Saint Augustine said that “where there is pride there is emptiness. And evil tries to nest where there is emptiness” (Sermon 354,8). Pride makes us pretend to be what we are not. It drives us to seek the admiration of others while our hearts are emptying inside.
This emptiness is fertile ground for envy, selfishness, or pride. One criterion proposed by the holy bishop of Hippo to gauge our level of pride is to analyze whether we suffer from envy: “When pride creeps in, envy is instantly there as well.”
In times of social media and the unbridled search for “likes”, of continuous encouragement of the self over the collective, of excessive self-love and self-promotion, and of the reign of “personal opinion” over reason and consensus, pride can be an unequivocal source of unhappiness and continuous conflict.
The point is that a problem that begins as moral worsens, becoming existential. The proud person lives a lie, disconnecting from their inner truth. Again, Saint Augustine:
- “Pride is not greatness but swelling; and what is swollen seems great, but it is not healthy” (Sermon 380,2).
- “The root of all diseases is pride, because pride is the principal of all sins. Cure pride and evil will disappear” (Commentary on the Gospel of Saint John, 25,16).
Far from helping us to be our full potential, pride leads us to a life without foundation, full of falsehood and mediocrity:
- “While pride boasts, humility confesses. Just as he is presumptuous who wants to appear as what he is not, so is he humble who does not hide what he is” (Commentary on Psalm 121:8).
Saint Augustine proposes an alternative: humility, which is not about humiliating oneself or diminishing oneself, but about honestly recognizing oneself:
- “Humility is characteristic of the great; pride, on the other hand, is the false greatness of the weak” (Sermon 353,2).
- “No one achieves firmness in God, except he who recognizes his weakness in himself” (Sermon 76,6).
God does not reveal himself to those who exalt themselves, but draws near to those who confess their need for him:
- “You are great, Lord. You notice the humble, while you distance yourself from the proud. You draw near only to those who recognize their faults, but you do not let yourself be seen by the proud. Their pride prevents them from seeing you” (Confessions, Book V, Chapter 3, 3).
God dwells in the heart, and it is in that space where the humble have already made their way:
- “Living close to God is not a matter of space, but of affection. Do you love God? You are close to Him; have you forgotten Him? You are far from Him. You don’t need to change your location. Change your heart” (Commentary on Psalm 84:11).
Augustine goes on to explain the true meaning of being “poor in spirit,” something that Jesus asks for in the Gospel:
- “Do you want to know what it means for me to be poor in spirit? No one who is puffed up is poor in spirit; therefore, the humble one is poor in spirit” (Sermon 53,1).
In that sense, the most radical example of humility is God himself becoming man:
- “Be ashamed of still being proud, you, for whom the great God humbled himself. Great would have been the humility of God, even if he had only been born for you; but he even deigned to die for you” (Sermon 340A,5).
Pride destroys our existence, our relationships with others, and with God. Humility offers an authentic, serene, and profoundly happy life. This Easter, can we rise again with the humility to overcome the death that pride brings?
