Pride & Principle

It is said that the war in the heavens began with the idea of Man. When God showed Lucifer, his most exalted angel, that He would destine man to be the lord of all creation, including angels, Lucifer was aghast and appalled. Aghast to realize that his exalted position will be decimated with man's creation and appalled by the thought that he would be serving a lowly creature for all time.

And so, he gathered a host of like-minded angels and stormed the gates of heaven, only to be put down by Michael and his hosts of archangels cherubs, seraphims, powers and principalities. To this day, Lucifer, now called Satan, refuses to bow down. And the words of pride he spoke against God reverberates till this very day: "Non Serviam" - I will not serve. And so, as they say, pride goes before the fall.

It is all too easy to identify pride especially when the cause for such pride is specious and shallow. For instance, someone who refuses to queue up because he is rich or someone who refuses to concede defeat because they think the voters are too dumb.

But sometimes, it is difficult to distinguish pride from principle. How do we know if one is fighting for his principles or just being too proud to admit he is wrong? Was Thomas More fighting for his principles when he refused to swear an oath to the Act of Supremacy passed by Henry VIII's rubber stamp parliament? Is it pride or principle dictating France not to admit that the US invasion of Iraq has created a good fledgling democracy in a predominantly Islamic state?

On a more personal level, we have encountered the tug between pride and principle. And it is infintely more difficult to distinguish the two. When one gets hurt, is it pride or principle that stops us from reconciliation? When one quarrels with one's parents, would one rather be right with oneself or would one rather be right with one's parents. Change parents to siblings or to friends and you still get the same dilemma. More often than not, to appear justified and righteous, we say we fight for our principles. Or are we?

Sometimes, the fine line between pride and principle can get blurred. We can not afford to be judgmental but there are matters that can guide us. One is that little thing in our minds that bothers us we call conscience. Regardless of how we feel, our conscience eventually tells us what is right and principled and what is wrong. It is the fear to carry out the dictates of our conscience that prevents us from doing the right thing.

Another good thing is the counsel of real friends. We will always have sycophants around but it would do us well to keep the company of real friends who will confront us with the ugly truth when our conscience has been overshadowed by our own emotions.

And another indicator of fighting for principles is if one is willing to go the distance and die for the cause. Thomas More died a king's good servant but God's first when he refused the entreaties of Henry VIII. It was not pride but principle that brought Ninoy home and unto his death. No man will knowingly die for false beliefs and certainly, no man will knowingly die for pride.

We can go on and certainly, the list is long. But however winding the path may be, we need to pray for the virtue of humility. If there is humility, we can listen to our conscience, the counsel of friends and hopefully, pride will be vanquished. As to our principles, living by them is indubitably the preferred moral thing to do. And dying by them will certainly earn us the admiration of our family, friends and neighbors, not to mention the eternal fealty of the Big Man and His angels in heaven when He welcomes us home as His good and faithful servant.