After watching the Star Wars prequel, I thought to myself ‘It was pride that did him in’. ‘Him’ being Anakin Skywalker. But after further reflection, I felt that there was more to pride that led to his downfall; impatience, thirst for power and position and most of all, approval from people around him, especially his mentor and friend, Obi Wan Kenobi.
In retrospect, many of us are, in some ways, have these traits in us. Whether we like it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not, most if not all of us have a certain amount of pride in us. In some ways, pride is quite healthy. For instance, we have every right to take pride in our achievements and success. As long as we do not use it to gloat or lord it over others, taking pride in our achievements is a healthy way to enhance our self esteem.
Pride becomes dangerous when we use it to belittle others. It becomes unhealthy when we use it to look down on others, to think that we are one class above the rest. That is when it becomes dangerous. Pride, as we all well know, is one of the seven capital, or cardinal sins.
Uncontrolled or unchecked pride is like poison, which will eat us up from the inside and, in the end, destroy us and those around us. Because of our pride, we can never admit that we have a problem. Just like Anakin Skywalker, he blames his fate on everyone else but himself. And as we can see from the third episode, that pride cost him his wife and his own physical body, turning him into a machine.
We may not think that we will end up like that. ‘I’m ok. The rest are just jealous of me’ are thoughts that we might have. Like it or not, when we begin to think that way, we start our journey into the land of self centeredness and selfishness. We begin to think that everyone is out to get us just because we are smart or successful.
To me, I feel that people with enormous pride should be aware of the danger they are getting into. The phrase ‘The higher they are, the harder they fall’ is something which we are all familiar with, I’m sure. There are many who do not or do not want to realize the destructive force of excessive pride, The craving for success has so clouded their mind and vision that they would simply refuse to acknowledge that flaw in them.
It was pride that made the chief priests and Pharisees jealous of Jesus. They were afraid that their popularity would slip away from their hands and that they would lose the respect of the society. And so they decided to kill Jesus. The same thing happened to the Apostles too. They were imprisoned and warned not to preach the Good News because the authorities feared that they would lose their power over the people. And these has continued until today, even within the Church.
We only have look at ourselves. When we organize activities or do something, we take pride and say “I’ve done such a magnificent job” Sadly, we sometimes fail to see God’s hand in all that we do. Without God’s blessings and help, all that we do will not succeed. Once we direct the glory to ourselves and not to God, we begin our journey into the valley of pride.
How do we, then conquer this sin of pride? It is indeed very difficult to do so. The first monumental step is to acknowledge to ourselves that we have a problem and that is pride. When we can honestly do that, half the battle would has been won.
Of course, we can never do it alone. But with God’s grace will help us to overcome this battle. Often we feel that we are too sinful to be forgiven. But we often forget that it is God’s grace that enables us to be forgiven. His grace alone is sufficient to redeem us from our sins and lead us to a new beginning in life. It will never be easy, however. But unless we go through this cleansing and ‘operation’, we will never be free of the pride that is in us. And if we do not learn how to control it, we will one day end up like Anakin Skywalker – Darth Vader. We would ultimately destroy ourselves and everyone one that is dear and precious to us.
"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18) (NIV)
