Pride of life

WE need to be familiar with this phenomenon, which is actually a common, widespread problem, and an abiding one at that, so that at least we would know how to recognize it in its many guises and how to handle it.

The expression comes from St. John’s first letter where he says: “For all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (2,16)

It is important to note that St. John describes what we can expect from a world detached from God. That is our condition since the fall of our first parents, a condition that should warn us of what we are up against, a condition that requires redemption from God but also with our cooperation.

Our faith teaches us that we only have one Redeemer. But he is a Redeemer who requires each one of us to be his co-redeemers. That’s just how things are, given our nature as image and likeness of God, children of his, persons who have not only a natural goal, but a supernatural one in God.

The conclusion we can derive from here is that we need at least to know about the concupiscences plus this so-called “pride of life” that actually afflict us all. With the way things are in the world now, knowing them is getting hard to do.

Still, we can say that although there are now forces that tend to blunt the edge of the concupiscences, by and large they are still easily recognizable. They are still considered taboos in most places in the world today.

It’s not quite so with the pride of life. This evil is so subtle and tricky that it can appear as the most normal thing in the world. It can even dress itself up with some mantle of holiness and virtue.

The episode of Jesus curing the man born blind (Jn 9) dramatizes this point. In spite of the clearest evidence of the miracle, some people refused to believe. This led Jesus to tell them: “For judgment have I come into this world, that they who do not see may see, and they who see may become blind.” (39)

This is truly an intriguing phenomenon. Many times, Christ would lament that there are people who have eyes but they do not see, who have ears but they do not hear. “For the heart of this people,” he says, “has been hardened, and with their ears they have been hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed.” (Mt 13,15)

In other instances, there are warnings against getting “wise in your own conceits,” (Rom 12,16) a rather spreading disease as we can now readily see people displaying a good degree of eloquence and cleverness that spring precisely from their own self-importance.

The Bible contains many stories about pride of life, from that episode of the Tower of Babel to the parable of the prodigal son, all showing our tendency to consider our life as if it simply comes from us and belongs to us, with God having nothing to do with it.

The other day, for example, while waiting for my boat in the pier, my attention was struck by a large group of young college students, boys, girls and the in-betweens, who just ended their excursion.

They seemed to be those who have already mastered the art of fashion make-over, from the way they did their hair, face and get-up. But they were intolerably rowdy, shouting and even shrieking just to call one another’s attention.

I looked at their faces, and they showed no signs of being bothered by their actuation. The stare of the other passengers did not disturb them one bit—they were completely and fashionably nonchalant.

I’m sure we tried to find excuses for them and to give allowance for their youthful exuberance and other circumstances, but their behavior simply invited concern. Some even showed the so-called “public display of affection” to the extreme.

This made me thinking what kind of education are these youngsters getting at home and in school. Could this be a sign of the times, a signal for alarm? The pride of life in the previous generations was quite hidden and confined. This one appears to be quite open and now affecting the young.

We need to remind everyone about our need for humility, shown basically in an attitude of recollection, temperance and an abiding awareness of our duty toward God and others.