Deceit of Pride

THOMAS
But what is there to do? What is left to be done?
Is there no enduring crown to be won?

TEMPTER
Yes, Thomas, yes; you have thought of that too.
What can compare with glory of Saints
Dwelling forever in presence of God?
What earthly glory, of king or emperor,
What earthly pride, that is not poverty
Compared with richness of heavenly grandeur?
Seek the way of martyrdom, make yourself the lowest
On earth, to be high in heaven.
And see far off below you, where the gulf is fixed,
Your persecutors, in timeless torment,
Parched passion, beyond expiation.

THOMAS
No!
Who are you, tempting with my own desires?
Others have come, temporal tempters,
With pleasure and power at palpable price.
What do you offer?  What do you ask?

TEMPTER
I offer what you desire.  I ask
What you have to give.  Is it too much
For such a vision of eternal grandeur?

THOMAS
Others offered real goods, worthless
But real.  You only offer
Dreams to damnation.

TEMPTER
You have often dreamt them.

THOMAS
Is there no way, in my soul's sickness,
Does not lead to damnation in pride?
I well know that these temptations
Mean present vanity and future torment.
Can sinful pride be driven out
Only by more sinful?  Can I neither act nor suffer
Without perdition?

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So it is that growth in virtue often leads to spiritual pride, as demonstrated so powerfully in these words from T.S. Eliot's play, Murder in the Cathedral.  We begin to think we have done well and then that subtle temptation begins to undermine whatever good we have done, whatever virtue we have achieved.

Sometimes it seems hopeless to escape.  Yet that also is but a snare of the enemy who wants to use all for our destruction.

There is a way to counter it, a way that seems to wend its way into every aspect of my life and words these days: abandonment to Divine Providence.  For what is pride but a securing for ourselves control?  And what is spiritual pride but a confidence in our own abilities to achieve salvation and become holy?  The counter then is to let go, to seek humility by surrendering all, even the desire for holiness, to the One who is all-powerful.