How to treat pride?

I think churches are the only place where we take Jesus’ words from today’s gospel to look for the last place, seriously. There are few who spontaneously choose the first place in the church. Most of us would rather stay behind and woe if someone wanted to promote us! Enough jokes, however. It is clear to us, dear friends, that the main theme of God’s word today is pride. The Gospel says, “On the Sabbath Jesus entered the house of some of the chief Pharisees to eat, and they watched him. When he noticed how the invited had chosen the leading places, “he told them the parable of the feast, which showed that” everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. ” In the first reading of the book The Ecclesiastics, which supports the words of the Gospel, we will hear, “The greater you are, the more humble you will be and you will find grace with God. … There is no cure for the plagues of the proud, because the bushes of sin take root in them and do not realize it. ”

So let’s talk about pride. Pride is a serious problem, so serious that Scripture and tradition insist that pride is “the root of all sins” (Ekl / Sir 9:15). The Catholic tradition knows the list of the seven major sins, and one of the most popular ways of portraying these sins – especially to highlight their interrelationships and connections between them – is the metaphor of the tree. Branches are individual sins, but the tribe from which all these branches grow is pride.

So pride has – and always has had – a prominent place among sins. Why? Some say that a proud person is actually a practical atheist. A practical atheist is worse than a theoretical atheist. The theoretical atheist denies the existence of God. However, the practical atheist acknowledges God, but lives without him in practical life. His life proves that he does not need God, even that God hinders him. Of course, when he doesn’t need God, he doesn’t need people. Proud people have great difficulty building a trusting and cordial relationship with God and people. It is difficult for them to penetrate the idea that they might be dependent on God, that they might need him. Somewhere in the depths of his being, a proud man is convinced that not only does he not need God himself, but even that God is the one who needs him. Paradoxically, a proud person does not close himself off from God or people. No, he goes to both God and people, he even goes to them with a completely forgetful love. A proud person can do – honestly – even acts like Mother Teresa in Calcutta. But what is a problem for him is his messianic complex: that is, the belief that God needs him and that people also need him. A proud person will never be able to live a sincere prayer: God, have mercy on me. He thinks he is more the one who should have mercy on God.

What is the cause of pride? It is a feeling of greatness. This feeling not only overshadows the prominent place of God and the value of other people in the life of a proud person, but even leads to the fact that a proud person will not be able to appreciate even the value of himself, his own true nature. We must be careful not to confuse pride with healthy self-esteem and healthy pride in the talents and gifts that man has received from God. The main characteristic of pride is vanity, which involves two things: first, an unestablished desire to show one’s own greatness (perfection) and, second, the insatiable need to be recognized and recognized as everything it does. The problem with pride is that the person in it may not even know it. Pride can deceive itself with a number of faces that can take the form of humility. But others see his true face. As Jesus revealed it to the Pharisees in today’s Gospel.

If a proud person accidentally reads and recognizes and acknowledges his condition, what means could help him overcome it? I will mention four.

1. Start relying on God’s providence. It will mean that you will begin to look at God as the Lord of the world and history, and who has everything firmly in his hands; everything, the world, and the people, and the circumstances, and the events, and the history, and therefore the self. God welcomes your help and participation in the history of salvation, but it is neither crucial nor necessary for him. What God asks of you is faithfulness in His ministry and not efficiency in producing great things for Him and for people.

2. Be willing to listen to others with full respect. This includes the ability to recognize that there are other perspectives on what needs to be done, not just yours. Also, since you have a tendency to deceive yourself, it is essential that you be willing to hear regular feedback from yourself about others. And you need to be careful about one of your biggest temptations: the attitude of constant self-defense.