Vanity attacks

LIKE heart attacks or strokes that can put our life in

mortal danger, we have to be wary also of what we may call as vanity

attacks that can put our spiritual and moral life, much more important

than our physical or biological life,  in grave danger.

            Vanity is actually a very ridiculous anomaly that can

happen to us. Basically what it involves is the funny disorder of the

creature mocking or at least outshining its creator, the servant

giving orders to the master, an entity of a lower category dominating

the superior one, or a part presenting itself as the whole.

            It is a phenomenon that is a product of fantasy or of a

wild imagination that is detached from reality. It is pure

subjectivism that is divorced from objectivity. It dwells and thrives

in dreamland, in the mind and heart separated from the outside world.

            It cannot pass the test of time. Artificial, unnatural and

fake, it is highly perishable and always in need of supporting props

and rationalizations. Those indulging in it cannot find true peace and

rest.

            What causes it could be many. It could be ignorance,

pride, lack of faith, worldly lifestyle, Godless environment, etc. It

could be cowardice or fear to face reality and the truth. These are

where our attention should be more focused on, dismantling them as

much as we could, so that we can eventually burst the bubble of

vanity.

            Sad to say, vanity is not only getting rampant nowadays.

It now appears as the norm of behavior, the standard of social life.

No one seems to be bothered or threatened by it anymore. In fact, many

seem to enjoy it and to promote and praise it to high heavens.

            Vanity can come to us in various forms and ways. It can

corrupt our proper understanding and attitude toward our looks or

physical beauty, our intelligence and talents, our wealth and

propitious positions in society, our earthly powers and fame.

            We would be more concerned about our appearance than the

purity of our thoughts and intentions. We use our power, wealth and

other privileges we have simply for our own good rather than for the

common good.

            Instead of acknowledging these things as gifts and

blessings from God meant to give glory to God and to be used according

to God’s will which is for the common good, we rob them from God and

consider them to be solely our own, using them simply according to our

own will that is full of whims and caprices.

            In other words, we take them out of their proper positions

and roles in the over-all plan of God for us. They are like branches

cut off from the vine. Thus, for all their glitz and glam, they are

doomed to inutility. Sooner or later, they would just dry up and die.

            They would just trap us in meaningless cycles of life, as

expressed in the Book of Ecclesiastes: “Vanity of vanities…All things

are vanity! What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at

under the sun?”

            They do not have enough resistance to face life’s

challenges and trials, its ups and downs. Sooner or later, reality

will bite them, tearing off the masks, exposing the pretensions and

hypocrisies, exploding the false images, the hype and the gloss.

            We have to do constant battle against the danger of

vanity. This can only mean that first of all we engage everything in

our life with God who is the source of truth, unity, beauty and all

good things.

            That’s why we need to pray not only a lot, but always,

converting everything we do into prayer by offering them to God and

doing them as best as we could as an expression of our faith and love

for him.

            We have to immerse ourselves in the doctrine of our faith,

because that is where the truth about God, about us the world is

presented in its most complete and ultimate aspects. We have to have

recourse to the sacraments, because that’s where God’s grace normally

is conveyed to us.

            Obviously, we have to develop virtues, especially those of

humility and simplicity, sincerity and docility, since virtues work to

resemble us with God in whose image and likeness we are made.

            We have to continually rectify our intentions, the main

driver of our spiritual operations, so they would enable us to enter

into the very mind and heart of God, and thus share what God has,

including unity of life in spite of the many aspects, dimensions and

levels our life has.