STEP 23 “Beating Pride”
On mad pride and unclean blasphemous thoughts.
Pride = a feeling that you respect yourself and deserve to be respected by other people.. A feeling that you are more important or better than other people..an inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether ascherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc…. the state or feeling of being proud…. a becoming or dignified sense of what is due to oneself or one's position or character; self-respect;self-esteem.
Ten Scriptures on Pride and Arrogance:
1 Samuel 2:3 Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.
Proverbs 8:13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.
Proverbs 11:2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
Proverbs 13:10 Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.
Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 29:23 A man's pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.
Ecclesiastes 7:8 The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.
Isaiah 2:11 The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
Obadiah 1:3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, 'Who can bring me down to the ground?'
There is no doubt that most readers have heard the aphorism: 'money is the root of all evils.’ This apothegm is actually a popularization of St. Paul's instruction to St. Timothy (1 Tim 6:10): “For the love of money is a root of all of evils. . . .” Of course, there is much wisdom in this teaching. However, we must consider that there is a vice that precedes and nourishes this 'root' of money, and all the other vices as well. St. Hesychios the Priest writes: ". . . the crown of all these, pride." (Philokalia I). St. John Cassian (Philokalia I) suggests the reason. He says “. . . it acts like some harsh tyrant who has gained control of a great city . . . . as a result regard[s] himself as equal to God." Such people, says the prophet Isaiah (14: 14), say to themselves “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High."
We must be careful not to confuse pride, a spiritual illness, with healthy self-esteem, a psychological strength. Spiritually, pride is self-aggrandizement, self-glory, self-worship, self-love and vanity (vainglory) at the expense of attributing our talents and successes to God. As King Solomon informs us: "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov 16: 18). As our Eastern Church Father St. Mark the Ascetic tells us: “. . . it is because of them that wrath, anger, war, murder and all other evils have such power over mankind (Philokalia I).” Psychologically, pride is akin to narcissism. The Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders, IV-TR of the American Psychiatric Association (2000) describes narcissistic self-esteem as "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy. . . ." On the other hand, as a psychological strength, developmental psychologists define self-esteem "as being true to [the] real self” (Cole and Cole 1996, The Development of Children). Psychologically, healthy self-esteem leaves room for God.
In terms of content, there in no inherent contradiction between the psychological definitions cited above and the spiritual reality. Narcissism - what the Church Fathers are really talking about - is clearly a lack of spiritual balance, and is thus a spiritual illness, "Healthy self-esteem" is reality-based as a simple acknowledgement of our strengths and weaknesses as humans. By understanding this we can place self-esteem in a divine perspective. "Yet not I, but the grace of God which was in me” (1 Cor15:10).
Pride is a denial of God, an invention of the devil, contempt for men. It is the mother of condemnation, the offspring of praise, a sign of barrenness. It is a flight from God’s help, the harbinger of madness, the author of downfall. It is the cause of diabolical possession, the source of anger, the gateway to hypocrisy. It is the fortress of demons, the custodian of sins, the source of hardheartedness. It is the denial of compassion, a bitter Pharisee, a cruel judge. It is the foe of God. It is the root of blasphemy.
With these words John introduces us to the twenty-third step of the Ladder: On Pride. He makes it clear right from the beginning that we are dealing with a very serious ailment. John says that pride flows out of our love of the praise of men (Vainglory). Its midpoint is "the shameless parading of our achievements, complacency, and unwillingness to be found out." It is "the spurning of God's help, the exalting of one's own efforts and a devilish disposition." In rather frightening words, St. John writes: "A proud monk needs no demon. He has turned into one, an enemy to himself."
Pride is a vice that destroys all virtue in our lives: Pride loses all the profits of all hard work and sweat.
Pride closes the ears of God to our prayers: They clamoured but there was none to save them, because they clamoured with pride. They clamoured to God and He paid them no heed.
Ultimately, pride will take us to hell: Pride and nothing else caused an angel to fall from heaven.
How can we recognize that this spiritual ailment is afflicting us? In a series of proverbs, St. John gives us several signs which manifest its presence in our hearts:
1) Spiritual pride manifest itself in a know-it-all, argumentative spirit: A proud monk argues bitterly with others. The humble monk is loathe to contradict them.
2) Spiritual pride manifest itself in a refusal to obey, a belief that we know better than our spiritual elders: The cypress tree does not bend to the ground in order to walk, nor does the haughty monk in order to gain obedience.
3) Spiritual pride manifest itself in a desire in an aversion to correction, a belief that we are beyond the need for reproach and/or instruction: To reject criticism is to show pride, while to accept it is to show oneself free of this fetter.
4) Spiritual pride manifest itself in a desire to lead and an innate belief that we know what needs to be done and how it needs to be done better than others: The proud man wants to be in charge of things. He would feel lost otherwise.
5) Spiritual pride manifest itself in a false humility: An old man, experienced in these matters, once spiritually admonished a proud brother who said in his blindness, “Forgive me, father, but I am not proud.” “My son,” said the wiser man, “what better proof of your pride could you have given than to claim that you were not proud?”
6) Spiritual pride manifest itself in a lack of awareness of our own sins and shortcomings: Pride makes us forget our sins, for the remembrance of them leads to humility.
7) Spiritual pride manifest itself in an inflated opinion of our own virtues: It happens, I do not know how, that most of the proud never really discover their true selves. They think they have conquered their passions, and they find out how poor they really are only after they die.
8) Spiritual pride manifest itself in a belief that we have attained the blessedness of heaven, (salvation), in forgetting of the need to finish the race and of the possibility of failure: Do not be self-confident before judgment has been passed on you. Do not be stiff-necked, since you are a material being. Many although holy and unencumbered by a body were thrown out even from heaven.
How do we overcome pride in our lives? Once again, St. John's words are practical and to the point. His advice can be summarized as follows:
1) Remember the example of the saints
To overcome pride: it is helpful to keep before us the struggles and virtues of the holy Fathers and saints. We should always be on our lookout to compare ourselves with the Fathers and the lights who have gone before us. If we do, we will discover that we have scarcely begun the ascetic life, that we have hardly kept our vows in a holy manner, and that our thinking is still rooted in the world.
It is so easy for us to compare ourselves with our contemporaries and think that we are doing pretty well. In our day and age, it is a great temptation for those who are trying to live pious and prayerful lives to begin to think that they are somehow doing a lot for the Lord, that they are waging a serious and dedicated struggle and that they have achieved a level of spiritual maturity. One has only to look to the Fathers and the Saints to see how shallow and false this kind of thinking is,
2) Remember your blessings
To overcome pride: it is helpful for us to remember how many blessings we have received and to remember how any advancements we have made in the spiritual life are the result not of our own efforts but God's mercy,
While it is disgraceful to be puffed up over the adornments of others, it is sheer lunacy to imagine that one has deserved the gifts of God.You may be proud only of the achievements you had before the time of your birth. But anything after that, indeed the birth itself, is a gift from God. You may claim only those virtues in you that are there independently of your mind, for your mind was bestowed on you by God. And you may claim only those victories you have achieved independently of the body, for the body too is not yours but the work of God.
3) Remember that you owe everything to Christ..
To overcome pride: it is helpful to remember that everything we obtain by way of struggle in the spiritual life is offered to us only because of the struggle of Christ. No matter how hard we struggle, without Christ there would be no victory. The doors of Heaven would still be closed. The grave would still have its claim on us and we would be shut out from the presence of God. "If we were to die ten thousand times for Christ, we should still not have repaid what we owe, for in value rather than in physical substance there is no comparison between the blood of God and that of His servants."
The struggle against pride is intense; for most of us, it will never end in this life. But with and only through Christ, victory over pride can be achieved, it is not us, but in Him….
We will not overcome our pride until we:
1. Understand the sinfulness of pride. Many tend to treat the sin of pride like a neighborhood dog. We know it can bite us, but for some reason we don't think itwill bite us. The truth is, it will devour us. Until we understand the danger of this sin, and begin taking it seriously, we will never overcome it.
2. Be convinced that this sin is in you. The one thing most of us are guilty of is - a spiritual pride that encourages us to look down on both the church and the world because of our own perceived achievements in grace! The absurdity of this sin is grievous. Make no mistake about it, pride is right there with you, in you. "It's desire is for you, but you must master it."
3. Consider God's judgment against sin. Historically God's judgment often came upon his people because of their pride and arrogance. The warnings of judgment, and God's judgment itself, is a mercy for those who know him. Consider his just anger against this sin, and his righteous response to it.
4. Again, Look at the examples of humble people. There are three circles of influence that we should look to for examples of true humility.
a) Friends - Surround yourself with humble men and women. Find people who look like Christ - as Andrew Fuller pointed out, nothing makes us look more like Jesus than humility.
b) Biblical Saints - Consider the saints who have gone before us, we have much to learn from these people in their humility.
c) Jesus. We can do no better in looking for the glory of humility than the in person of Jesus. - this is grace and humility beyond measure.
5. Keep the Gospel always before you! This is my addition to Mayo's list. There is nothing that can overcome pride like the gospel. In fact, only the gospel can really overcome our pride. The gospel allows for no arrogance, because we cannot truly understand the good news, or receive it, without humility. The gospel is that in Jesus Christ sinners are forgiven, humanity is restored, creation is remade, justice prevails while grace reigns, and we experience all of this through the humble, faithfulness of Jesus.
The gospel is not the starting point of the Christian life. It is not Christianity 101. It is the whole thing. There is nothing deeper, more profound, or more exciting that Christ's life, death and resurrection for a broken and sinful world. If you don't believe this, than pride has led you away from the center.
"Such is the twenty-third step. Whoever climbs it, if indeed any can, will certainly be strong."
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