Pride - the urge prove myself!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 22, 2021: Celebrating Pope St. John Paul II
Romans 7: 18-25; Luke 12: 54-59

Many a trouble today brews in the waters of wanting to prove oneself at all cost. The world, the society,  teaches us from our earliest that one should prove oneself... how many wars have been fought in history due to this tendency! How many injustices and exploitations have been justified because of this urge, in individuals and collective mindsets... why, how many follies are being committed even today, in these days, as people and systems try to prove themselves right at any cost! 

But this urge to prove oneself... does it not sound very similar to, or same as, living one's life to the full? While proving oneself is always a phenomenon in comparison with the other where the other becomes a threat or a competition or an element to be eliminated, living my life to the full is a serene acceptance of who I am, what my capacity is and living it to the most. Here the others are my companions, my co-passengers and my colleagues! There isn't much need for proving myself, infact proving myself would turn detrimental within this mode of living.

Celebrating Pope St. John Paul II today, we are reminded of what he did which was called an unprecedented step in history, when he wrote that famous Mea Culpa at the threshold of the new millennium, asking pardon from God for the mistakes made by individual members of the Church and as a community of faith in the world. The Word instructs us on this attitude today, inviting us through St Paul to understand the call to grow in humility - humility understood as knowing the reality of our own selves. 

There is no need to justify oneself before people, for God knows who we are: that is faith. However weak and wrong we could be, God accepts us as we are and walks us to salvation through Jesus Christ if only we are ready to surrender: that is hope. This is the crucial lesson that the world needs today, to look at truth, accept truth and walk in truth, admitting when one fails and deciding to move on ahead in righteousness. Pride would never allow that...with pride, I would be worried only about proving myself! It would do good to no one, neither to me nor to the other!