According to some, pride is the greatest sin and also the cause of all sins. Reference is then made to the Book of Genesis in the Bible, where the story of the first humans vividly reveals how evil conquered the human heart by tempting them to become their own gods. “Your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat of it, and then you will be like gods and have knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). Their eyes were indeed opened after eating the forbidden fruit, and they saw that they were naked and not at all the gods they had dreamed of being. A little further on we read another story, this time of the moment when people decided to build a tower that would reach up to heaven, in order to affirm their own power and divine status (cf. Gen. 11:1–9). But this too ended in utter failure, leaving an unfinished structure and a confusion of tongues in total chaos. Once again, it was pride that drove them to challenge God and seek to become his equals. Ancient stories that say something – no, that say a great deal – about the human tendency to try, out of pride, to seize power for themselves.
When we try to maintain the illusion that today no forbidden fruit is eaten and no more Towers of Babel are built, daily reality catches up with us. Some now even want to reach Mars to build their own new empire there, and when I learned through the media that President Trump had a golden statue erected of himself, in a pose that radiates nothing but power and arrogance, I could only conclude that there is indeed nothing new under the sun, that history repeats itself endlessly and that people apparently learn nothing from this history. That last point is perhaps the worst thing that can happen to us as human beings, and something we can all fall victim to. It is that blinding force hidden within hubris that drives us to grasp for power and leads us into a pernicious myopia where we have only our own interests in mind and are ultimately concerned only with how we can further expand our power. The manner in which this occurs becomes entirely subordinate to the result that is set as the goal and that one dreams of. Elbowing one’s way through, bribery, corruption and, if necessary, eliminating opponents: it is all in the recipe book on how to grow in power and prestige. No, we must not fixate on the glitter of this new statue of Trump and think that he alone is in the grip of hubris. The temptation to crown ourselves as gods lies within each of us, and the serpent of temptation still slithers about, seeking to ensnare us. No, we will probably not erect a golden statue for ourselves for that, nor build a tower bearing our name. But we will always consider ourselves better and greater than others, we will want this confirmed, and if we do not immediately succeed in gaining the hoped-for recognition, we will simply leaf through our recipe book to find the right method for rising above others, for humiliating others, for “he must decrease and I must increase”, to paraphrase the well-known words of John the Baptist (John 3:30), but in the reverse sense.
For many, the virtue of humility has been struck from their vocabulary, for it has become something for weaklings. We have no objection to the fact that people wish to get ahead in life, but we do object to the way in which some seek to achieve this. If this can only be achieved by humiliating and belittling others, and if necessary eliminating them, then we are crossing an ethical line that has been far overstepped. From a personalist view of humanity, everyone bears a mutual responsibility for respecting, promoting and, where necessary, restoring one another’s human dignity. This, then, will be the criterion by which a society can measure itself ethically, and whenever this is compromised because some, out of their arrogance, seek to seize power for themselves at the expense of others, we will have to draw the regrettable conclusion that we are slow to learn positive lessons from history. What we see magnified in Trump and his ilk, to the point where it becomes downright ridiculous, we unfortunately also encounter in everyday life, where there are many little Trumps walking about who stand before the mirror every day asking: “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the greatest in this land?”
Hno. René Stockman,
Hermano de la Caridad.
Powerful words about very real issues for all of us, especially those of us in the USA, to heed and to address. We who follow the way of St. Vincent are called to live by a different standard than self-promotion, especially when our sisters and brothers in need are being ignored, demeaned or persecuted. Living the Gospel of Jesus should influence the way we choose our leaders and hold them responsible for promoting the common good.