Pope Francis dedicated his General Audience to speaking about the vice of pride. He invited those present to fight against this way of seeing others as inferior and to work on it during this Lent.
The Pope stressed that pride poisons relationships because it destroys fraternity. He added that to deal with an arrogant person, one must only be patient.
SUMMARY OF THE POPE'S CATECHESIS IN ENGLISH:
Dear brothers and sisters:
In our catechesis on the virtues and the vices, we now turn to pride, the first of the capital sins and, for the ancient writers,“the queen of all vices.” Indeed, the sin of pride hides an even greater sin: the absurd pretension to be like God. In Dante's Divine Comedy, the sin of pride is punished on the very first level of the mountain of purgatory; a sign of how difficult it is to overcome, as well as the distance it creates between us and God. Sooner or later, “pride comes before the fall,” and this can lead, by God’s grace, to a salutary humility.
In the Magnificat, Mary sings of God who humbles the proud and exalts the lowly. Writing to his community that is wounded by infighting caused by pride, the apostle James echoes this stating, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”(Jas 4:6). May this Lenten season be an opportunity for us to conquer pride and embrace humility, so that we may draw ever closer to God and receive his grace in abundance.
I extend a warm welcome to the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially the groups from Wales, Denmark, Switzerland, Indonesia and the United States of America. Upon all of you and upon your families, I invoke the joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you!
PA
TR: AT
