L3, #22 – That post was a real treat. Enjoyed it very much. Pride is the worst deadly sin, and the antidote to pride is reality, as in the kind that Joe the Plumber encounters every day he’s at work. The proud person lacks the truly jarring understanding of his own mortality and the necessity of learning to love something Greater Than himself. The proud look down on other human beings and see them only as objects present to consciousness, to be used and discarded. It’s only a short leap of logic to the re-education camps.

All of the seven deadly sins spin out of our wounded, flawed human condition. We need something else to fill in the gaps where the pain opens up to consume us. For the Christian, grace is the balm. We are not gods unto ourselves, which is what the proud person wants to be. The Divine is the Source of the compassion, empathy, forgiveness, freedom, and healing that makes being proud so unnecessary.