During Lent, we are called to repentance and conversion. We are to repent of our sins and be converted in our way of life so that we may be renewed in our relationship with the Lord and one another. One of the first stumbling blocks we encounter in this is a failure to know what sin is. Too often, we see sin merely as an infraction of a rule, statute, commandment or law. While sin is all of these, it is really more. Sin is an offense against truth, reason, and right conscience. Sin is a failure to love God.
When looking at sin, we see there are Seven Capital sins – Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride. These sins reproduce themselves in other sins. Yet among these, there is one that stands out. Pride is the root of all sin! Sadly, pride is always popular and never seems to go out of fashion. How these sins manifest themselves though is interesting. Few people ever wake up in the morning with a “To-Do List” of sins that they want to accomplish before going to bed. But what happens by the end of the day is another story. One of the most difficult and devious things about sin is our ability to diminish its harm, its seriousness, and how it distorts our own thinking. It is that interior conversation we have with ourselves where we convince ourselves that whatever sin we are tempted by really isn’t all that bad, or that we are helpless to fight against it. In fact, often we convince ourselves that a particular sin is not really a sin at all. We are really good at convincing ourselves that the sin we are tempted by is really a good thing! Then, before you know it, our prayer life fades, our hearts harden, the single failure becomes a sinful habit, and we find ourselves far from the person that God wants us to be and that we, deep down, want to be. In other words, we are miserable and stuck and too proud to admit that we are sinners at all. We are victims!
One of the reasons Pride is the root of all sin is because we are so good at it! ‘I can fight everything except temptation!’ In our contemporary society pride manifests itself in a plethora of ways. Heck, in our country there is a whole month dedicated to “Pride” as a supposedly good thing. I’ve often wondered why we don’t have months for the other six deadly sins. Should December be Gluttony Month or Greed Month? Should July or August be Sloth Month? What month is best for Wrath? Does Lust only get one month? One of the ways we fall into pride and delude ourselves is with our calendar and schedule. Yep, for many of us our daily schedule is a near occasion of sin and pride! How? Look at your daily and weekly schedule. How full is it? Most of us complain about how busy we are. Everyone is so busy! Pride says silently “Look at me and my schedule, I have so much to do! What I do is so important! My schedule is more important than yours (and God’s).” Pride is sneaky and subversive. When we become hyper-busy, we become not masters of our time, but slaves to pride. Our pride and busy-ness keep us from God and prayer, from our family and friends, from ourselves; from taking care of our bodies and souls. Being too busy often serves as a distraction so we don’t have to look at more important, serious aspects of our lives. Over-scheduling denies us the opportunity to marvel and awe at God’s work and the beauty that surrounds us. Worse than over-scheduling ourselves is over-scheduling our children. Relationships, marriages, and families, need time to rest and renew. We need time to savor and reflect. Filling our schedules with constant activity eventually drains us of joy and hope. Hyperactive lives and overbooked schedules lead to pride which defeats the humility that we need to have a good, happy, and fulfilling life.
Slow down and pray more!