Last week we talked about the deadly vice of Envy; which causes us to have sorrow over another man?s joy. Envy damages our relationships with others and also causes us to question God himself and feel that he is not giving us enough. The poet Dante considers envy to be the second worst vice that there is.

Today we will discuss Pride, which he considers to be the worst vice into which we might fall. Dante's definition of pride is "love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbor.? St. Thomas Aquinas agrees that this is the worst sin, calling it the Queen of the Vices. Usually being referred to as royalty is a good thing but in this case it is very bad. Think of Pride as the wicked Queen in any number of fairy tales who is imperious and short tempered and treats other people poorly. This is what pride does, causes us to overvalue ourselves. It actually results in us displacing God himself because we prefer to make our own decisions, follow our own plans, pursues our own desires. Pride will tell us that we are our own gods and we do not need saving, we do not need Jesus or the Cross or Church or these Bishops telling us what to do. Pride is a pandemic right now in the Catholic Church, as many of us struggle with the humility to trust the teachings of the Church. The Church begs us not to introduce contraceptives into our marriages but we know better. The Church reminds us over and over that marriage belongs to God and we are making a huge mistake in changing it, but we know better. The second largest religious group in the United States are ex-Catholics, people who think that they know better than the Church and have left her to go to a different church that agrees with them. Pride is causing many of us to abandon the Church, our Mother.



Do you see why this sin is so deadly? By refusing the proper teaching authority of the Church, we leave her and in doing so we leave God behind. We exalt ourselves in his place. For those of us really and truly in the grip of pride, we will do so even if we know that it is bad for us. I am sure that none of you were rebellious teenagers, right? This is what they do. They will do something that they know is stupid just because their parents told them not to! In John Milton?s poem Paradise Lost, he describes Satan as sawing off the tree branch that he is sitting on, knowing that once he gets through the branch he will fall. No matter, Satan says, better to rule in hell than to serve God in heaven.

There truly is something satanic about pride. It is the original sin of the demons and it is their favorite way to tempt us to fall into hell with them. Along with trying to create envy, the serpent in the Garden of Eden also appeals to Adam and Eve?s pride. They are special. They deserve to eat the fruit of good and evil. They deserve to be like God.

I know in my own life, pride often causes problems. I dismiss people who I really can learn a lot from. I used to believe that I was smarter than the Church and my pride kept me from considering the truth of the Catholic faith. I refuse advice or sit in judgment of the actions of another because I think I could have done better. Pride dehumanizes my relationships with others and I fail to see how very special and valuable and loved by God each and every person is. This has caused me to miss out on so much and probably to offend and hurt many people.

Where are the sources of pride in your life? I would encourage you to take a long look into your heart, a long look at those around you and see them the way that Jesus sees. The humility of Our Lord is boundless; the God of the universe made himself small, lowered himself far below his own dignity, comes to us as a sacrificial victim on our altar. He did not sin. He should never have died. And yet he loves us with his whole life even though we do not deserve it. Knowing this, how could we ever be proud? Instead, let us accept his grace so that we might imitate him in his humility.