Pride
Pride is the terrible sin of our first parents. It was a cry of pride that rang out from Satan and from our first parents: “I will not serve! I want to be like God!”
It is a vice that can bear neither superior, nor equal, nor rival. Those same cries can be hear around the world today -- even in our own hearts and minds.
Pride is the root of all sin. Whenever we sin, our pride has paved the way. We, too, have cried out: “I will not serve!” I will not do this. I will not do that. You can’t tell me what to do.
There is nothing wrong with being proud of the good that we do, and of the good that is in us. But this must always be in acknowledging the source, or the first principle, of that good, which is God and not us.
It is when we deviate from this basic truth that sinful pride rears its ugly head. It is when we think that we, ourselves, are the cause of all of our goodness, our talents, our success, and our achievements - that is when we sin.
It is not wrong to let others see the good in us, if the motive is for God’s glory: “So let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.” (Mt. 5:16) But if we are tempted to show off the good that is in us for motive of self-glorification, then again pride rears its ugly head, for we fall into a species of idolatry: worshipping ourselves.
Sometimes we recognize in theory that God exists and that we depend on Him, but very often this truth is not apparent in the way we live our lives.
In theory, we need God, but not in practice. He is pushed aside as we glory in whatever goods and talents that He may have given us: our intellect, our wit, our health, beauty, strength, etc. Look at the excessive amount of people basking in their qualities, while almost totally forgetting God and their salvation.
We tend to exaggerate our personal qualities while ignoring our defects. We have the eye of eagle when it comes to our good qualities but are blind as a bat when it comes to our sins. Yet with regard to our neighbor, the reverse is true! We have an eagle eye for their faults but are blind to their virtues!
This pride is the source of many faults: through pride we become unyielding, even when we are in the wrong; we become caustic and sarcastic in speech; we get involved in heated discussions which bring dissension and discord and lead to bitter and unjust words and actions against our rivals.
Pride results in bitter criticism of superiors and a refusal to obey their orders.
In superiors, pride becomes obstinacy and lack of humility, by never admitting a fault or changing a course of action, even when they realize that they are wrong. This pride keeps us in an atmosphere of anxiety and unhappiness, because we want to excel in all things and lord it over others. This is far from imitating Jesus, the Superior of all superiors, who was meek and humble of heart.
The remedy for pride is humility.
We are nothing! We came from dust! We will return to dust! Without God, we can do nothing good. As St. Paul says: what have we to glory about, except our sins? What is it that we achieve when left totally alone to ourselves? Nothing but sin.
What can I do without the help of others? How much success would I achieve if it were not for the help and talents of others? What about God’s help? Am I the source of my own existence? Did I survive without the care of my parents? Did I teach myself? Did I create the talents I have? Can I avoid all suffering and illness? Can I escape death? Will I create and build a heaven for myself?
Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.
Greed
Covetousness, avarice, greed - they all come down to the same thing: an inordinate desire and love of earthly goods.
There has never been such an enormous store of earthly goods as there is today, in this over-materialistic twentieth century. The whole economy revolves around an ever-increasing creation and consumption of earthly goods. Much of family life revolves around the same thing; even the sacred feast of Christmas has taken on a material aspect with the spiritual taking a distant second place.
It is undeniable that we do require certain material goods to help us live in a way that will help, rather than hinder, our salvation. Yet this appetite, when uncontrolled, soon runs rampant. We start to pursue money, wealth, and goods with great eagerness, using all kinds of means, regardless of the rights or needs of others, in order to get them.
We risk our health and livelihood, or that of our employees, by overwork or taking too many financial risks. We become stingy and mean in spending our money, because we wish to accumulate more and more. We give little or nothing to charity for the same reason.
Gluttony
Gluttony is akin to covetousness, in that it is greed for something specific - namely, food and drink. Gluttony is a disordered love of the pleasure of the table. It is an abuse of the legitimate pleasures that God has attached to eating and drinking, which are necessary means of self-preservation.
It finally gets to the point where we idolize money or material goods, hoarding them beyond sane measure. This kind of attitude is sinful because it makes a god of what is simply a means of salvation. It also refuses to rely upon Divine Providence.
Many of us fall into this sin of covetnousness. If we cannot satisfy our greed by actually possessing the thing we desire, then we at least encourage the greed by avidly gorging on everything with our eyes.
We violate this legitimate pleasure in the following ways:
1) By eating when there is no need to eat; eating between meals and for no other reason than to indulge our greed.
2) Seeking delicacies or daintily prepared food, for the sole reason of obtaining greater pleasure from it.
3) Going beyond either appetite or need, gorging ourselves with food and drink to the point where it endangers our health or prevents us from doing our duty.
4) Eating in a greedy, over-eager or animalistic manner.
It makes us slaves of our bodies, it brutalizes us, it dulls and then weakens our intellectual and moral life, and gradually prepares the way for lust and impurity - because, through gluttony, we give in to the craving of the body in the realm of food, which is but one step away from giving in to the cravings of the body in the sexual domain.
The guiding principle in our struggle against gluttony must be one of mortification and penance. Remember Our Lord saying that certain kinds of devils are only cast out by prayer and fasting. We eat and drink to live, not vice-versa! Too much food and drink weigh down the mind and will, then a certain laziness and sluggishness creeps in, and this takes over both the physical and spiritual domains.
There are many ways to mortify ourselves with food:
Always leave the table feeling slightly hungry.
Put less on your plate at the start of the meal.
Take a smaller piece.
Do not be in a hurry to start eating.
Eat and drink more slowly.
Drink water instead of a preferred beverage.
Avoid putting ice in your drink, if you prefer ice.
Over-salt your food to take away the pleasure.
Give your dessert to someone else.
Do not eat between meals.
Do not buy the most extravagant or costly foods.
Given a choice, take what is least tasty.
Anger
Anger is not always a sin. There is a lawful sentiment of anger, a just indignation, which is an ardent but rational desire to punish a guilty party with some form of just retribution. As an example, we see Our Lord with a whip angerly cast out the money-changers from the Temple. Whereas, on the other hand, we see the high-priest Heli severely rebuked for not showing enough anger in correcting his sons.
For anger to be legitimate it must be:
(a) Just - by punishing only those that deserve punishment.
(b) Tempered - moderation in the degree of the punishment that is given; by giving a punishment that fits the crime and not exceeding it.
(c) Charitable - not vented out of a spirit of hatred or revenge, but out of a sincere desire to help the wrongdoer.
Anger is sinful when it is unjust, immoderate, or uncharitable.
Sometimes, we have a violent and inordinate desire to punish someone. Our anger is accompanied by hatred, which does not merely seek to correct, but seeks to exact some form of revenge.
There are several degrees of intensity within anger, which are worth remembering:
1) Interior Anger of the Mind: firstly, we become increasingly impatient with others, whereby the least annoying thing or the smallest degree of failure, causes dissatisfaction. This is followed by agitation, producing an unnecessary irritation, which will manifest itself outwardly in some way. Then, by brooding upon the facts, this anger or irritation can become so deep rooted, that it engenders sentiments of varying degrees that pass from resentment, bitterness, hatred, and eventually a desire for revenge.
2) Exterior Anger: The interior anger manifest itself outwardly, beginning with exterior signs of impatience. The earlier anger manifests itself, the weaker it shows the person to be. This exterior anger can, if uncontrolled, easily develop into violence, which in turn can lead to an insane rage, wherein we no longer know what we are saying or doing.
3) Sinfulness of Anger: When anger is impulsive and spontaneous, it is usually a venial sin. If it is so intense that self-control is lost and grave insult is shown to neighbor, then it would be mortal, but this is often not the case. Anger that goes as far as hatred and rancor, when it is deliberate and willful, is, of itself, a mortal sin.
Lust
In itself, there is nothing wrong with the sexual appetite. Just as God has attached pleasurable sensation to the act of eating and drinking in order to help self-preservation, so, too, has He attached pleasurable feelings to the act of procreation in order to guarantee the propagation of the human race.
Yet, this pleasure is only allowed within the scope of marriage - whose prime purpose is the procreation of children. Outside of marriage, all such pleasure is forbidden. Not only are extra-marital sexual actions forbidden, but so too is the interior desire for those very things.
From the point of view of perfection, next to pride, there is no greater obstacle to spiritual growth than the vice of impurity. It can very easily make slaves of us and, through lust, we lose any desire for the spiritual. We pray little, or not at all. We become selfish. True love dies and is replaced by a carnal love. The lustful desires become an obsession. The right balance of our faculties is destroyed. Lust takes command over reason. The will also becomes a slave of this shameful passion. The mind becomes full and weak. Taste for any serious study or work is lost. The imagination dwells on earthly things. The person increasingly needs base things to satisfy itself. Finally, salvation itself is greatly risked.
To withstand and fight such a dangerous passion, we need a true appreciation of our bodies as being temples of the Holy Ghost. We should behave, in our body, as we do in church. We should avoid the occasions of sin.
This means keeping a guard over our eyes which are the windows and doors of our soul. It only takes a few seconds to absorb an image, but it can take weeks, months, or years to cleanse our mind of imagination of that image.
We must also avoid certain friends who may, like the proverbial Pied Piper, lead us a merry dance to hell.
Finally, there are certain places or things that need to be avoided. One of the most dangerous is the TV, with its frequent temptations to impurity. The same can be said for certain types of music, whose lyrics glorify the impure. Many magazines and books sow the seed of lust and must be avoided.
We must also add sincere prayer and mortification. Do not pamper your body, whether in food and drink or fashion or the furnishing of the home. Undue comfort makes us soft and weakens our will. Mortify your imagination by refusing to dwell on your pleasures.
All these things, seriously undertaken, will fortify us against this vicious and dangerous vice.
Envy
Envy proceeds from pride, which can bear neither rival nor superior. As such, we are saddened by another person's qualities, possessions, and achievements, as though they constitute an affront to our own "superiority." This leads to a desire, wishing that person would experience failure. Our pride convinces us that we are superior, and consequently we feel offended or threatened when we encounter someone more gifted or more successful than ourselves.
We know that we are prey to this vice when it pains us to hear others be praised, congratulated or honored. We are guilty of this vice if we indulge in needless and unjust criticism of the person being honored.
The effects of envy can be very serious. It can stir up a hatred towards the person whom we envy and can lead us to speak ill of them, sow discord and suspicion, blacken their character, and eventually, wishing evil to befall them. It can destroy families, communities, and even civic and religious life.
Remember the story of Joseph and his many brothers who became so envious of him that they sought to kill him but sold him into slavery instead. Similarly, we see the envy that the religious leaders had for Jesus. The little seed of envy can grow into an evil tree, bringing forth much bad fruit. It is better to weed it out before it can get ahold of our soul.
Some of the ways we can weed Envy out:
Remembering that the more God gives to someone, the more He expects in return. God is the perfect economist: He wastes nothing, and He expects a full return on His investments. Remember the parable of the talents. Therefore, the person who you envy for all their gifts will be all strictly judged upon his use or misuse of what he has been given. Being given more, he must do more with it. Thank God for the little He has given you and pray for the persons who have much more. For to whom much is given, more is expected.
Try to imitate the person whom who are tempted to envy. With God's grace, this will prompt a holy envy whereby we seek to imitate our neighbor's virtues - all for the glory of God and not for own pride. No sin is committed then, and a great good can result. This is the spirit of the Church who gives us so many saints for emulation.
Sloth
Sloth is connected to sensuality. It is an inordinate attachment to pleasure that makes us fear and avoid effort and hardship. There is a tendency in all of us to follow the line of least resistance. We want the maximum results for the minimum effort.
There are various degrees of laziness:
First, we can take up our duties reluctantly and perform them indifferently, with little attention and with poor results.
The next degree is not outright refusal but is procrastination: seeking to put off the task. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, and this often leads to putting off the task indefinitely.
The final degree is the truly lazy man who does not want to work. He refuses to work and deliberately seeks ways of avoiding work. He lies and excuses himself to avoid his duty.
This laziness is seen in our duties toward God and His Church. Some are slow to pray, lazy about Mass attendance, and neglectful of their spiritual duties.
The devil makes work for idle hands. If you fail to find work for yourself, the devil will certainly find some for you, but the wages will not be heavenly.
We will reap what we sow. It is important that we cultivate an appreciation and a love of work, and that we practice the virtues of diligence and industry.
Comments