=The Struggle against the Capital Sins = 818. At bottom this struggle is but a species of mortification. In order to complete the purification of the soul and prevent it from ^elapsing into. sin, we~ must set upon the source of the evil in us, which is the threefold concupiscence. The general characteristics of this we have already described in numbers 193-209; but being the root of the seven capital sins, these evil inclinations must be known and attacked. They are tendencies rather than sins; however, they are called sms, because they lead to sins; they are termed captital, because they are the fountain-head or source of other sins. - These tendencies can be referred to the threefold concupiscence in this way: from pride are born vain-glory, envy, and anger; from the concupiscence of the flesh issue gluttony, lust, and slot; lastly, the concupiscence of the eyes is one with avarice or the inordinate love of riches. 819. The struggle against the seven capital sins has always had a prominent place in Christian spirituality; Cassian treats of it at length in his Conferences and. in his Institutes; * he enumerates eight instead of seven, because he distinguishes pride from vain-glory. St. Gregory the Great clearly distinguishes the seven capital sins, air of which he traces to pride. St. Thomas also traces them all to pride and shows how they can be logically classified, if account is taken of the special ends towards which man is dra\yn. The will may be drawn towards an object by a twofold motion, the search for some apparent good, or flight from an apparent evil. The apparent good sought by the will may be : i) praise or honor, a spiritual good, pursued in an inordinate manner by persons who are vain; 2) the preservation of self or of the race, corporal goods, sought after excessively by gluttonous and impure persons respectively; 3) external things, loved to excessi by such as are avaricious. Theapparent evil from which we flee may consist : i) in the effort required for the attainment of good, which effort the slothful evade; 2) .in the prospect of lost prestige, which, both the jealous and the irritable dread, though in different ways. Thus, the differentiation of the seven capital sins is based on the seven special ends which the sinner has in view. We shall follow that division which shows the connection between the capital vices arid our threefold concupiscence. ART. I PRIDE AND THE VICES RELATED THERETO I. Pride 820; Pride is a deviation of that legitimate sentiment which prompts us to prize what is good in us, and to seek the esteem of others in the measure in which this is useful. There is no doubt that we can and that we must prize the good which God has given us, acknowledging that He is its first principle and last end. This is a sentiment that honors God and makes for self:respect. . We may also desire that others see and appreciate the good that is in us and that they give glory to God for it, just as we ourselves must in turn recognize and appreciate their good qualities, This mutual regard fosters good relations among men. . \ However, these two tendencies may either go astray, or go beyond due limits.: At times we forget that God is the source of these gifts, and we attribute them to -ourselves. This constitutes a disorder,. for it denies, at least implicitly/ that God is our first principle. In like manner we are tempted to act for self, or to gain the esteem of others, instead of acting for God, and of referring to/Him all tne honor. This is again a disorder, for it denies, at least in the same implicit manner, that God is our last end. Such is the twofold disorder found in this vice. We can, then, define pride as an inordinate love of self, which causes us to consider ourselves, explicitly or implicitly, as, our first beginning and last end. It is a species of idolatry, forwe make gods of ourselves, as Bossuet remarks (n. 204). The better to combat pride, we shall expose : i && principal forms it takes, 2 the faults it engenders, 3 its malice, 4 the remedies to be applied. . I. The Principal Forms of Pride 821. i The first form of pride is to regard oneself, explicitly or implicitly, as ones own first principle, - A) There are but few who go as far as to consider themselves explicitly as their own first principle. . a), This is the sin of atheists, who wilfully deny God, because they , want no master, No God, no Master. Of such the Psalmist speaks when he says : The fool hath said in his heart: tKere is no God. I b) This was, equivalently, the sin of Lucifer, who, desiring to be a rule unto himself, refused to submit to God; the sin of our^first parents, who wishing to be like God wanted to know of themselves what is good and what is evil ; the sin of heretics, who like Luther refused to acknowledge the authority of the Church established by God ; the sin of rationalists, who in their pride of intellect refuse to submit their reason to faith. This is also the sin of certain intellectuals, who, too proud to accept the traditional interpretation of dogmas, attenuate and deform them to make them conform to their own views. 822. B) A greater number fall into this fault implicitly by acting as if the natural and supernatural gifts which God has freely bestowed upon theni were in every sense their own. True, they recognize in theory that God is their first principle, but in practice they esteem themselves beyond measure, as if they were the source of the qualities they possess. . a) Some there are who delight in their qualities and .their worth as if these were due solely to themselves. The soul, says Bossuet, seeing its own beauty, has delighted in itself and has become absorbed in the contemplation of its own excellence. , It has failed for an instant to refer all it has to God; it has forgotten its own dependence; it has first centered upon self and then surrendered to it. But in seeking to free himself from God and the laws of justice, man has become the slave of his sin. 823. b) Graver still is the pride of those who, after the manner of the Stoics, attribute to themselves the virtues they practice; the pride of those who imagine that the free gifts of God are the wages due their own merits, or that their good works are more their own than Gods, Who in reality is their principal cause ; the pride of those who look complacently upon such good works, as% if these were wholly their own. 3 824. C) By the same principle we exaggerate our personal qualities. a) We close our eyes to our defects, we look at our good qualities through magnifying glasses, as it were, and we end by attributing to ourselves qualities we do not possess or, at least, qualities which have only the appearance of virtue. Thus, we give alms for show and we believe ourselves charitable when we are simply proud; we fancy we are saints because we enjoy sensible consolations, or because we have given expression to beautiful thoughts, or taken good resolutions, whilst in reality we have not advanced beyond the first few steps on the way .to perfection.. Others pride themselves on being broadminded because they make little of small practices, wishing to. sanctify themselves by doing great things, b) From this there is but. one step to an unjust preference of self to others. We examine their defects with a miscroscope, and we are scarcely conscious of our own ; we see the mote in the neighbors eye, but not the beam in our own. At times we e, like the Pharisee, to despise our brethren ; li at other times, without going that far, we unjustly lower them in our estimation, and we believe ourselves above, whilst in reality we. are below them. It is by the selfsame principle that we seek to Iqrd it over our brethren and have our superiorly over them recognized, e) In relation to Superiors, this pride takes the form of censure and fault-finding, prompting us to scrutinize minutely all their acts, all their moves; we want to pass judgment, on all things, to control all things. Thus we render, obedience far more difficult for ourselves; we find it hard t,osubmit to the authority and the decisions of superiors; to ask thejr permission becomes a hardship ; we aspire to independence, that is, to be ourselves our. own first principle. 825. 2 The second form of pride consists in considering ourselves, explicitly or implicitly,, .as our last end, by performing our actions without referring them to God, and by desiring to be praised for them as if they were exclusively, our work. This fault -proceeds from the first, for whoever looks upon himself as his own first principle wills also to be his own last end. Here we must recall the distinctions already made. , A),Hardly any one explicitly considers himself as his own last, end, except an atheist or an unbeliever. B) Yet, many behave in practice, as if they shared in this error, a) They want to- be praised, to be complimented upon their good works, as if they were themselves the principal authors, and as if they were responsible only to themselves. Instead of referring all to God, they expect congratulations for success, as if all the honor were due to them, b) They are prompted by egotism, they act for their own ends, caring little for the glory of God, and still less for the welfare of their neighbor. They. even go so far as to take for granted that others must organize their lives to please and.to serve them; thus they make themselves the centeryand so to speak, the end toward which others are to gravitate. What else is this if :not the unconscious usurpation of the rights of God? e) There are devout persons who, without going so far seek self in piety; they complain of God when He does not flood them with consolations; they pine with grief when in the midst of d4-yness, and thus form the false idea that the aim of piety is the enjoyment of consolations, forgetting that the glory of God must be the supreme end of all our actions, above allj of prayer and spiritual exercises. 826. We must, then, acknowledge the fact that pride, under one form or the other, is a very common fault, even among those who follow the path of perfection, a fault that stays with,, us through all the stages of -the spiritual life and disappears only when we die. Beginners are hardly aware of it because their study of. self does1 not reach deep enough. Their attention must be drawn to this point; the more common forms of this fault must be indicated to them, so that they may make these the subject of their particular examination. . ; , . II. Defects Born of Pride The chief ones are presumption, ambition, and vain-glory. ,827. i -Presumption consists in an inordinate desire and hope whereby we want to do things which are beyond our strength. It proceeds from too high an opinion of ourselves, of our natural faculties, of our knowledge, of our strength, of our virtues. a) From the intellectual point of view we think ourselves capable of approaching and solving the.most difficult questions, or at least of undertaking studies which are beyond the reach of our talents. We easily persuade ourselves that we abound in judgment and wisdom, and instead of learning how to doubt, we settle with finality the most controverted questions, b) From the moral point of view we fancy thatwe are possessed of sufficient light to be our own guides, and that it is hardly profitable to consult a spiritual director. We convince ourselves that in spite of past faults we need fear no relapses, and we imprudently walk into occasions of sin, and then we fall. From this come discouragement and vexation that often result in f\esh falls, e) From the spiritual point of view, we have but little relish. for hidden and mortifying virtues, preferring those that are more brilliant :, instead of building upon the sound foundation of humility, we dream about greatness of soul, about strength of character, about a magnanimous spirit, about apostolic zeal, and about the imaginary successes we lay in store for the future. The first serious temptations, however, make us aware that the will is still weak and wavering. At times we make little of the ordinaiy ways of prayer, and of what are called the little exercises of piety, aspiring to extraordinary graces while we are still only at the beginning of the spiritual life. \ 828. 2 This presumption, added, to pride, begets ambition, that is to say, the inordinate love of honors, ofdignities\ of authority over others. Because we presume overmuch on our strength, and because we consider ourselves superior yto others, we want to dominate them, to rule them and impose upon them our ideas. This disorder, says St. Thomas, 1 may show itself in three ways: i) One seeks for undeserved honors, honors which are above one ; 2) one seeks them for oneself, for ones own glory, and not for the glory of God ; 3) one takes delight fin honors for their own .sake, .without making them redound to the good of others; contrary to the order, established; by God Who requires superiors to procure the welfare of those under them. , Tliis ambition invades every sphere of life : i) the political realm, > vvheremen aspire to rule others, and that ofttimes at the price of so many meannesses, so many compromises, so .many questionable practices, in order to secure the votes of constituents ; 2) the intellectual domain, wherein men seek stubbornly to impose their ideas on others, even with regard to questions open to free discussion; 3) civil.life, where men vie for, the first places, *high office, and the plaudits of, the crowd ; 4) even the ecclesiastical state is not exempt, for as Bossuet 2 remarks, Plow many safeguards have not beenfound necessary, even in. ecclesiastical and religious elections, in order to curb .ambition, , to- prevent .factions, intrigues, underhand dealings, and the most criminal, pledges and practices, simoniacal contracts, and other such irregularities too common in these matters? ~\ We cannot boast that these safeguards, have uprooted such abuses; they have hardly done more than to conceal or to restrain them in part. And, as St. Gregory * notes, are there not those, even in the ranks of .the clergy, who want to be called doctors, and eagerly seek the first places and the praise of men?; They seek to appear learned, they long to excel others, and, as Truth bears witness, they crave the first salutations in . public; the first places at table, the highest seats in councils. This fault, then, in more generaithan one would at first sight believe, andis:closely allied with vanity. . 829. 3 Vanity is an inordinate love for the esteem of others. It differs from pride, which is< pleasure taken in ones :-Qwn ; excellence; it generally springs from pride. When one has conceived too high an esteem for oneself one naturally desires the approbation of others. . 830. A) vThe Malice of yanity. We may Hghtfu-lly desire the esteem of others, if we wish that our qualities, natural or supernatural, be acknowledged in order that God be glorified and that our influence for good be extended; Suclra desire is not sinful, for it is in order that what is good should be esteemed, provided we acknowledge God as the author of that good and; that He alone must be given the praise, for,. it./4 The most that can be said against such desires is that it is dangerous to center our thoughts upon them, because we run the risk of seeking the esteem of others for selfish purposes. . . 1 It is not solely among the learned arid the wealthy that this defect is found , Bossuet speaks (Tr. on Concupiscence, C. XVI) of .the country-folk who peevishly contend for the more honorable places in the churches, going so far as to say that they will cease to^ attend divine services unless their wishes are given heed. The disorder, then, consists in wanting to be- held in esteem for ones own sake, -without referring tjiis honor to God, Who has placed in us whatever good we possess; it may also consist .in wanting ,to be esteemed for the sake of vain things, undeserving of praise ; or it may consist in seeking the esteem of those whose judgment is worthless, of .wordlings for instance, who hold in esteem only vain things. . \ No one has given a better description of this fault than St. Francis de Sales1 : We call that glory vain which we assume to ourselves, either for what is not in us, or for what is in us, and belongs to us, but deserves not that we should glory in it. The nobility of pur ancestors, the favor of great men, and popular honor, are. things, not in us, but either in our progenitors, or in the esteem ofother men. Some become proud and insolent, either by riding a good horse, wearing a feather in their hat, or by being dressed in a fine suit of clothes ; but who. does not see the folly of -this? for if there be any glory in such things, the glory belongs to the horse, the bird, and the tailor... Others value themselves for a well-trimmed beard, for curled locks, or soft hands ; or because they can dance, sing or play ; but are not these effeminate men, who seek to raise their reputation by SQ frivolous and foolish things? Others, for a little learning, would be honored, and respected by the whole world, as if every one ought to become their pupil, and account them his masters. These are called pedants. Others strut like peacocks, contemplating their beauty and think themselves admired by every one. All this is extremely vain, foolish, and impertinent ; and the glory which is raised on so weak foundations is justly esteemed vain and frivolus. 831. B) Faults that spring1 from vanity. Vanity produces many faults which are but its outward manifestation. The principal ones are boasting, ostentation and hypocrisy. 1) Bousting \s the habit of speaking of self or of those things that can redound to our advantage with a view to gaining- the esteem of others. There are those who speak of themselves, of their family, of their success with a candor that amuses their hearers; others cleverly turn the trend of conversation to a subject wherein dhey can display their knowledge; others timidly speak of their defects, harboring the secret hope that these will be excused and their good qualities thereby made more apparent. 2) Ostentation consists in drawing to self the attention of others by a certain .way of acting, by pompous display, and by singularity. 3) Hypocrisy takes on the outward appearance ofjvirtue to cover very real vices. , . . , III. The Malice of Pride To form a right idea of this malice we may consider pride in itself and in its .effects. 8 3-2. i In itself: A) Pride properly so called, that pride , which consciously and wilfully usurps, even if implicitly, the rights of God,, is a grievous sin, nay it is the gravest of sins, says St. Thomas, x because it is a refusal to submit to Gods, sovereign will. . a) To want to be independent, to refuse obedience to God or to His lawful representatives, in a serious matter, constitutes a mortal sin, since one thereby revolts against God, our rightful Sovereign. b) To attribute to oneself what evidently comes from God, and especially the gifts of grace, constitutes likewise a grievous fault, for this is to deny implicitly that God is the first principle of whatever good is in us. Some are guilty of this, for example, those who say that they have made themselves what they are. e) One sins gravelyj again, when one wants to act for oneself, to the exclusion of God, for this is to deny God His right to be our last end. 833. t B) Mitigated pride, which indeed acknowledges God as the first principle or last end but does not render Him all that is due to Him, and implicitly robs Him of a part of His glory, is without doubt a venial* fault. Such is the fault of those who glory in their good qualities or their virtues, as if they were convinced that all is theirs in their own right. It is also the fault of the presumptuous, of the vain, of the ambitious, who, however, do nothing against a divine or a human law in serious matter. At all events, such sins can become mortal if they lead to acts that are grievously reprehensible. Thus, vanity, which in itself is but a venial fault, becomes a grievous one when it causes us to contract debts which we are unable to pay, or when it seeks to stir in others an inordinate love. Pride, then, must be examined also in its results, 834. 2 In its effects: A) Unrestrained pride produces at. times disastrous effects.: How many wars have been started through the pride of rulers and sometimes through the pride of nations themselves ! 2 Without going that far, how many family discussions, how many personal hatreds are not due to this vice? The Fathers rightly teach that it is the root of all other vices and that it vitiates many a virtuous act, since it causes men to perform them from selfish motives. 3 ./.,- 835. B) Taking the point of view ofperfection, the one with which we are concerned, we can say that pride is the archenemy of perfection because it creates in the soul a barren waste apd is the source of numerous, sins, a) It deprives us of many graces and much merit: : . i ) It deprives us of many graces, because God Who is bountiful with His grace to the humble, withholds it from the proud: God resisteth the,proud and giveth grace to the humble * Let us weigh well these words : God resisteth the proud, Because, says Father Olier, 2 the. proud man, challenging God to His face, is resisted by the Almighty in , his insolent and horrible pretensions; arid, sirice God, wills to remain what He is, He lays low and destroys such as rise up against Him. 2) It deprives us of much merit. One of the essential conditions for meriting is purity of intention. But the proud man acts for se/for in order to please men, instead of acting for God, and\thus^ deserves the reproach addressed to the Pharisees, who paraded their good; works ibefore men and who for this reason could exp.ect>no recompense from God : Take heed thatyou do not your justice, before, men to be seen by them: otherwise you shall not have reward. ofyour Father who is in heaven.,.. Amen, I say to youy they: have received their reward. 3 . 836. b) Pride is likewise a source ofmany, faults : i) Personal faults : through presumption one exposes oneself to danger and falls; through pride one fails to ask earnestly for the graces one needs and likewise falls,; then come discouragement and the temptation to conceal sins in confession. 2) Faults against the neighbor: through pride one is unwilling to yield, even when in the wrong; one is caustic in speech; one indulges in harsh and heated discussions which bring dissension^ and discord; hence,^acrimonious words, even unjust ones, against ones rivals in order to belittle them ; hence, bitter criticism against Superiors and refusal to obey their orders. 837. e) Finally, pride is a source of unhappiness. to those habitually given to it. Because we want to. exeel in all things and lord it over others, we have neither peace nor contentment, for we know no rest as long as we have not succeeded in Vanquishing our antagonists ano!, since this is never fully accomplished, we are troubled, ill at ease and unhappy. IV. The Remedies against Pride 838. We have already said- (n. 207) that the great remedy against pride is the acknowledgment of the fact that. God is the Author of all good, and that therefore to Him alone, belongs all honor and glory. Of ourselves we are but nothingness and sin, and hence merit nothing but forgetfulness and contempt (n. 208). . 839. i We are tout nothingness. Beginners must form this conviction through meditation by pondering leisurely the following thoughts: I am nothing, I can do nothing, I am worth nothing. . A) I am nothing . True, it has pleased the divine goodness to choose me out of millions of possible beings, to give me my existence, to endow me with life, with a spiritual and immortal soul, and for this I am bound to thank Him daily. Yet, a) I camefrom nothing, and by the very force of my being I tend towards, nothingness, whereto I should surely return were it not for the abiding action of my Maker which sustains me. My being, then, is not mine, but is wholly Gods, and it is to Him that I must render homage. b) This being God has given me is a living reality, a great boon for which I shall never be able to return Him due thanks. Yet, wondrous as this being of -mine is, side by side with the God-head it is as mere nothingness : And my substance is as nothing before thee, for it is so imperfect. i) This being is a contingent being, which could well cease to exist without detracting anything from the worlds perfection. 2) It is & borrowed being, given to me on the explicit condition of remaining under the sway of Gods supreme dominion. 3) It is a. frail being, unable to subsist of itself, a being that ever needs the unceasing sustaining power of its Maker. Such being is, therefore, essentially dependent upon God, and has no other reason for its existence than that of giving glory to its Creator. To forget this dependence, to act as if pur good qualities were absolutely our own and to boast of them, is an error hard to conceive; it is madness and injustice. 840. What we say of man considered Jn the order of nature is even truer of him in the order ofgrace, whereby we share in the life of God, wherefrom issue all our worth and all our grandeur, that grace which is essentially a free gift of God and of Jesus Christ, which we cannot for long keep without the help of God, and wherein we cannot grow without His supernatural concurrence (n. 126-128). For this especially we must say : Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift. What ingratitude and injustice to attribute to self the least part of that .gift essentially divine! What hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received, why dost thou glory, as if tkou hadst not received it? . 841. B) Of myself, I can do nothing . True, I have received from God wondrous powers that enable me to know and love truth and goodness. These faculties have been perfected by the supernatural virtues and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. These gifts of nature and of grace blending so harmoniously and complementing one another so perfectly surpass all wonder. Yet, of myself, of my own accord, / can do nothing to set them in motion to work out their perfection. I can do nothing in the natural order without the concurrence of God ; I can do nothing in the supernatural order without actual grace, not even conceive a good thought unto salvation, nor a desire supernaturally good. Knowing this, could I take pride in those natural and supernatural powers as if they were entirely my own? Here again there would be ingratitude and madness and injustice. 842, C) I am worth nothing . In truth, if I consider what God has placed within me, what He works . in me through His grace, I am worth a great deal, I am beyond price : For you are bought with a great price .3... , You are worth what God is worth. I am worth the price which was paid for me, and the price paid for me was the blood of God Himself! Does the glory of my redemption and
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