31st Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A ~ Mt 23:1-12
In his autobiography the City of God, Saint Augustine said this about pride, “Pride is the beginning of sin. And what is pride but the craving for undue exaltation? And this is undue exaltation—when the soul abandons Him to whom it ought to cleave as its end, and becomes a kind of end to itself.” The last verse of this week’s Gospel contrasts unmitigated self-exaltation or pride with humility. In both testaments, it goes without saying that God will not suffer the creature to exalt itself against the Creator. Pride provokes God’s displeasure, and the Lord has committed Himself to oppose it.
Pride can be summarized as an attitude of self-sufficiency, self-importance, and self-exaltation in relation to God. Toward others, pride is an attitude of contempt and indifference. As C.S. Lewis observed, “Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 112). It is also necessary to understand what Jesus meant when He called all humanity to humble themselves. A proper appreciation for that attitude is discovered from the Greek verb that Jesus used and transliterated as tapeinoó (Gk.ταπεινόω), which conveys the notion of having a right view of ourselves before God and others. The poignant expression in regard to humble-exalt is a two-membered mashal – a pithy, easily memorized statement that is based on experience, which is universally applicable. Yet, by the various future forms of that same verb, imperceptibly the sacred name of God (or Yahweh) is buried in the passive voice. As such, the mashal is transformed into a saying about God’s eschatological or the end-time activity.
Chances are that almost no one recognizes pride in themselves, yet it is altogether too easy to see such a habit as operative in others. Whenever we exalt ourselves in pride, God does not want to punish us, nor to bring us low, but rather to forgive and restore. The Lord says again and again in Scripture, humble yourselves, and by doing so, I will exalt you. Such a prospect yields hope and encouragement. God takes pleasure in our efforts to humble ourselves, and He loves to bless and exalt the humble. For just as pride is the root of all sin, so as Saint John Chrysostom wrote, “Humility is the root, mother, nurse, foundation, and bond of all virtue.”
Source: Thomas A. Tarrants. Pride and Humility. 4 December 2011. C.S. Lewis Institute: Knowing & Doing 2011 Winter.
Prayer for Humility – author unknown
Lord Jesus, when you walked the earth,
Your humility obscured your Kingship.
Your meekness confused the arrogant,
Hindering them from grasping your purpose,
Your nobleness attending to the destitute.
Teach me to model after your eminence,
To subject my human nature to humility.
Grant me with a natural inclination
To never view myself greater than anyone.
Banish all lingering sparks of self-importance
That could elevate me greater than you.
Let my heart always imitate your humility.
Amen
Nature and dignity 