- Feb 5, 2002
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There is a deadly seven-headed monster against which each one of us must battle our whole life. This monster is self-seeking (or selfish) self-love. Its seven heads are: pride, covetousness, lust, anger, envy, gluttony and sloth. Venerable Fulton Sheen called them “the seven pall-bearers of the soul” and gave them the following names: self-love, inordinate love of money, illicit sex, hate, jealousy, over-indulgence, and laziness. They are also known as the seven deadly or capital sins.
Our Inherent Weakness
As a result of original sin, each one of us has an inherent tendency to assert oneself as the center of things, to attempt to assert one’s will over that of others. Our great passion is for our highest good, but too often we do not comprehend what this good is and we seek it in a wrong way. Our highest good is God. He alone is our ultimate purpose, our last end, and our greatest reward. And He has shown us the way to Himself: Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).
The key to pursuing and attaining this greatest Good is to recognize that we are creatures with the duty to love and serve our Creator in the manner He wills and desires. But when we are wrapped up in our own ego, everything we think, say and do revolves around our own self. We are really “seeking self,” though we may try to convince ourselves that we are following Christ and seeking God.
Plainly, then, the battle against self-seeking is an interior battle. Specifically, this battle takes place in our will. In the fountainhead of self-love and self-will, pride and all the other capital sins have their origin and bring forth a host of offspring, great and small. If we are motivated by self-seeking, we will seldom deny ourselves, as Our Lord instructs us to do (see Matthew 16:24). Rather than practicing love, sacrifice, humility, obedience, patience, generosity—or whatever the calls of duty and virtue may be—our self-love will feed the seven-headed monster, and we will become more and more ensnared in vice.
Continued below.
sjvlaydivision.org
Our Inherent Weakness
As a result of original sin, each one of us has an inherent tendency to assert oneself as the center of things, to attempt to assert one’s will over that of others. Our great passion is for our highest good, but too often we do not comprehend what this good is and we seek it in a wrong way. Our highest good is God. He alone is our ultimate purpose, our last end, and our greatest reward. And He has shown us the way to Himself: Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).
The key to pursuing and attaining this greatest Good is to recognize that we are creatures with the duty to love and serve our Creator in the manner He wills and desires. But when we are wrapped up in our own ego, everything we think, say and do revolves around our own self. We are really “seeking self,” though we may try to convince ourselves that we are following Christ and seeking God.
Plainly, then, the battle against self-seeking is an interior battle. Specifically, this battle takes place in our will. In the fountainhead of self-love and self-will, pride and all the other capital sins have their origin and bring forth a host of offspring, great and small. If we are motivated by self-seeking, we will seldom deny ourselves, as Our Lord instructs us to do (see Matthew 16:24). Rather than practicing love, sacrifice, humility, obedience, patience, generosity—or whatever the calls of duty and virtue may be—our self-love will feed the seven-headed monster, and we will become more and more ensnared in vice.
Continued below.
Our Battle Against the Seven-Headed Monster - St. John Vianney Lay Division
We must each battle the seven-headed monster of self-love, also known as the seven deadly or capital sins: pride, covetousness, lust, anger, envy, gluttony and sloth
sjvlaydivision.org
