Pride: ‘Non Serviam’ and a vision from Fatima

Archangel Michael defeats Satan by Guido Reni (1575–1642)

The Blessed Virgin Mary, believed to be the model disciple, also shows us the optimal posture toward God who adores us: humility and trust. In the beginning of the Gospel of Luke, which describes many events related to Mary and the birth of Jesus, she famously declares herself God’s “handmaid,” or slave, and praises God and how He has saved her (Chapter 1). Shouldn’t we acknowledge the greatness and goodness of God, and the care He has shown us and continues to show us?

The Visitation by Jeronimo Ezquerra (1660-1733)

Pride is a dangerous posture for us because, as a Pharisee in Jesus’ time Gamaliel says in Acts chapter 5, we may even “find [ourselves] fighting against God;” how do we suppose a fight against the Creator of Heaven and Earth will end? And most importantly, Jesus himself in scripture, and the Virgin Mary at Fatima has revealed what happens if we oppose God throughout our lives and our lives end with this posture, which we are allowed to have in our free will.

Nevertheless, God is a good and merciful God, and understands that sometimes our pride is out of ignorance, or we were deceived. He gives us time to encounter Him and His glory, like through signs and worders like healings and other miracles, or by meeting His prophets who are endowed with marvelous spiritual gifts like prophecy or being able to read consciences. He is a gentleman and allows us time, but eventually, for the sake of our souls, he allows for pain in our life, a healthy pain that gives us a deeper understanding of what He is asking us to do, and to help us understand our errant posture of pride (I must clarify, however, that He doesn’t directly cause the pain, but permits suffering in our lives as a consequence of our sin). Jezebel, for example, in the first book of Kings, prospered in her evil and idolatry so that she thought of herself as omnipotent, though she was deeply in error. Such was her success that the number of prophets serving her and her idols, a grave sin, were hundreds. Meanwhile, only one faithful prophet remained in Israel, Elijah. While God sometimes permits such trials and tribulations to his People like Elijah, God of course is the victor, and so decides that the only way to oppose Jezebel is a showdown: Creator versus creature, and any reasonable person knows how that ends. Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal and other idols, the idols Jezebel served, to call on the power of their idols, which is nonexistant since there is only one true God. Each Jezebel’s prophets and Elijah are to place an offering on an altar in the desert and call on their God to bring down fire and burn an offering on the altar. Jezebel’s prophets spend hours, the morning and most of the afternoon, calling on their idols, but nothing happens. Elijah then calls on the God of Israel, the one true God, and he swiftly rains down fire and consumes the offering. Jezebel and her prophets are humiliated. (First book of Kings chapter 18)

The key is to remember that God’s ways are not this way: He is kind, merciful, and fore bearing, and treats us so. Extreme measures are only taken when it is the only way, so let us always respond to God’s gentle promptings and invitations to deepen our moral and faith lives, and especially those through the priest at Mass at our parishes. And should we have pain and suffering that is salutary, which brings down our pride, let us not fret, but call on our Good and forgiving Lord in mercy (and also let us remember that just because we receive painful sufferings doesn’t mean we are prideful).

Another act by the Lord to bring us to our senses and out of our pride is references to Hell, a place that I will not dare describe with my own words. At Fatima, the Lord revealed to the three “seers,” the shepherd children, Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta, 10 years old, 8 years old, and 7 years old, respectively, Hell. They were absolutely terrified. Lucia says:

“

As Our Lady spoke these last words, she opened her hands once more, as she had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. Terrified and as if to plead for succour, we looked up at Our Lady, who said to us, so kindly and so sadly: You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.

“ (Pronechen)

St. Faustina in her diary also describes hell:

“It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is!

…[T]he first torture that constitutes hell is the loss of God; the second is perpetual remorse of conscience; the third is that one’s condition will never change; the fourth is the fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it — a terrible suffering, since it is purely spiritual fire, lit by God’s anger; the fifth torture is continual darkness and a terrible suffocating smell, and despite the darkness, the devils and the souls of the damned see each other and all the evil, both of others and their own; the sixth torture is the constant company of Satan; the seventh torture is horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses and blasphemies. These are the tortures suffered by all the damned together” (St. Faustina Kowalska and Cooper O’Boyle)

And Last, the Lord also describes Hell symbolically in scripture: “[where] their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” (Gospel of Mark chapter 9)

Describing these visions most certainly isn’t meant to paralyze us with fear, but we should be aware of the whole truth of our actions. It is completely normal to be uncertain if certain situations are sins or not, and so we are given the benefit of the doubt, and should still go to Communion. But we must also be aware that deadly sins (those that we know are mortal sins, those that we know we have to go to Confession for) lead to the death of our souls and should we die in these sins, we are choosing an eternity of Hell. And while God and His mercy are definitely there for us, and it is so “from generation to generation” (Magnificat, Gospel of Luke chapter 1), we must be wary of the grave sin of presumption, where we think that we can commit any sin because we can then just go to Confession, as this is incorrect use of the Sacrament, which requires first that we turn away from our sins. We must also consider how many people that go to sleep don’t wake up – what if we don’t have time to make another confession after having indulged in sin thinking we could just go to confession tomorrow? And also, as Jesus tells us, the world will end at a time we don’t know, “for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come” (Gospel of Matthew chapter 24). And not that we should be paranoid at when the world ends, but as He says, let Him find us doing what we are supposed to be doing: “Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds [performing his duties]” (Gospel of Matthew chapter 24).

Pride, opposition to God and His will, is a dangerous posture for us that can be humiliating in this life, and deadly in the next life. But like St. Michael we can ask ourselves: “Who is like God?” Who is like our good God who cares for us like a tender mother, leading our souls to green pastures, still waters, and healing (Psalm 23)?

Friends, as usual, thanks for your time and attention, and may God bless us and our families and friends, and protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life.

Juan B

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