Proud to be Catholic

Michie

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Pride is a complex development in all human nature. The plethora of connotations of pride confuses common man. Pride is referred to as positive, as in: “My daughter won the spelling bee! I am so proud.” “I am proud of my recent promotion at work.” Pride drives us to improve ourselves. Pride eliminates complacency. However, pride is a negative when we are too proud to apologize, we are too proud to admit we are wrong, we insist we are always right. The Ancient Greeks called it hubris – extreme pride that results in one’s downfall. Odysseus’ pride made him gloat over his accomplishments and was therefore punished by the gods for it. C.S. Lewis goes so far as to regard pride as the root of all sin. Every sin, we commit, he states, originates from pride. He devotes an entire chapter of Mere Christianity to pride and how harmful it is. St. Thomas Aquinas calls it the “queen of all vices” and even states there is something satanic in it and St. Gregory also discusses it in terms of the casting off of our Creator. Lucifer himself was proud and this led to his fall. If the “Bearer of Light” is susceptible to pride, what makes us think we can dodge it?

As Catholics, how is it even possible to negotiate our own pride into that positive connotation and away from the destructive pride that leads to our own demise? We want to avoid complacency, also known as sloth or laziness, because it is undesirable, but at the same time, active haughtiness is a vice as well. Can our desire to actively please God become our source of pride? Our refusal to embarrass ourselves as Christians in God’s eyes could lead us to live according to God’s will, but, and it is a big BUT, how should we pat ourselves on the back for doing what we should already be doing.

Continued- http://www.catholicsistas.com/2012/01/31/proud-to-be-catholic/