationships in the dust. The human potential movement that began in the 70’s has placed the fulfillment of the self at the center of a successful life. Pride has become a virtue in our society.
We sometimes psychologize Pride as a cover-up for feelings of inadequacy or inferiority. The person over-compensates and tries to convince themselves and everyone around them of their importance. … Usually, however, what people feel inferior about has nothing to do with a sense of moral or spiritual lack. The Jewish psychologist Solomon Schimmel says,
We sometimes psychologize Pride as a cover-up for feelings of inadequacy or inferiority. The person over-compensates and tries to convince themselves and everyone around them of their importance. … Usually, however, what people feel inferior about has nothing to do with a sense of moral or spiritual lack. The Jewish psychologist Solomon Schimmel says,
“Although many people suffer from feelings of inferiority, it is not usually because of their sense of moral or spiritual inadequacy. They don’t typically ruminate about how unkind, dishonest, or insensitive they might be, but about how incompetent, ugly, or professionally unsuccessful they are. They do not aspire to greater virtue but to greater recognition. This sense of inferiority and self-deprecation is not what the moralists want to cultivate as the basis for humility. On the contrary, the person who feels inferior about his social status, wealth, or looks is accepting values which from the religious point of view are inappropriate as a criteria for evaluating true self-worth. What the moralists want us to feel inferior about are our ethical, moral, and spiritual faults.”[3]So obviously we have some cultural obstacles to deal with as we try to define Pride. … We aren’t talking about being proud of our kids (though maybe we could use a different word). We are talking about an exaggerated sense of self-worth that causes us to turn away from God. … The theologian Peter Kreeft says that
“[pride] is the first and greatest sin because it is in violation of the first and greatest commandment, ‘you shall have no other gods before me.’ Pride puts self before God. Pride loves your self with all your heart and soul and mind and strength rather than God”[4].
… Pride is an exaggerated love of our own ability or being. It is the pleasure we get when we feel we have no superiors. It is when we exaggerate our own importance, and think that all would be well in the world if my will was done.
Pride is not something we usually see in ourselves. … Pride is especially dangerous because we can even become proud of our good deeds. … There is a crass kind of pride of the immature bully, but there is a more subtle kind of pride that can fool even the spiritually advanced. We heard Jesus speak about this in our Ash Wednesday service, where Jesus exposes those who publicly fast, pray, and give, as a way of showing-off how spiritually advanced they are (Matt 6).
John Cassian helped bring teachings from the Christian East to the West in the early 400’s. He warns the monks that pride can be a danger even to those monks who have advanced greatly in the spiritual life. He says,
Pride is not something we usually see in ourselves. … Pride is especially dangerous because we can even become proud of our good deeds. … There is a crass kind of pride of the immature bully, but there is a more subtle kind of pride that can fool even the spiritually advanced. We heard Jesus speak about this in our Ash Wednesday service, where Jesus exposes those who publicly fast, pray, and give, as a way of showing-off how spiritually advanced they are (Matt 6).
John Cassian helped bring teachings from the Christian East to the West in the early 400’s. He warns the monks that pride can be a danger even to those monks who have advanced greatly in the spiritual life. He says,
“there is no other vice, then, which so reduces to naught every virtue and so despoils and impoverishes a human being of all righteousness and holiness as does the evil of pride”.[5]
He taught that each advancement in the spiritual life needs to be met with a deepening humility to prevent pride. … Cassian also says that while other sins destroy the opposing virtue (for example, lust destroys chastity), pride is “the destroyer of all the virtues together”.
It is hard for us to hide from our lust, or anger. The results of these sins will make themselves known to us… but pride is illusive. It is the sin that convinces us that we are not sinful. It is pride we need to confess when we get to the confession part of the service and no sin comes to mind.
Pride is hard for us to pin down, which means we have to work diligently to deal with this disease of the soul. We read in Proverbs 16:5,
It is hard for us to hide from our lust, or anger. The results of these sins will make themselves known to us… but pride is illusive. It is the sin that convinces us that we are not sinful. It is pride we need to confess when we get to the confession part of the service and no sin comes to mind.
Pride is hard for us to pin down, which means we have to work diligently to deal with this disease of the soul. We read in Proverbs 16:5,
“Proud men, one and all, are abominable to the Lord”.
James 4:6 says,
“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Jesus’ sharpest words in the gospels were directed against the religious people who were full of pride- who looked down on those around them. He spoke about the prideful Pharisee praying next to the sinful tax collector and declared the tax-collector forgiven (Luke 18:9-14). He said to them
"Truly I tell you, the tax-collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you" (Matt 21:31).
He called the religious Pharisees and Sadducees proud hypocrites who like to be seen by others to be holy, but who are inwardly full of sin (e.g. Matt 23).
So how do we deal with our pride?... The antidote to pride is humility, which is the root of all virtue. In fact, St. Augustine said,
So how do we deal with our pride?... The antidote to pride is humility, which is the root of all virtue. In fact, St. Augustine said,
"Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues. Therefore, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance."
… C.S. Lewis has said that humility is not a tall man believing he is short. Humility is the recognition of truth. It recognizes our gifts and talents as coming from God and as working for God’s purposes. This also means seeing our faults clearly and with seriousness.
Ultimately though, humility will lead us to not focus on ourselves. Peter Kreeft says that
Ultimately though, humility will lead us to not focus on ourselves. Peter Kreeft says that
“Pride has ingrown eyeballs. [but] Humility stares outward in self-forgetful ecstasy”[6].
Genuine humility should lead to a kind of healthy self-forgetfulness, where we act as God’s agents in the world.
Genuine humility will imitate Jesus as he washes the feet of his disciples (John 13). Genuine humility will lead us to seek the mind of Christ, as the ancient hymn from Phil 2:5-8 states,
Genuine humility will imitate Jesus as he washes the feet of his disciples (John 13). Genuine humility will lead us to seek the mind of Christ, as the ancient hymn from Phil 2:5-8 states,
“who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross”.To grow in humility we engage in constant self-examination. This is why we confess when we pray Morning and Evening Prayer, as well as on Sundays. We look for any place we have (even subtly) turned away from God, or lacked sufficient love for our neighbour, and then we confess it to God.
Cassian also suggests acknowledging that all the good we accomplish is all rooted in God’s grace. The strength of our arms, the power of our minds, and the opportunities around us are all gifts from God. Cassian says,
“For we say, following the words of the Savior, that [The Kingdom] is indeed given to those who ask, opened to those who knock, and found by those who seek, but not that our asking, searching, and knocking are sufficient unless God’s mercy gives what we ask, opens when we knock, and causes to be found what we are seeking.”[7]Cassian says,
“since we are aware of this, we should … guard our hearts with extreme care from the deadly spirit of pride. When we have attained some degree of holiness we should always repeat to ourselves the words of the apostle: ‘yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me’ (1 Cor 15:10), as well as what was said by the Lord: ‘Without me you can do nothing’ (Jn 15:5).”[8]In our journey through Lent, as we examine the seven deadly sins and their corresponding virtues, may we recognize that pride is always hovering over us, threatening our spiritual growth, which means the need for humility is ever-present. As we strive to imitate Christ's humility, may we remember that true humility is not about self-deprecation but about seeing ourselves truthfully in the light of God's grace. By embracing humility, we open our hearts to God's transformative love, leading to Christ-likeness each day. May this Lent be a time of reflection, repentance, and renewal, as we journey together toward the fullness of life that God intends for us. AMEN
[1]
Philokalia- Evagrios the solitary (of Poltikos) (b.345/6)
[2]
Willimon, 20
[3]
Schimmel, 43
[4]
Kreeft 97
[5]
The
Institutes- 12th book
[6]
Kreeft, 103
[7]
Cassian, institutes- book 12
[8]
Cassian in
the philokalia (p93)
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