The 23rd Step on St. John’s Ladder, is entitled PRIDE. Pride begins where vainglory leaves off. Its midpoint comes with the humiliation of our neighbor, the shameless parading of our achievements, complacency, and unwillingness to be found out. It ends with the spurning of God’s help, the exalting of one’s own efforts and a devilish disposition.

Christian spirituality has always taught that pride is the greatest sin of all. It is very difficult for non-Christians, particularly atheists and humanists, to understand why Christians say this. One can be forgiven for thinking that to call pride the greatest sin is an exaggeration. Surely murder is worse! But when we speak of the passions in Christian spirituality, we are not referring to particular actions (these actions are but the consequences of the passions). Pride cannot be pinpointed in any one particular kind of deed. The reason pride is the greatest sin is that it is in fact the root and cause of so many sorrows and atrocities.

We often hear people say, “I don’t need religion to be a good person,” but rarely does anyone consider the question: “What does it mean to be a good person?” Usually the response to thatr question is, “I’ve never killed anyone; I don’t steal.” Well, that does not define a good person; it merely describes someone who truly is not extraordinarily bad.

There are saints who have committed those sins, and not only did they not remain wicked, they became holy. So, for Christianity, to be good does not mean never to have done bad things. Rather, it means to come into union with God through repentance. We have to re-pent to come into union with God, be-cause “No one is good but One, that is, God.

I’m sure that all of my readers have heard the word pride. I wonder what you think about pride. We know that if God has given us particular talents we should not be ashamed of them. What is pride?