Fr. John Kadookunnel

That “pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18) is common knowledge. Yet, as Benjamin Franklin writes in his autobiography, “In reality there is, perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history. For even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.” The work, “Steps of Humility and Pride,”  by a twelfth century monk, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, , is a great help to discern the ways in which pride gradually creeps into our life. St. Bernard lists twelve steps that we  climb up the mountain of pride and another twelve that we climb down into humility. The  steps of pride begin with the mind, moves to external behaviour, then expands into an attitude of presumption, before eventually resulting in rebelliousness, slavery to sin/Satan and rejection of God.

(1)    Curiosity:  A doctor needs to know his craft. A researcher has to be curious to dig deeper into world of reality. This is healthy curiosity. However, when we dig deeper into things we should not, such as private life of others or things that are detrimental for us to know, we have sinful curiosity. When we peer into things that we ought not, as if it is our right to do so, curiosity become tainted with pride.

(2)    Levity of mind:  This happens when our mind is occupied with superficial things. We do need diversions and time for recreation, but when we are constantly swiping on the mobile phone, spending time on frivolous and trivial things, spending countless hours watching TV shows leaving aside serious matters such as prayer, work and study, it is a sign that our minds are becoming shallow and light.

(3)    Giddiness: Levity of mind is a state of mind. Giddiness is the behaviour that proceeds from it. We move into frivolous behaviours resulting from levity of mind.  We habitually emphasize silly and lightweight experiences over meaningful and holy matters. We tend to minimise what we ought to maximise and vice versa. Plenty of time for entertainment, but no time for enjoyment of real beauty or search for truth.

(4)    Boasting:  Increasingly tied down to our own little world of trivial things, we start to glory in trite and silly activities and begin view such behaviours as accomplishments worth bragging about. One who boasts thinks that he has qualities which he does not have in reality. Or if he really has them, he does not realize everything he has is a gift from above. “What have you that you have not received?  And if you have received it, why do you boast as though you had not?” (1 Cor. 4:7).

(5)    Singularity:  It is worthwhile to note that we begin to think more highly of ourselves as our world continues to contract.  We forget the role of God and others in making us what we are. We forget that we are still dependent on God and others. We rely only on ourselves and stop to heed the words of others and the Word of God. This marks the arrival of singularity. We are the focal point of our lives. There is no one else.

(6)    Self-conceit:  Self-conceit is anextreme over-estimation of our own capabilities and value.  As our world shrinks smaller and smaller and our pride becomes over encompassing, we become increasingly self-opinionated.Something is true not because it is true, but because we consider it so. We are unable to see or admit our faults and weaknesses, even as we find faults in others. Just like the Pharisee, comparing ourselves to those who we look down on, we feed our pride.

(To be continued…)