“I have come not to abolish but to fulfill”
This is lesson 2 of 2 with a focus on Envy, Pride and Sloth.
The basic need of love and belonging – Envy and Pleasing others rather than God
Loving and belonging are associated mainly with our relationships among acquaintances, friends, and family. Envy destroys and disorders our relationships and deprives us of both love and belonging. Envy is “sadness or discontent at the excellence, good fortune, or success of another person. It implies that one considers oneself somehow deprived by what one envies in another or even than an injustice has been done. Essential to envy is the sense of deprivation. The most serious sin of envy is sadness at the supernatural gifts or graces that another has received from God.” [1] If we are constantly comparing our success and gifts to those of people around us, we will not have good relationships and we will be deprived of love and belonging. On the other extreme, we can want so badly to be loved and to belong that we compromise our virtue. We sometimes want to belong and be loved to the point where we want to please others and fit in with the crowd rather than please our creator, God. We must remember that God loves us more than any other being and that we have belonged to Him from the beginning of time. How often do we give up the love of God and belonging with God to be popular and fit in? Many times in our desire to please others, we also turn our back on our true friends and our family.
The basic need of esteem (confidence, achievement, respect) – Belittling self / Arrogance
It is important for each of us to have a sense of confidence, achievement and self-respect. When we have very little or low esteem for ourselves, we begin to belittle ourselves and even begin to hate ourselves. We thus fall into the sin of despair and hopelessness. When we lack confidence, we believe that our achievements are no good or that we cannot achieve anything at all. We disrespect ourselves and feel that no one else respects us either. Many times these feelings are false and come to us from Satan, the father of lies. We cannot buy into these lies but instead must look at our dignity and purpose as a son or daughter of God. Putting ourselves down, belittling ourselves, and continually throwing a pity party for ourselves is prideful, because there is an inordinate focus on self. The focus is negative, but it is still selfish.
When we have an excess of esteem or a false esteem for ourselves, we call this arrogance or pride. In what ways is Pride expressed? Pride is “an inordinate esteem of oneself…Pride may be expressed in different ways: by taking personal credit for gifts or possessions, as if they had not been received from God; by glorying in achievements, as if they were not primarily the result of divine goodness and grace; by minimizing one’s defects or claiming qualities that are not actually possessed; by holding oneself superior to others or disdaining them because they lack what the proud person has; by magnifying the defects of others or dwelling on them. When pride is carried to the extent that a person is unwilling to acknowledge dependence on God and refuses to submit his or her will to God or lawful authority, it is a grave sin.” [2] A true knowledge of one’s self will always keep pride away because when we mediate on God’s greatness, we recognize out littleness before Him. Pride is the root of all sin. As C.S. Lewis says, “it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.” [3] The middle letter in both pride and in the word sin is “I.”
Sloth – Lacking the desire to do anything
The sin of Sloth is neither the deficiency nor excess of a human desire, but rather is the lack of desire altogether. It is a “sluggishness of soul or boredom because of the exertion necessary for the performance of a good work…sloth is the unwillingness to exert oneself in the performance of duty because of the sacrifice and the effort required.” [4] Even the basic needs, basic duties of food, shelter, and friendship are not desired because it would be too hard to obtain and preserve these needs.
How does one sin lead to another? The seven deadly sins are linked in the sense that one sin leads to another. “Whoever is drawn into sin against his will should understand that, because he allowed himself to be mastered by another sin committed previously, he is now, as a consequence of this first sin, led into another against his will.” [5] We think of the sin of King David. David lusted after Bathsheba, other man’s wife. The sin of lust leads to the sin of envy in which David is sad that Uriah had the good fortune of having Bathsheba as his wife and David did not. Perhaps David was even full of pride in thinking that he was entitled to any woman in the kingdom and that it was not fair that someone lesser than him should have such a beautiful wife. He, after all, was the King and could have or take (avarice) whatever he wanted. David had relations with Bathsheba while Uriah was at war, and to cover up his sin he tried to get Uriah to sleep with Bathsheba so that no one would think the child was David’s. Uriah, being obedient to the law, refrained from sleeping with his wife. David became angry, and he chose to let his anger grow into wrath, ending in the destruction of Uriah’s life.
What are ways that we can root out sin from our lives? We must get to the root of sin, as Saint John the Baptist says, ““Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees” [6] A daily examination of conscience, a deeper awareness of the seven deadly sins in our lives and frequent confession will help us take an ax to the root of sin in our lives. Saint Thomas Aquinas says that rooting out both lust and pride is a good start. “There are two sides to every sin: the turning of the will toward fleeting satisfaction and the turning away from everlasting value. As regards the first, the principle of all sins can be called lust – lust in its most general sense, namely, the unbridled desire for one’s own pleasure. As regards the second, the principle is pride – pride in its general sense, the lack of submission to God.” [7]
Why is it important to examine our consciences? Humans throughout history have realized that if we do not know our enemies and do not pay attention them, we will fall and will be conquered by our enemies. Saint Benedict knew this and created a rule, an examination of conscience to help him and his community. Benjamin Franklin knew this and came up with a method to defeat sin. In every examination of conscience there is a focus on eliminating these seven deadly sins. Saint Benedicts rule lists all seven deadly sins: To prefer nothing to the love of Christ (envy); Not to nurse a grudge (wrath); Not to guile in one’s heart (wrath); Not to render cursing for cursing, but rather blessing (wrath); Not to give way to envy (envy); Not to kill (wrath); Not to commit adultery (lust); Not to steal (avarice); Not to love contention (wrath); To deny oneself, in order to follow Christ (pride); To hate one’s one will (pride); Not to yield to anger (wrath); To bear patiently wrongs done to oneself (wrath); Not to love much speaking (pride); Not to speak vain words or such as move to laughter (pride); Not to seek soft living (avarice); Not to be proud (pride); Not to covet (avarice); To love chastity (lust); Not to fulfill the desires of the flesh (lust); Not a habitual drinker (gluttony); Not a glutton (gluttony); Not slothful, not incline to sleep (sloth). Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography speaks of his approach to eliminating the seven deadly sins in his life. Since there are seven days in a week, Franklin focused on one sin a day. He not only made sure not to commit that sin but also was attentive to temptation regarding the sin and staying away from the near occasion of sin.
Since change and movement are such defining characteristics of our human lives here on earth, we cannot trust ourselves to always remember to avoid sinning. When we take time at the end of every day to look at all the choices we made that day, both at what we chose to do and what we failed to do, we begin to see what areas of our lives where we struggle the most. We can find patterns in our sinful lives and choose to change our lives by recognizing our faults and choosing to turn from them.
[1] Fr. John Hardon; Modern Catholic Dictionary; page 189
[2] Fr. John Hardon; Modern Catholic Dictionary; page 437
[3] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity; page 123
[4] Fr. John Hardon; Modern Catholic Dictionary; page 509
[5] Saint Basil the Great; Paul Thigpen; A Dictionary of Quotes from the Saints; page 211
[6] Matthew 3:10
[7] Saint Thomas Aquinas; Paul Thigpen; A Dictionary of Quotes from the Saints; page 213