Do not let the many occasions and manifestations of pride in your life turn you into something other than what God intended you to be - Daily Reflections October 2,2013

THE FOLLY OF PRIDE

 

A Harvard professor went to a doctor to have herself checked. After a series of tests, the doctor said, “Ma’am, you have cancer.” The lady scoffed at the doctor and said, “I don’t believe you. I want a second opinion.” The doctor added, “OK. You are arrogant as well.”

       We celebrate today the Feast of the Guardian Angels. Pride and arrogance played a role in the life of the angels. May I share with you then quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church about the fall of the angels.

                  391Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice opposed to God which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church’s Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called “Satan” or the “devil.” The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: “The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.”

                  392Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels. This “fall” consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and His reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter’s words to our first parents: “You will be like God.” The devil “has sinned from the beginning”; he is “a liar and the father of lies.”

                  393It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels’ sin unforgivable. “There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death.”

       It is no surprise then that today’s Gospel gives us the image of a little child — humble, open and receptive — as a model of one who will enter the Kingdom of God. We read from the Catechism above that from the beginning, God intended all of His creation to share in His very life. However, pride and envy turned the angels into devils. It is humility then childlike humility — which will turn men into angels. Fr. Joel O. Jason

 

REFLECTION QUESTION: Do not let the many occasions and manifestations of pride in your life turn you into something other than what God intended you to be.

 

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire that others may be loved and esteemed more than I... That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should.