Ecclesiasticus I: Introducing Eastern Orthodoxy
Ecclesiasticus II: Orthodox Icons, Saints, Feasts and Prayer
|
In
Arabic folklore, there is a tale that as the tares and the wheat grow, they
show which God has blessed. The ears that have been blessed bow their heads
and acknowledge every grain, and the more fruitful they are, the lower their
heads are bowed. The tares which God has sent as a curse lift up their heads
erect, high above the wheat, but they are only fruitful of evil.
Pride, in any form is an enemy of man. Pride deceives us and insists we
have no faults, are better than others and that we should hold ourselves
above our fellow man. Pride makes us think that all our talents, all our
blessings emanate from ourselves and our own efforts and abilities. Pride
discounts God and inflates the individual.
It is true that we should have reasonable pride in our appearance, our family,
our home, school, and above all, in our Church. It is a healthy pride when
we try to excel in our work, when we try to do better or to better ourselves.
Of course, here too, the motive is important. We must make God our partner
in our endeavors and in our successes.
Pride is the first sin that was committed in heaven and on earth. It was
the voice of Lucifer that cried out: "I will ascend into heaven. I
will exalt my throne above the stars of God." (Isais 14: 13) It was
the cause of the downfall of our first parents, Adam and Eve, because they
thought they could be like God.
It is easy for us to think we are better than everyone else. With pride,
other sins begin to creep into our lives and before we realize it, we are
infested with all sorts of dangerous vices. Let us remember that from pride
all perdition took its beginning.
We cannot come to Christ with pride in our hearts and souls. Christ's admonition
concerning pride, "Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled,"
provide us with direction on how we are to conquer pride. What are we to
do if this sin betrays itself in our lives? Are we to pass it up and allow
it to continue until it gets so powerful that it will master us completely;
that it will throw our spiritual life completely into disproportion; or
will we crush it before it leads to our inevitable destruction? The life
of Christ can be our greatest inspiration. As we meditate upon His forty
days of fasting and prayer before His public ministry, we will recall His
great humility. Let us watch Him during His most trying times particularly
during His passion and death. Look at our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane
and listen to His prayer: "Not My will, but THINE be done."
The lives of those whom the Church has placed before us to venerate as saints
are living proof that man can emerge triumphant over the human weakness
of sin. How well, they who have received their crown of glory realize the
emptiness of earthly fame and prestige. When we realize how much God dislikes
pride and all other sins that are a result of it, we will come to understand
why God plunged Lucifer into everlasting damnation; we will become cognizant
of the reason for the confusion of tongues consequent to the erection of
the tower of Babel; we will readily perceive why Goliath fell to David;
why Christ rebuked the scribes and pharisees with divine righteous criticism.
When we look upon pride as a force that will drive us to our destruction
and upon humility as a virtue designed to make us right with God, for it
teaches that all good comes from Him, then we will begin to travel along
the road to a happy and blissful eternity. Humility is truth and pride tries
to level untruth with the truth which is utterly impossible.
Just as the drug addict craves and desires more dope, the individual who
hungers for praise and honor cannot be cured unless he goes to the sanatorium
of humility. There he will find the cure that is necessary to rid himself
of the horrible disease which results in human destruction if not checked.
The supreme lesson in humility was taught us when our dear Lord carried
the Cross for us, as He submitted to ridicule and torture, as He died the
humiliating death of the Cross. We should constantly strive to remember
that we came from nothing, that we are nothing, and that we can do nothing
without the grace of God.
From Word
Magazine
Publication of the Antiochian Orthodox
Christian Archdiocese of North America
December 1962
p. 7
|
