“What are you proud of?”

“What are you proud of?”

It was a question on one of my son’s school assignments, but it’s also a question that’s pervasive in our society. Children and adults alike are encouraged to take pride in themselves and their accomplishments. And that’s a good thing, right? Isn’t that how we feel good about ourselves? Aren’t we supposed to feel good about ourselves?

Pride is the primal sin. Pride means giving glory to ourselves rather God, and trusting in ourselves rather than God. Really all other sins are variations on the sin of pride, for every sin is a choice to do things our way instead of God’s way.

Back to the question of “are we supposed to feel good about ourselves?” – the answer is a resounding yes! But in our culture feeling good about ourselves frequently takes the form of pride, and that creates a problem. (1) Pride says we should feel good about ourselves because of our own merits. This doesn’t work, because when we inevitably fail our pride becomes wounded, and wounded pride leads to all sorts of sins (especially anger, envy and resentment).

The real reason, the true reason, the enduring, unchangeable reason we should feel good about ourselves is this: we are made in the image and likeness of God, and this gives us inherent dignity.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.  (Psalm 139:13-16)

The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:16-7)

The joy of our inherent dignity, the joy of being children of God, of being loved eternally by the Holy and Eternal One, should give us the humble confidence to walk as children of the light, to follow Jesus. When we stumble, we should feel regret, but we should never despair, trusting in the Lord’s infinite mercy.

We are humble children of a loving Father. We need not fear. Indeed, we are called to delight in the Lord, delight in ourselves as His children, made to reflect in some small way His glory, and delight in our brothers and sisters, who all uniquely reflect some facet of His immeasurable glory. (2)

Because we reflect God’s glory, we should always give the glory back to God. We should always reject pride, which gives the glory back to ourselves. Should we be proud of the way we were made? No! God is the one who made us; to Him is the glory. Should we proud of what we have done? No! If what we did was good, it was the Holy Spirit working through us; praise be to the Holy Spirit!

Should we be proud of other people – our children, for example? We might take our cue from our Heavenly Father, who never said He was proud of Jesus. What He did say, when the Spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism, was “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11; cf Matthew 3:17, Luke 3:22) When we are pleased with our children, we should say just that – and praise God for our children, whose merits reflect His glory, not our own.

We can follow the example of Jesus as well. Jesus never boasted about His great accomplishments, but always gave the glory back His Father. Before His Passion, He addressed His heavenly Father, saying, “I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.” (John 17:4) “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,” He tells us, “for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.” (Matthew 11:29) What does humility have to do with finding rest? Think about it: how much anxiety is caused by our pride? How much more peaceful, more hopeful, more loving, more Christ-like could we be if we didn’t worry about our own self-image?

Notes:

(1) While our culture encourages us to feel good about ourselves, it discourages us from talking about our faith in public. In doing so it takes our inherent dignity as God’s children off the table. Without God, we can only fall back on ourselves and our ephemeral pride. I don’t think as a society we’ve recognized the distortions that follow from taking God out of the conversation.

(2) Michael Gaitley, MIC. Consoling the Heart of Jesus. Stockbridge, MA: Marian Press, 2010.

Image: Creation by Michelangelo (downloaded from Wikipedia Commons).

Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet every day for the salvation of souls!