INDULGING PRIDE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 January 1942, Page 4

INDULGING PRIDE

SPIRIT OF SELF INDEPENDENCE CRITICISED. It is a principle of religion which we all recognise, even when we are a poor advertisement for it, that the Christian should do as he would be done by, writes Monsignor Ronald Knox in the “Sunday Times.” We are perhaps less familiar with the notion, which is nevertheless worth thought, that a Christian ought to be done by as he would do. I mean this, that when people are for doing us some small kindness, it is our first heathen instinct to say, "Oh, no, thanks, don t bother.” We believe, as we say it. that we are saving the other person trouble. Actually, we arc indulging our own pride. Who does not know the embarrassment of wondering whether he dare offer to help a friend on with his overcoat, when the friend has reached a certain point in age, perhaps in corpulency? Will the offer be well received, or indignantly refused? On the same principle, when we are in difficulties ourselves, trivial or serious, the offer of help from a friend immediately tempts us to say no. We cannot put ourselves under an obligation like that. There is some right on our side. Few things are more unlovely than the attitude of the beggar who has really lost all sense of proper pride; who cringes to his benefactor, or alternatively accepts his good offices as if unconscious that any obligation, has been incurred .We are right to fear, when things go badly with us and help is forthcoming, the danger of a pauperisation of our nature. But it lies with us to see that we are not precipitated into that extreme; what of the other extreme? Will not a moment’s reflection often convince us that cur “No, thank you” is dictated by a morbid spirit of self-independence? That proper pride has transgressed, its true frontier, and degenerated into surliness?