Anticipating All Saints Day at Work - Continued
We're either on our way to or at work with All Saints Day just a stone's throw away. We've been praying for the saints to intercede for us that we might understand the dangers of pride. We pray also for the grace to resist and ultimately excise this life-threatening vice from our souls. Now let's recall both the insidiousness of pride as well as the connection to the saints we established last time:
"...no proud person suspects himself of this insidious passion. It is rare to find a person appreciating himself at his proper value, and still more rare, to meet one who regulates his life according to a correct estimate of his worth...only saints are wholly free from illusions about their personal worth."
When we do our best at work and are duly acknowledged, we can find ourselves between a rock and a hard place: While we deserve our rewards, pride can sneak up on us and inflate our true worth into something unwieldy, ugly, even dangerous. This can spring from our human nature or from the promptings of the devil. It can typically be exacerbated by the concept, we might even say the culture, of "self-affirmation" that seems to be continuously pushed on us. Placing ourselves, our ambitions, our success at the center of lives, we make ourselves the perfect target for the insidious vice of pride. Look how the saints feared this terrible vice as described by Fr. Joseph Schryvers:
“The saints, at the sight of their miseries, had strange fears. St. Vincent de Paul was surprised that the Almighty did not destroy the towns through which he passed. St. Alphonsus believed himself the cause of all the persecutions which were leveled against his Congregation. St. Louis Bertrand counted himself the most abominable sinner the earth ever produced. And we, by way of excuse, soothe ourselves by saying: ‘Ah! But these were saints!’ But did the saints exaggerate? Were they objects of pity? Might it not well be that we are stone blind, while they saw with eyes lighted by the Eternal Truth? Unless pride blinds our eyes, we cannot but see that all human beings are infinitely miserable and sinful."
Now isn't this a powerful antidote to that "self-affirmation" nonsense foisted on us? And don't fall into the trap of thinking this is "negative" thinking. If you're inclined in that direction, I challenge you to demonstrate how the statement that "all human beings are infinitely miserable and sinful" is in any way inaccurate.
Father Schryvers goes on to prescribe just how we apply this antidote:
"We should understand in a practical way that from every point of view as creatures, we depend on God for everything – our essence, our existence, and our conservation, together with all the conditions of our development. We should keep before us our innumerable transgressions, doubled in gravity by their ingratitude and frequent relapse. We should also realize our present actual shortcomings, attachments, cowardice, fickleness, peevishness and vexation."
Note especially "innumerable transgressions." We live in a time when too many of us think of ourselves as passably "holy" because, well, we haven't killed anyone. But no capital sin doesn't mean no sin. And while we might "feel" like we're really, well, nice guys, it's not our feelings we're talking about here. It's our inner thoughts, our outward behavior. Step back. Take a look. See what you find. Are you really the "saint" that your feelings would lead you to believe.
As we work our way through this day, we might consider joining Fr. Schryvers in this prayer for protection against pride.
“Oh, Jesus! How perverse we are, and how little we suspect it! Have mercy on me, Good Master, for I am afraid of the vice of pride. I want to be of the number of those who are meek and humble of heart. Make my heart like Yours. But our Good Master knows full well the clay of which we are formed, and the foolish pretensions of our fallen nature. He is satisfied and He loves us when He sees us perplexed at the sight of our misery, and, in spite of it, ever full of confidence in His goodness and resolved to acquire humility at any cost, for ‘God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.’ (James 4:6)” - Fr. Joseph Schryvers, C.SS.R. (1876-1945)
So today we work hard. Some us may enjoy the fruits of our labors. If we're blessed with recognition and rewards, we accept them graciously. But we keep our guard up to assure that all our efforts and accomplishments will not be perverted by the terrible vice of pride. With confidence that God will provide the grace we need to resist any prideful tendencies or the promptings of the devil, we earnestly pray for the the sense and strength that come with the virtue of humility.
Humility provides us with the ability to see the true sense of our worth. We will not inflate our contributions and accomplishments at work. Having a real sense of the value of those contributions and accomplishments keeps them in their rightful place such that we can enjoy any rewards due to us without exacerbating our pride.
As we approach the great feast day that lies before us, we pray for protection from the vice of pride and the virtue of humility in communion with All the Saints.
"...no proud person suspects himself of this insidious passion. It is rare to find a person appreciating himself at his proper value, and still more rare, to meet one who regulates his life according to a correct estimate of his worth...only saints are wholly free from illusions about their personal worth."
When we do our best at work and are duly acknowledged, we can find ourselves between a rock and a hard place: While we deserve our rewards, pride can sneak up on us and inflate our true worth into something unwieldy, ugly, even dangerous. This can spring from our human nature or from the promptings of the devil. It can typically be exacerbated by the concept, we might even say the culture, of "self-affirmation" that seems to be continuously pushed on us. Placing ourselves, our ambitions, our success at the center of lives, we make ourselves the perfect target for the insidious vice of pride. Look how the saints feared this terrible vice as described by Fr. Joseph Schryvers:
“The saints, at the sight of their miseries, had strange fears. St. Vincent de Paul was surprised that the Almighty did not destroy the towns through which he passed. St. Alphonsus believed himself the cause of all the persecutions which were leveled against his Congregation. St. Louis Bertrand counted himself the most abominable sinner the earth ever produced. And we, by way of excuse, soothe ourselves by saying: ‘Ah! But these were saints!’ But did the saints exaggerate? Were they objects of pity? Might it not well be that we are stone blind, while they saw with eyes lighted by the Eternal Truth? Unless pride blinds our eyes, we cannot but see that all human beings are infinitely miserable and sinful."
Now isn't this a powerful antidote to that "self-affirmation" nonsense foisted on us? And don't fall into the trap of thinking this is "negative" thinking. If you're inclined in that direction, I challenge you to demonstrate how the statement that "all human beings are infinitely miserable and sinful" is in any way inaccurate.
Father Schryvers goes on to prescribe just how we apply this antidote:
"We should understand in a practical way that from every point of view as creatures, we depend on God for everything – our essence, our existence, and our conservation, together with all the conditions of our development. We should keep before us our innumerable transgressions, doubled in gravity by their ingratitude and frequent relapse. We should also realize our present actual shortcomings, attachments, cowardice, fickleness, peevishness and vexation."
Note especially "innumerable transgressions." We live in a time when too many of us think of ourselves as passably "holy" because, well, we haven't killed anyone. But no capital sin doesn't mean no sin. And while we might "feel" like we're really, well, nice guys, it's not our feelings we're talking about here. It's our inner thoughts, our outward behavior. Step back. Take a look. See what you find. Are you really the "saint" that your feelings would lead you to believe.
As we work our way through this day, we might consider joining Fr. Schryvers in this prayer for protection against pride.
“Oh, Jesus! How perverse we are, and how little we suspect it! Have mercy on me, Good Master, for I am afraid of the vice of pride. I want to be of the number of those who are meek and humble of heart. Make my heart like Yours. But our Good Master knows full well the clay of which we are formed, and the foolish pretensions of our fallen nature. He is satisfied and He loves us when He sees us perplexed at the sight of our misery, and, in spite of it, ever full of confidence in His goodness and resolved to acquire humility at any cost, for ‘God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.’ (James 4:6)” - Fr. Joseph Schryvers, C.SS.R. (1876-1945)
So today we work hard. Some us may enjoy the fruits of our labors. If we're blessed with recognition and rewards, we accept them graciously. But we keep our guard up to assure that all our efforts and accomplishments will not be perverted by the terrible vice of pride. With confidence that God will provide the grace we need to resist any prideful tendencies or the promptings of the devil, we earnestly pray for the the sense and strength that come with the virtue of humility.
Humility provides us with the ability to see the true sense of our worth. We will not inflate our contributions and accomplishments at work. Having a real sense of the value of those contributions and accomplishments keeps them in their rightful place such that we can enjoy any rewards due to us without exacerbating our pride.
As we approach the great feast day that lies before us, we pray for protection from the vice of pride and the virtue of humility in communion with All the Saints.
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