Pride
There’s Hope for the Prideful
For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be.
-John Stott
The Chieftains of Sin
“Now is it a suitable thing to tell what are the seven deadly sins, this is to say, chieftains of sins. They all run on one leash, but in diverse manners. Now are they called chieftains, forasmuch as they are chief and origin of all other sins. Of the root of these seven sins, then, is Pride the general root of all harms. For of this root spring certain branches, as Anger, Envy, Accidia or Sloth, Avarice or Covetousness (to common understanding), Gluttony, and Lechery.”
(Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parson’s Tale)
St. Benedict’s Disciplines for Humility
To receive the gift of humility, the monk:
- always has the fear of God before his eyes.
- loves God’s will more than his own.
- subjects himself obediently to a superior.
- accepts distasteful duties with patience.
- confesses his failures completely.
- is content with little.
- believes and declares to others that he has no worth apart from God.
- does nothing that is not approved by the religious community.
- disciplines himself through silence.
- is restrained in demeanor.
- engages only in humble talk.
- is not only humble of heart, but lets others know he is sinful.
from Ev Worthington, Humility: The Quiet Virtue, 52-53.
The Look of Humility, and A First Step
Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call “humble” nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.
If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realise that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.
–C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
The Competitive Nature of Pride
“Pride is essentially competitive–is competitive by its very nature–while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else become equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.”
–C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
7 Deadly Sins 