Proud Sins

One of the evidences of our fallen nature is how deeply pride infects our sins: women may deny snoring, parishioners deny stinginess, and even criminals boast that their crimes have more “dignity” than others’. We are indulgent toward our own faults our sins seem understandable, even admirable but we resent the faults of those around us and wonder why they won’t change to suit us. Like Augustine, whose early prayer was essentially, “Lord, make me pure but not yet,” we often want deliverance from sin only on our terms, not God’s. Yet no amount of self-flattery changes the fact that our lives were not made to suit us but to please God. The catechism is right: our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The real question is whether we actually want God or whether we are still secretly clinging to the sins that “suit” us.