The Cure for Pride
One
The Cure for Pride
A priest once came up with a delightful image of how to fight the ultimate sin of pride. In a letter, he wrote this, “I will use the memory of my past failures to prepare a secret book that I will name Cure for Pride and whose pages I will read over and over. They will exude the odor of my nothingness and poison the worm of my pride.”
Isn’t that a great thought-experiment? Come up with a book that will cure your pride by thinking about your defects. Maybe with a chapter for each major temptation to pride. Let’s try it. What are the things that are likely to make us proud, and how can we fight those temptations?
Two
Pride in Money
St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that the material blessings we receive in this life are given to us as instruments for practicing virtue, especially charity. They are not ends in themselves. Similarly, St. John of the Cross insists that attachment to worldly goods weighs down the soul and prevents its ascent to God. Yet, whether we admit it or not, our financial position and what it lets us buy or experience often becomes a source of pride. Our house, our car, our children’s schooling, our vacations, and even our charitable contributions can tempt us to measure our worth by our possessions.
These are undeniably marks of status in our society. But if we congratulate ourselves for having “done well,” we risk forgetting that God judges us not on how much we own but on how freely we love and give. Both Aquinas and John of the Cross would remind us that if money fosters pride rather than generosity, it ceases to be a blessing and becomes a spiritual danger.
So here’s the first chapter in our Cure for Pride: In God’s eyes, money is more of a liability than an asset if it is not ordered toward holiness and charity. Yes, giving to the poor does store up treasure in heaven, just as Scripture says. But hoarding wealth or indulging in luxury enslaves us to the very things we are meant to hold lightly. As the Book of Sirach warns, those who store up riches only end up, “collecting money for someone else, and strangers will live sumptuously on their possessions” (Sirach 7:4). That person risks becoming like the rich man who overlooked Lazarus at his gate, or the camel trying to squeeze through the eye of the needle.
Every unnecessary indulgence, every purchase meant to boost our pride or flaunt our status, reveals how tightly we cling to earthly goods. St. John of the Cross would call this a dangerous attachment that hinders our union with God. Aquinas would say it fails to direct our resources toward the highest good.
Instead of making us proud, wealth should make us vigilant, examining whether our spending and saving truly reflect the love of God and neighbor. That’s the opening chapter of our cure: Let us strive for holy detachment and generosity so that our possessions become a means to grow in virtue rather than a temptation to exalt ourselves.
That’s chapter one.
Three
Pride in Attention
The other thing that makes us proud is other people’s attention. When people notice us, it naturally makes us feel like we’re special. It could be we get attention for the way we look. Or maybe because people think we’re interesting to listen to. Or maybe we’ve somehow managed to get a big online following. And we think to ourselves, hey, if I get more attention than your average person, it must be because I’m more important than your average person.
So what should we put in this second chapter of our book on pride? How about a reminder about the Final Judgment? When not only the Almighty God, but every human being and every angel who has ever lived will watch, and we’ll be there too, they’ll watch the complete story of our life, down to the minutest details. When it’s our turn, we’ll be getting plenty of attention. And let me tell you, we’ll wish we weren’t. Because the whole universe will see all our most shameful moments. They’ll see us at our ugliest, at our sickest, at our most cruel and perverse. See all the times when we were most childishly nasty. They’ll see how we posed in public, pretending to be clever or thoughtful or kind, and then they’ll see how we indulged our most base, most cowardly, most outrageously self-centered impulses.
So if you’re tempted to be proud of the attention you get, remember this, the people who admire, follow, or compliment you now don’t know everything about you. But one day they will. So think about that day. Think less about your public persona and more about reforming your private life, so that the Day of Judgment, the Day of the Lord, may be endurable for you when it comes.
That’s chapter two.
Four
Skills and Achievements
Finally, we get proud of the things we’ve done and the things we’re good at. We’re proud of our professional skills. Whether it’s being an electrician, a general contractor, a doctor, or an accountant. We can do stuff other people can’t do. Maybe we’re a little proud of our domestic or parenting skills. Maybe we’re better cooks than other people, or we manage to keep our house clean when other people’s is a mess. Maybe our kids are better academically, or less socially awkward. Maybe we have something kind of impressive on our resume. Maybe we’ve written a book, or built a successful business, or maybe all our kids made it through college and out of the house.
And we think to ourselves, “You know, I’ve done pretty well. A lot of people can’t do what I can do, and a lot of people haven’t achieved what I’ve achieved.”
So, for the final chapter of our Cure to Pride book, let’s remember all the things we can’t do and all the things we haven’t achieved. Let’s remember the sins we can’t get under control: the overeating, the lust, the anger, the gossip. Let’s remember the resolutions we haven’t kept, the resolution to be patient, to keep to our prayer schedule, to really make significant sacrifices out of love for the Lord, our family members, or those in need.
Remember that overcoming vice and gaining virtue is the only achievement worth anything in this life. And those are the achievements that we have spectacularly failed to realize. Let’s keep our eyes focused on those, instead of on the superficial, plastic trophies that might glitter and sparkle and impress people for now, but at the end of the day don’t mean very much at all.
That’s chapter three.
Five
Save the Glory for Later
This meditation may sound like it’s a big downer, but it’s actually not supposed to be. The point is actually to stay focused and the problem with pride is that it takes your focus off what matters and onto superficial things like money, attention, and worldly success. And yes, we do have some virtues, and, praise God, we have done some good things, and we should be encouraged by our real spiritual successes. But now’s not the main time to celebrate our victories. Now is not the time for us to exalt ourselves.
Now is the time to work, to pursue perfection, and to remind ourselves that it’s still a long way off, and that we still have a lot of progress to make. There will be plenty of time to celebrate our spiritual successes in heaven. That’s when we’ll be exalted. That’s when we’ll be glorified. And our glory then will be proportional to our humility now. As Christ says, whoever humbles himself will be exalted. The last shall be first.
So hang on to that book, that Cure for Pride.
Suggested Resolutions:
Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you.
Whenever you find yourself basking in your accomplishments, remind yourself that the only important accomplishment is acquiring virtue.
Examine how you use your wealth each day: do you use purchases as a sign of status?
When you do things with duplicitous intentions, remind yourself that one day, everything will be made known in the Final Judgment.