The Sin of Pride (...or is it?)

[SanRafael1102]

This has probably been hashed out before, but for the life of me, the search feature on these forums confuses me to no end.

I’ll try to cut to the chase. We all know about the deadly sins. Out of all of these sins, one seems to always be connected to almost every situation pertaining to the other six. That would be the sin of Pride.

When we lust, it can be said that we’re so great, that we believe we deserve the use of the other person. When we’re gluttonous, it’s as if we’re saying that we’re so important that we deserve to gorge ourselves. When we’re envious, we’re saying we deserve our neighbor’s possessions or spouse as much (or more) than they do. You get the point. So pride is a big sin, and it very well may be the root (or at least a root) of many other sins.

But when we say “pride,” are we always referring to this particular sin? When your daughter comes off of the basketball court after losing in the playoffs, and you say, “Mom and I are proud of you, honey,” are you sinning? When a man who was born into extreme poverty works his tail off to better himself, and finally buys a home which he is proud of, is that the same thing? When a woman is using her God-given prowess for marketing to help small businesses flourish in a harsh economy, is it wrong for her to take pride in her work?

All of these examples seem not only harmless, but to be doing a fair amount of good. The parents are praising their daughter’s hard work, the man is taking care of something he worked hard to accomplish, and the woman is using her skills to help other people; and they’re all proud to do so.

So, is this merely an issue of semantics, or has society become so numb to sins that we completely want to ignore these? They don’t look like sins, but they still use that same ‘p-word.’ Are they just tiny sins? Or does our language just like to muddle itself up by using the same word for multiple definitions?

Thoughts?

~Pax

 

[Dorothy]

When we say to our child “we are so proud of you” we are affirming that we love them.

That is so different than flying in the face of God and saying “I don’t need You to succeed”. (They might not say those words, but live like they do not need the grace of God.)

 

[dallas_r]

I am also very confused. I play football and am the best quarterback in my school. I don’t go bragging about it but I know I am better than pretty much everyone at my school. Is this pride? I worked hard to get where I am now and like I said, I don’t flash it in peoples face.

 

[Elena321]

This has probably been hashed out before, but for the life of me, the search feature on these forums confuses me to no end.

I’ll try to cut to the chase. We all know about the deadly sins. Out of all of these sins, one seems to always be connected to almost every situation pertaining to the other six. That would be the sin of Pride.

When we lust, it can be said that we’re so great, that we believe we deserve the use of the other person. When we’re gluttonous, it’s as if we’re saying that we’re so important that we deserve to gorge ourselves. When we’re envious, we’re saying we deserve our neighbor’s possessions or spouse as much (or more) than they do. You get the point. So pride is a big sin, and it very well may be the root (or at least a root) of many other sins.

But when we say “pride,” are we always referring to this particular sin? When your daughter comes off of the basketball court after losing in the playoffs, and you say, “Mom and I are proud of you, honey,” are you sinning? When a man who was born into extreme poverty works his tail off to better himself, and finally buys a home which he is proud of, is that the same thing? When a woman is using her God-given prowess for marketing to help small businesses flourish in a harsh economy, is it wrong for her to take pride in her work?

All of these examples seem not only harmless, but to be doing a fair amount of good. The parents are praising their daughter’s hard work, the man is taking care of something he worked hard to accomplish, and the woman is using her skills to help other people; and they’re all proud to do so.

So, is this merely an issue of semantics, or has society become so numb to sins that we completely want to ignore these? They don’t look like sins, but they still use that same ‘p-word.’ Are they just tiny sins? Or does our language just like to muddle itself up by using the same word for multiple definitions?

Thoughts?

~Pax

The examples you mentioned are examples of good pride.
Bad pride is different.
The problem is with the English language-it often uses the same word to mean different things/different affective states.

 

[Onestepahead]

Somebody’s going to come along and explain this better than me…but I’ll give it a try. Yes, you could call it “good” pride and “bad” pride. When I do something noteworthy, it’s a struggle not to casually insert a mention of my accomplishment in a conversation with someone else. But I fight that prideful tendency.

Another way I fight my pride and try to work on my humility is by never mentioning a particular ministry that I take part in, at church. So, for example, when you bake a cake for the fall fest, make it fabulous, but don’t make a big production of bringing it into church when everyone will be there to see it. Instead, drop it off during a quiet time and keep it to yourself.

Instead of taking the job of being the head of a committee where everyone will see you and know that you’re important, be the one of the invisible folks that show up on the rainy Saturday morning when they’ve asked for volunteers to rake the grounds. When you’ve raked for a few hours and gone home, don’t make a big deal out of telling friends what you did that day if they ask, just say “Oh, I had an obligation to take care of” or whatever. Don’t make a bee-line to shake Father’s hand after Mass so that he “knows” you were there; just leave church quietly and be on your way.

 

[Reuben_J]

This has probably been hashed out before, but for the life of me, the search feature on these forums confuses me to no end.

I’ll try to cut to the chase. We all know about the deadly sins. Out of all of these sins, one seems to always be connected to almost every situation pertaining to the other six. That would be the sin of Pride.

When we lust, it can be said that we’re so great, that we believe we deserve the use of the other person. When we’re gluttonous, it’s as if we’re saying that we’re so important that we deserve to gorge ourselves. When we’re envious, we’re saying we deserve our neighbor’s possessions or spouse as much (or more) than they do. You get the point. So pride is a big sin, and it very well may be the root (or at least a root) of many other sins.

But when we say “pride,” are we always referring to this particular sin? When your daughter comes off of the basketball court after losing in the playoffs, and you say, “Mom and I are proud of you, honey,” are you sinning? When a man who was born into extreme poverty works his tail off to better himself, and finally buys a home which he is proud of, is that the same thing? When a woman is using her God-given prowess for marketing to help small businesses flourish in a harsh economy, is it wrong for her to take pride in her work?

All of these examples seem not only harmless, but to be doing a fair amount of good. The parents are praising their daughter’s hard work, the man is taking care of something he worked hard to accomplish, and the woman is using her skills to help other people; and they’re all proud to do so.

So, is this merely an issue of semantics, or has society become so numb to sins that we completely want to ignore these? They don’t look like sins, but they still use that same ‘p-word.’ Are they just tiny sins? Or does our language just like to muddle itself up by using the same word for multiple definitions?

Thoughts?

~Pax

It can be semantic especially if one has no reason to be prideful. Word of affirmation is encouraged. We may be just unable to use the proper words in our expression. So I would not be too worry about it.

However, pride is a real danger to our spirituality. It is present when humility is absent.

I think that is a key to overcome pride - be humble. Humility is when we have full dependence on God, realizing that who and whatever we have and do, all of that come from God and without Him we are nothing.

When we realize that we are totally helpless without God, then we begin to see how little we are and how big God is. In that situation, how can then we feel prideful when we attribute everything to God and not ourselves?

Then out of that understanding, even the words we use will reflect our inner self, the way we feel about God and who we are in relation to Him.

 

[Bluebright]

I am also very confused. I play football and am the best quarterback in my school. I don’t go bragging about it but I know I am better than pretty much everyone at my school. Is this pride? I worked hard to get where I am now and like I said, I don’t flash it in peoples face.

Do you think the fact that you are good at football is because God gave you that talent? or because you rock? Could you do it without Him? do you thank Him? praise Him for your gift?
I am a good artist because God has messages he wants to use my hands for. I know He has given me this gift and I try to use it to glorify Him even if I am not only painting religious art. It gives me great joy when someone is pleased with my art. I feel proud when I do something well but remember where that talent comes from, I think that’s the difference… making sure you give God the credit as it’s His work not yours really. You just have any ability by His grace.

 

[fhansen]

This has probably been hashed out before, but for the life of me, the search feature on these forums confuses me to no end.

I’ll try to cut to the chase. We all know about the deadly sins. Out of all of these sins, one seems to always be connected to almost every situation pertaining to the other six. That would be the sin of Pride.

When we lust, it can be said that we’re so great, that we believe we deserve the use of the other person. When we’re gluttonous, it’s as if we’re saying that we’re so important that we deserve to gorge ourselves. When we’re envious, we’re saying we deserve our neighbor’s possessions or spouse as much (or more) than they do. You get the point. So pride is a big sin, and it very well may be the root (or at least a root) of many other sins.

But when we say “pride,” are we always referring to this particular sin? When your daughter comes off of the basketball court after losing in the playoffs, and you say, “Mom and I are proud of you, honey,” are you sinning? When a man who was born into extreme poverty works his tail off to better himself, and finally buys a home which he is proud of, is that the same thing? When a woman is using her God-given prowess for marketing to help small businesses flourish in a harsh economy, is it wrong for her to take pride in her work?

All of these examples seem not only harmless, but to be doing a fair amount of good. The parents are praising their daughter’s hard work, the man is taking care of something he worked hard to accomplish, and the woman is using her skills to help other people; and they’re all proud to do so.

So, is this merely an issue of semantics, or has society become so numb to sins that we completely want to ignore these? They don’t look like sins, but they still use that same ‘p-word.’ Are they just tiny sins? Or does our language just like to muddle itself up by using the same word for multiple definitions?

Thoughts?

~Pax

Pride is not about a sense of accomplishment-that sense is good. Pride is lurking behind the examples of sin that you gave in the first paragraph. Pride is a matter of “inordinate self-love” as Aquinas put it, self-love being good, with pride being a twisting or perversion of that good. Another way he described it is an “inordinate desire for one’s own excellence”. It’s to want to be “more” than who we truly are, but, ironically, it always ends up making us* less.* The original and ultimate case of pride was Adam’s sin, which was to want to be like God, while autonomous from God.