“It was through pride that the Devil became the Devil: Pride leads to every other vice. It is the complete anti-God state of mind.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
I don’t find it easy to pass on a love of humility to my children. Perhaps my own pride sets up the obstruction. Perhaps I find it hard to balance “building up” with “paring down.” Or, maybe more simply and more likely, humility is a hard virtue to love. It requires the acknowledgement that without God we are nothing. Every good that we have is a gift from God; there is nothing worthwhile we have achieved without his grace.
It is not easy to step aside from a world that encourages self-praise and unapologetic self-acceptance without the desire to change and grow in virtue and self-love. We are in a trap of self, a trap set by the devil that we are often happy to step into.
St. Gregory explained that pride, the most hideous of all vices, has four roots.
The first is the belief that the good things we have (of nature or of grace) come from ourselves, our own work.
The second is the acknowledgement that our goods come from God, but that we are deserving of it, as a reward for something. Perhaps we are more loved by God, or more worthy. In that state we refuse to praise and thank God for what we’ve been given freely. We see no need to change.
Thirdly, pride, as more commonly understood, is the boasting of virtue and excellence that one does not actually have. Again we are convinced that we have no need to repent.
Finally, pride shows itself in the envy and resentment one feels when seeing the true virtue and excellence that another has and wishing that we were the “sole possessor” of those goods.
I know I have felt the temptation to each of those and fallen many times. Instead of praising God for the good I see in others and taking their lives as an example to follow, I have envied their goodness and tried to convince myself that I too have similar virtue. It is a trap that leads to our emulating the sin of Satan, and our own fall from grace.
I want to encourage us as a Church to take this month of June as the month to completely cast out pride. June is historically the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Church writes that, “Understood in the light of the Scriptures, the term ‘Sacred Heart of Jesus’ denotes the entire mystery of Christ … Son of God, uncreated wisdom; infinite charity, principal of the salvation and sanctification of mankind. The Sacred Heart is Christ, the Word Incarnate, Saviour, intrinsically containing, in the Spirit, an infinite divine-human love for the Father and for his brothers … it calls for a fundamental attitude of conversion and reparation, of love and gratitude, apostolic commitment and dedication to Christ and his saving work.”
The most beautiful image of the love of the Sacred Heart is that of St. John resting his head upon the breast of Our Lord at the Last Supper. The fiery love, the invitation to unite fully with him, is too much to resist, and John simply rests his head upon the beating, sacred heart of his saviour. To rest there he must first bow, and lower his head in humility.
There are 12 promises made to those who honour and devote themselves to Christ’s Sacred Heart. Among them, he promises to bless us with peace in our homes (!), mercy, blessings in our undertakings, to give us refuge in life and death, and to perfect us in virtue. “Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in my Heart,” Jesus told St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.
On the first of June I placed an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in our living room, with some flowers and a candle. I printed out a one-sentence prayer and encouraged the kids to stop and pray it whenever they see it. That small act, done in sincerity, will be accepted as an act of reparation against the sins of pride. “Heart of Jesus, burning with love for us, inflame our hearts with Thy love.” So simple.
We are living in a time of great need. God calls us to make acts of reparation for the sins of pride – those in the world, and those of our own. I think that teaching this need to our children will bring about great blessings and growth in their holiness. They need to understand that all good things come from the hands of a God who deserves our utmost humility. And this humility is a blessing that will bring about great joy, just as a child rejoices in the gifts given by a loving parent.
