Welcome to answers from an apostolic faith.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
Welcome, my beloved, to the sixth video on the series on the passions where today we discuss what is considered to be the mother of all passions. Today, we talk about pride. And so today, we ask the question: Why is pride the most dangerous of all passions?
Now before we begin, let's remind everyone that the passions are the movements that are within us that misdirect the faculties that God has given us as gifts. Rather than using these faculties ─ the senses, our intellect, our reason, emotion, creativity, compassion ─ rather than using all of these faculties to make our way to God and to grow in the likeness of His Son, the passions will disorient us and lead us further away from God. And in this case, the passion of pride specifically will always misdirect a person to always focus on the self.
Unfortunately, many people believe that pride is synonymous to being arrogant and loud, and yet this passion can manifest itself in the most silent and reserved person. It’s not merely an outward expression of thinking highly of oneself combined with attention-seeking behaviour; it's an inward movement where a person slowly begins to make himself the center of all that exists around him. To better understand this, we will attempt to learn from Scripture as well as some of the sayings of the desert fathers. So let's dive right in.
Let's begin by saying that pride is often considered to be the very sin that is at the root of so much of the evil we know to exist in creation. According to Holy Tradition, the devil, before being cast out of heaven, was a cherub who stood in the presence of God and he was adorned with all the honour and the glory of all the angelic beings. And yet his downfall was that he desired to be equal and even greater than God. Now although the Church does not claim to have detailed accounts of all that happened between this fallen angel and the Lord, the Church does formulate some of her teaching on this matter based on proper interpretation of Holy Scripture. For instance, let’s read together Ezekiel, chapter 28, verses 15 to 17:
'' 15 You were blameless in your ways from the day [that] you were created, till iniquity was found in you. 16 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned; [and] so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and the guardian cherub drove you out from the midst of the stones of fire.
17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendour. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you.'' (Ezekiel 28:15-17) - [Revised Standard Version] This whole idea of how it is that pride was found in him and how it is that the Lord was forced to expose him and to cast him out, you see, the Church has interpreted this text as referring to Satan, that fallen angel and that great deceiver of mankind. Notice how the text refers to how pride filled his heart. Again, it is because of this passage and others like it the Church has always taught that pride is that great sin that led to the fall of angels and thus also led to the fall of mankind.
We therefore believe that pride is very often at the root of many of our sins because this is the one sin that Satan will often utilize to have us do precisely what he did: to seek out our own interests, our comforts, desires and glories. It's for this very reason that Scripture warns us of how much God despises pride and rebukes those who have a proud heart. One of the more powerful passages on this very subject is found in the book of Sirach, chapter 10. Let's read it together:
'' 9 How can he who is dust and ashes be proud? for even in life his bowels decay. 10 A long illness baffles the physician; the king of today will die tomorrow. 11 For when a man is dead, he will inherit creeping things, and wild beasts, and worms. 12 The beginning of man’s pride is to depart from the Lord; his heart has forsaken his Maker. 13 For the beginning of pride is sin, and the man who clings to it pours out abominations. [And] therefore the Lord brought upon them extraordinary afflictions, and destroyed them utterly.'' (Sirach 10:9-13) - [Revised Standard Version]
The author warns you and me that it is pride that tears us away from God and makes us forsake our Creator. It blinds us from realizing that the end of all men is the same and its end is always sinful. And now, what we ought to investigate further is how this sin manifests itself in every single one of us.
In the Gospels, we see that the summary of all of our faith is to love our God and to love our neighbour. Now, what's really interesting is to realize that pride, when fully developed in the soul of a person, does two key things: it creates enmity between the person and others around him, and enmity between that person and God.
Let’s begin with the idea of enmity with others. We know that pride will often lead a person to exalt themselves and to think themselves more worthy, more honourable, and generally a better person than others. And when this thought of pride is found hidden deep within the heart of a man, then we will also see in that person the manifestation of other passions, such as anger, where they are easily offended and their egos are easily bruised; passions like
fear, where we begin to grow anxious and worrisome of how others will perceive us; passions like sadness, where we feel unappreciated because others don’t treat us as we believe that they should. Not to mention that we see the formation of other sins against our brothers, such as judgement, envy, gossip and slander.
Now, the desert fathers, they would teach us that the solution to pride is to direct the heart back towards God and others through acts of humility. Only in thinking of others more than ourselves can we conquer this sin. And this can be practiced through the obedience of the commandments of our Lord and God Jesus Christ. Listen carefully to the story that is recorded in The Sayings of the Desert Fathers. Abba Daniel teaches the following. He says:
''At Babylon the daughter of an important person was possessed by a devil. A monk for whom her father had a great affection came to [their] house. [And] when the monk arrived, the woman possessed with the devil came and slapped him. But he only turned the other cheek, according to the Lord’s [commandment], [which is found in Matthew 5:39]. The devil, tortured by this, cried out, ''What violence! The commandment of Jesus drives me out.'' [And] immediately the woman was cleansed. [And] this is how the pride of the devil is brought low, through the humility of the commandment of Christ.'' (The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Abba Daniel)
And this is found in The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, specifically the section for Abba Daniel. What we see depicted in this story is how obedience to the commandments and how it is that the willing acceptance of humility in our lives can lead to the conquering of pride and all its evils, even to the point where the devil is easily defeated through the adoption of humility.
The other aspect that I want us to consider is how pride leads to enmity with God, and this is precisely the error of our first ancestors Adam and Eve. Rather than allowing themselves to acquire knowledge through obedience and submission to God, the first man and woman allowed themselves to want to be equal to God by knowing good and evil on their own without Him. They elevated themselves and wanted equality with God and this finally led to them being separated from God and being cast out of the garden.
And so, also now, when a person exalts themselves and seeks their own honour, this can ultimately lead to the person seeking their own will rather than submitting to God’s. Pride therefore is the sin that makes every one of us leave the presence of God and we begin to worship in front of a mirror. We have replaced God in this very specific case with a picture of ourselves. We begin to think that we deserve to be pleased, our desires ought to be fulfilled, our satisfaction and comfort should be pursued at all costs. And again, it is here that we see the potential for other passions to develop that all have to do with our pleasing; passions like lust, greed, and gluttony.
Again, in accordance with the desert fathers, it's only befitting for us to quote the great St. Anthony, the father of all desert fathers. And he teaches us that the Lord hates pride and that humility truly is the key to fighting against this vile passion. Listen to what he says:
''Learn to love humility, for it will cover all [of] your sins. All sins are repulsive before God, but the most repulsive of all is pride of the heart. Do not consider yourself learned and wise; otherwise, all your efforts will be destroyed, and your boat will reach the harbour empty. [And] if you have great authority, do not threaten anyone with death. Know that, according to nature, you too are susceptible to death, and that every soul sheds its body as its final garment.'' (St. Anthony the Great)
St. Anthony teaches us: our end is all equal. And, my beloved, it is clear to all of us that pride is that passion that can lead each of us to spiritual death. It introduces strife between me and my neighbour, as well as separates me from the love of God. Let us therefore acquire humility and be like the Lord Christ Himself, so that we may eradicate all traces of pride from our souls.
Remember, my beloved: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith. And to God be all glory now and forever unto the ages of all ages. Amen.