Pride is an inordinate love of one's own excellence either of body or mind or the unlawful pleasure we derive from thinking we have no superiors. Pride being swollen egoism, it erects the human evil into a separate centre of originativeness apart from God; exaggerates its own importance and becomes a world in and for itself. All other sins are evil deeds but pride insinuates itself even into good works to destroy and slay them. For that reason Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible says: "Pride goes before the fall".

Pride manifests itself in many forms: atheism which is a denial of the dependence on God, our Creator and our final end; intellectually vanity which makes minds unteacheable because they think they know all there is to know; superficiality which judges others by their clothes, their accent and their bank account; snobbery which sneers at inferiors as the earmark of its own superiority, 'they are not of our social status'; vainglory which inclines a man to seek honours and positions quite beyond his capacity; and exaggerated sensitiveness which makes one incapable of moral improvement because so unwilling to hear one's own faults.

Pride, it was that made Satan fall from heaven and man fall from grace. By its very nature such undue self-exaltation could be cured only by self-humiliation. That is why He who might have been born in a palace by the Tiber as befitting His Majesty as the Son of God, chose to appear before men in a stable as a child wrapped in swaddling bands. Added to this humility of His birth was the humility of His profession - a carpenter in an obscure village of Nazareth whose name was a reproach among the great. Just as today there are those who sneer at the humble walks of life, so too there were then those who lived: "Is this not the carpenter's son?" There was also the humility of His actions, for never once did He work a miracle in His own behalf, not even to supply Himself with a place to lay His head. Humility of example there was too, when on Holy Thursday night He who is the Lord of heaven and earth girds Himself with a towel, gets down on His knees and with basin and water washes the twenty-four calloused feet of His Apostles saying: "The servant is not greater than his lord...If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you too should wash each other's feet". Finally, there was humility of precept: "Unless you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven".

But the supreme humiliation of all was the manner of death He chose, for "He humbled Himself...even to death, death on a cross. "To atone for false pride of ancestry: He thrusts aside the consolation of Divinity; for pride of popularity: He is laughed to scorn as He hangs cursed upon a tree; for pride of snobbery: He is put in the company of thieves; for pride of wealth: He is denied even the ownership of His own deathbed; for pride of flesh: "there was no beauty in him"; for pride in influential friends: He is forgotten even by those whom He cured; for pride of power: He is weak and abandoned; for pride of those who surrender God and their faith: He wills to feel without God. For all the egotism, false independence, and atheism: He now offers satisfaction by surrendering the joys and consolations of His Divine Nature. Because proud men forgot God, He permits Himself to feel Godlessness and it broke His heart in the saddest of all cries: "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" There was union even in the separation; but they were words of desolation uttered that we might never be without consolation.

Two lessons emerge from this Word: (1) Glory not in ourselves for God resists the proud; and (2) Glory in humility for humility is truth and the path to true greatness.

BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN (1895 to 1979)

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -