Sunday Morning Leftovers with Anne (09272026)

Our readings from yesterday revolved around the willful sin of pride; an inherent potential in our fallen human nature.  Pride was the free-will sin of Lucifer against God when he infamously pronounced his five “I will” statements in Isaiah 14:13-14.  And Lucifer as Satan passed on this potential for prideful sin when he tempted, and succeeded, in the Garden of Eden. The sin of his pride cast him out of heaven and one day he will be assuredly thrust into hell.  His fate is sealed, but ours is not.

St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica summed up pride when he stated - and I am paraphrasing from Secunda Secundae QQ. 162 - that Pride is a voluntary act of the will where a person esteems themselves to be more than they are.  Now, we have the free will to be proud or to be humble, and what the Apostle Paul is saying to the Philippians is choose humility.  And though we have a choice according to our free will, it is not natural for us to choose humility over pride because of a sin nature that works against our regenerated spirit daily.  It takes a concerted effort to oppose what comes naturally to us by default, yet this is what God desires for us.  And as he loves us, he gave us the perfect example in the life of Jesus Christ.

Imagine a dressing room with mirrors and bright lights.  There is a rack filled with haute couture; one of a kind designer fashion by Dior, Versace and Channel.  And at the back of the same room in a darkened corner is a rack of thrift store clothing, secondhand shoes and the like.  Now imagine Lucifer entering the room.  He heads straight for the high-end rack and puts on the most gorgeous outfit and admiring himself in the mirror smirks, “I will be a greater star than God himself.”  He exits the room and a little later Jesus Christ, God the Son, enters the same room.  He takes off his royal robe and goes straight for the secondhand goods, puts on the most blah outfit and without even glancing toward the mirror exits the same room saying, “Thy will be done.”

Every day when we awake, we enter that same dressing room with the opportunity to choose how we will present ourselves to both God and humanity.  Neither God nor Satan can force us to choose which rack we dress from; but for the love of God, let us work to ignore the glamor of pride and walk out of the room in the footsteps of Christ, our Savior, and the best example of humility we will ever have.