This week I’ve had the privilege of retreating to my own house for a bit of mental, physical, and spiritual refreshment. C. S. Lewis discusses, in the chapter entitled “The Great Sin” within Mere Christianity, that the center of all Christian virtues lies at the problem of Pride. It is “The Great Sin” not because it is indeed a greater sin in God’s eyes””truly he sees all man’s shortcomings as equally upsetting””but because the vice of Pride can lead to such ultimate demise. As Lewis puts it, “It is the complete anti-God state of mind.” It is Pride that made Satan so devilish. One cannot be prideful while still acknowledging the presence of a holier, more superior being than himself. This is because Pride, in its essential nature, is competitive. While other sins may cause one to be competitive at one time or another, Pride is never without competition. Consider it this way: a prideful man is not content with simply being rich, he must be richer than those around him. “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.” (It should be noted that there is a difference between Pride and the other English usage of the word, as in a man being “˜proud’ of his family. If the meaning comes as “˜an admiration for’, then surely this is not a sin. The fault may come when he believes himself to be better than other fathers based on his family’s fine standing.)
The reason for such a lengthy summary (although anyone who has read Lewis knows it was, in fact, not lengthy at all) was that this chapter reaffirmed my convictions from the night I saw The Passion of the Christ. You may remember in my post “Loads of Silence” that I asked for prayer consideration on my hidden selfish nature. Perhaps it was not so hidden as I had thought. Surely a prideful person thinks himself quite humble, and that others take note of his humility and are in awe of him for it. “If you think you are not conceited, you are very conceited indeed.”
So how are we to break ourselves away from this Pride that so easily brings us demise? I should think the best way is for a constant redirection of our spiritual eyes to God, and with that a realization that, in the presence of God, we are nothing. Truly nothing. God is not impressed by anything we offer, nor do our offerings put God in some sort of debt to us.You do not think that a child who buys a gift for his father using his father’s money has suddenly earned a debt against his father for the small treasure he has essentially given in return. Why then do we assume that a short time of good behavior on our part forces God to return the favor in whatever we ask for?
But in all, I think the first step is “to realize that one is proud… At least, nothing whatever can be done before it.” That realization is what came about the night of The Passion of the Christ; it is what forced me to see myself rightly. I am a greedy little child with but cheap offerings to his Father.
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