vainglory - 31st week monday 2018

What Jesus is talking about in the gospel is called the vice of vainglory. Vainglory is a vice we can find almost everywhere, from facebook, to our workplaces, from our homes, to our churches. Vainglory means I am doing something good and admirable in order to win the praise of others; in order to be admired, in order to be recognized and rewarded in return.  There is nothing wrong with doing good.  It becomes wrong however when it is motivated by too much love for the self, when the self becomes too important, when the self becomes the center.

So how do we know that we are becoming vainglorious?  

When we become sensitive about the impression of others – what will others think of me?  When we complain when we work so hard and nobody notices, nobody appreciates.  When we feel slighted and even angry when we do good to others and they don’t do good to us in return.  When we do good, we expect to be repaid.

So how do we avoid the vice of vainglory?  In our first reading, Paul tells us first to regard the other as more important than ourselves – others are better than me, others are holier than me, others are more important than me, to be humble.  And secondly: Do not merely work for your own personal interests, but above all for the interests of others, do things not for self but for others, for Jesus, for the glory of God.