2008 Woodie Awards
Ignatian Corner: Finding the balance: riches, honor, and pride
Daniel Joyce, S.J.
Issue date: 1/24/07 Section: Features
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Riches, honor, pride.
What is wrong with these things? Nothing! To be rich is not evil, as long as my wealth has been obtained honestly and at no detriment to another person. We should all seek to have honor. Good parents teach their children to "do the honorable thing". Pride - we all need some pride. It helps us live with self-respect. I can be proud of the good things that I do. Right? Well, Saint Ignatius of Loyola seems to have a big issue with riches, honor, and pride. He names those as three things to look out for in trying to live right and be real.
Ignatius is not alone. Pride actually is considered the basic sin in the Christian tradition. Certainly being a Christian does not mean that you have to walk around with no self-esteem or denying that you have any talents. What Ignatius recognized is that we humans can become really corrupt when we start to think of our own unique talents or successes as placing us at a higher level of deserved respect than other people. We risk losing a healthy sense of ourselves once we begin to think of what we have accomplished in life as a criteria for separating "myself" from "them". All of a sudden, the "us or them" thinking gets us into disrespectful behavior. The dignity of others can be seriously denied by this thinking. We become phony people who really cannot pursue an authentic relationship with others because of our bloated self-image. In the second week of The Spiritual Exercise, Ignatius of Loyola prescribes that we work at practicing a healthy sense of humility in order to live life with integrity.
Fine. But don't you think Ignatius is going a bit far on the riches thing? If you gain money correctly and use it for good, then you should be allowed to have as much of it as possible. The fact is that Ignatius grew up fairly rich. His brothers and sisters were not poor by any means. Also, he founded the Jesuits, who own a lot of property and seem to be able to pull together pretty large sums of money when they need it. Why would he have an issue with wealth? Well, the man from Loyola made it a point at the beginning of his famous Exercises to say that all things are for our use and we should use them insofar as they help us to fulfill our God-given purpose in life. So, if money helps me to become a better person, bring it on. Except that the problem with money is that you can count it. Once we start counting how much we have, our mind starts to play games with it. I might start thinking that because I have more money than you, I should be allowed to have more power, privileges, rights or respect. With this thinking I fall into a twisted view of human dignity. Wealth can be a seductive thing and Ignatius warned people about it.
What is wrong with these things? Nothing! To be rich is not evil, as long as my wealth has been obtained honestly and at no detriment to another person. We should all seek to have honor. Good parents teach their children to "do the honorable thing". Pride - we all need some pride. It helps us live with self-respect. I can be proud of the good things that I do. Right? Well, Saint Ignatius of Loyola seems to have a big issue with riches, honor, and pride. He names those as three things to look out for in trying to live right and be real.
Ignatius is not alone. Pride actually is considered the basic sin in the Christian tradition. Certainly being a Christian does not mean that you have to walk around with no self-esteem or denying that you have any talents. What Ignatius recognized is that we humans can become really corrupt when we start to think of our own unique talents or successes as placing us at a higher level of deserved respect than other people. We risk losing a healthy sense of ourselves once we begin to think of what we have accomplished in life as a criteria for separating "myself" from "them". All of a sudden, the "us or them" thinking gets us into disrespectful behavior. The dignity of others can be seriously denied by this thinking. We become phony people who really cannot pursue an authentic relationship with others because of our bloated self-image. In the second week of The Spiritual Exercise, Ignatius of Loyola prescribes that we work at practicing a healthy sense of humility in order to live life with integrity.
Fine. But don't you think Ignatius is going a bit far on the riches thing? If you gain money correctly and use it for good, then you should be allowed to have as much of it as possible. The fact is that Ignatius grew up fairly rich. His brothers and sisters were not poor by any means. Also, he founded the Jesuits, who own a lot of property and seem to be able to pull together pretty large sums of money when they need it. Why would he have an issue with wealth? Well, the man from Loyola made it a point at the beginning of his famous Exercises to say that all things are for our use and we should use them insofar as they help us to fulfill our God-given purpose in life. So, if money helps me to become a better person, bring it on. Except that the problem with money is that you can count it. Once we start counting how much we have, our mind starts to play games with it. I might start thinking that because I have more money than you, I should be allowed to have more power, privileges, rights or respect. With this thinking I fall into a twisted view of human dignity. Wealth can be a seductive thing and Ignatius warned people about it.
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