How to treat pride?

I think churches are the only place we take Jesus’ words seriously in today’s gospel about seeking the last place. Few spontaneously choose the first place in the church. Most of us prefer to stay in the back, and woe betide anyone if anyone wants to promote us! But enough of kidding. It is clear to us, dear friends, that the central theme of God’s Word today is pride. The Gospel tells us how “on the Sabbath, Jesus went into the house of a leading Pharisee to dine, and they watched him. When he saw how the invitees chose prominent places,” he told them the parable of the feast, at which it was shown that “everyone who exalts himself will be humiliated, and whoever humiliates himself will be exalted.” In the first reading of the book of Ecclesiastics, which supports the words of the gospel, we will hear: “The greater you are, the humbler you may be, and you will find grace with God. … There is no cure for the wounds of the proud, for the shrubbery of sin will take root in them, and they will not realize it.”

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

Thus, pride has – and has always had – a prominent place among sins. Why? Some say that a proud person is a practical atheist. A practical atheist is worse than a theoretical atheist. A theoretical atheist denies the existence of God. However, the practical atheist recognizes God but lives without him in a useful life. With his life, he proves that he does not need God or even that God interferes with him. Of course, when he does not need God, he does not require people, either. Proud people have great difficulty in building an intimate and heartfelt relationship with God and with people. It is difficult for them to be permeated by the idea that they might depend on God and require Him. Somewhere in the depths of his being, the proud man is convinced that not only does he not need God, but even that God is the one who needs him. What is paradoxical, a proud person does not close himself either to God or to people. No, he goes to God and people; he even goes to them with an utterly forgetful love. A proud person can do – and frankly – even such acts as Mother Teresa in Calcutta. But what is a problem for him is his messianic complex: the belief that God requires him and that people need him too. A proud person will never be able to experience a sincere prayer: God, have mercy on me. He thinks that, instead, he is the one who should have an understanding of 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 true nature. Care must be taken 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 (pretentiousness), which includes two things: firstly, the disordered desire to show one’s greatness (perfection) and, secondly, the insatiable need to be recognized and recognized for everything it does. The problem with pride is that the person in it does not even need to know about it. Pride can deceive himself with many faces that can take the form of humility. However, his true face is seen by others, just as Jesus revealed it to the Pharisees in today’s gospel.

If a proud person accidentally woke up and recognized his condition, what means could help him conquer it? I will mention four.

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

2. Be willing to listen to others with complete respect. This includes acknowledging other perspectives on what needs to be done, not just yours. And also, since you tend to cheat, you must be willing to hear feedback about yourself from others regularly. And in doing so, you need to beware of one of your greatest temptations: an attitude of constant self-defense (self-defense).

3. Recognize that you need the salvation of Christ. It sounds like a paradox, but many, even profoundly religious Christians, are practically not convinced that they need the redemption and salvation of Christ. They behave like self-helpers. One person being treated for a specific particular was surprised when his leader invited him to pray from the toy Ghost to know his character flaws. He was surprised that he might have some character flaws. When he yielded, he recognized that his greatest mistake—blocking the access of God’s grace within him—was pride.

4. Recognize that you need support and support from other people as well. This requires you to recognize and appreciate the gifts that others have and look at them with admiration and amazement; to ask others for help and support from time to time and thus show that you are not enough for everything yourself; so that you meet with others regularly, and even be able to open your insides to them, especially when you are struggling. In short, to let others know that you need them.

Let us pray in conclusion: Lord, I want to be a man of humility. Pride does not give me anything; on the contrary, it robs me of everything and makes me incredibly lonely. Give me humility, which is the way to you, people, and yourself.