10th Sunday after Pentecost 1.8.10 Pride
The first sin ever committed was one of Pride. Certain of the angels, falling in love with their own beauty, rebelled against God and became fallen angels (devils). From that time they have been tormenting us and trying to get us to do the same thing. And sadly they have a very high success rate.
The fallen angels had one thing right – they were truly beautiful; they were worthy of admiration. But to admire the creature while forgetting the Creator is a fundamental error and must always lead to trouble.
We must always acknowledge the Creator; acknowledge where we come from and to whom we hope to return. All things come from Him and all things are accountable to Him. He can be denied, ignored, insulted and many other things, but He cannot be made to go away. He is always there and no matter how much a being may rebel it is always God who has the last word.
By acknowledging Him I do not mean merely obedience; I mean praise as well. To give God His ‘due’ would be to sing for all eternity of His goodness – which is what they do in heaven.
There is a rightness about praising God which is borne out in the Psalms. Praise the Lord in his holy places: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to the multitude of his greatness. Praise him with the sound of trumpet: praise him with psaltery and harp. Praise him with timbrel and choir: praise him with strings and organs. Praise him on high sounding cymbals: praise him on cymbals of joy: Let every spirit praise the Lord. Alleluia. (Ps 150, for example).
It is not that God is vain, and needing our attention, as another person might be. It is just that there is an objective rightness, a right order about things, when the creatures praise the Creator.
The world would run a lot better than it does if this rightful amount of praise was offered. (Dignum et justum est).
Which brings us to today’s parable of the Pharisee and the Publican – respectively representing pride and humility.
The Pharisee is proud because, although he does certain good actions, he thinks himself responsible for his own goodness. He regards himself as self-sufficient; not properly grasping that anything good about him is only possible because the power for good comes from God.
The Publican is humble because although he has done the wrong thing he gives proper acknowledgment to God as the One to whom he must answer, and he re-connects with God, reconciles with Him, thus going home ‘at rights’ with God.
To sin is to deny God, at least temporarily. To ask His forgiveness is to switch back into acknowledging Him, to re-connect, and thus come more fully to be what we are.
We cannot exist properly without God any more than fish can live without water, or birds without air.
The proud do not think they need God. They think they are sweet enough by themselves. Atheists make a boast of their own self-sufficiency. They laugh at us for needing someone else to lean on.
But believers can suffer from pride too (such as the Pharisee). We can try to be good in our own way, and even if we succeed in doing something good there may be little or no merit, if God has not been honoured.
The motive by which we do our actions has a great bearing on how valuable or effective they are.
St Therese tells us that something as simple as picking a pin off the floor can save a soul if done for the glory of God.
So we must try to be good, and do good, all for God and His glory.
It is comforting to know that obscure, humble actions can be so powerful because that is what we are doing most of the time. We would like to do something spectacular to help the world, but we are usually thrown back on just doing the usual things, day in and day out.
We can make those things powerful by the proper attitude of humility. Even our repentance can be powerful by being genuinely sorry we have offended God.
Humility unlocks the full power of God. The first sin is reversed and all its ugly results begin to be set right.
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