It was truly a revelation for me in recovery to discover that addictions in their many forms are the poisonous fruit of the spiritual sickness of pride. All the twisted rationalizations I employed to justify harming myself and others in active addiction, such as “I don’t have a problem” (denial), or “I can handle this or stop that when I want” (dishonesty), or “I deserve to do this because I am a victim,” or “I am unlovable,” or “I am beyond mercy” (self-pity) were expressions of a deep seated self-centeredness and narcissism that did not comprehend that my life was truly not my own (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Like the prince of Tyre and the Chosen People, God in His providential love allowed me to go through some serious rock-bottom and ruinous moments in order to shake me out of the stupor of my intoxicating pride and finally wake me up to the truth of things.
12-step recovery, when wedded with our Catholic sacramental life, is a life-changing program that teaches us the “power” of powerlessness in God’s grace principally by learning the virtue of humility and applying it to every aspect of our interior lives and in our relationships with God and others. It is definitely not a coincidence that when we shed every pretense of dominion over our lives and the lives of others and humbly accept the good and the bad on God’s terms, and really embrace that hardship and suffering are the pathway to peace, the compulsions that formerly enslaved us release their grip and begin to fade away like so many phantoms. What a miracle! Sanity, sobriety, and serenity become ours as we commit ourselves to a daily program of honest and humble surrender to God’s will in all things. The spiritual formula is always the same: “[The] first will be last, and the last will be first” (Matthew 19:30).
Reflection Questions
- What do you think about the statement that pride is the root cause of all that ails us? How has pride been the fundamental spiritual sickness that drove your addictions, compulsions, and unhealthy attachments and how has learning humility changed your life in recovery?
- How has working the Twelve Steps revealed pride in your life of addiction? How did your Step 4 inventories expose the rot of pride in your heart?
Daily Mass Readings
First Reading: Ezekiel 28:1-10
Responsorial Psalm: Deuteronomy 32:26-27ab, 27cd-28, 30, 35cd-36ab
Gospel: Matthew 19:23-30
Reflection by Pete S.