“…for whoever exalts himself will be humbled,
and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
We hear an awful lot these days about narcissism. The word itself comes from Greek mythology. The story of Narcissus, as told by the Roman poet Ovid in his work Metamorphoses, describes Narcissus spurning the love of the nymph Echo. As punishment for his pride, the goddess Nemesis caused him to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Entranced, he remained there until he wasted away, and a narcissus flower grew in his place. Whether we define the word by its Greek mythological origin, at its heart narcissism is an unhealthy preoccupation with self. While appropriate self-care is important for a healthy life, obsession with oneself can be morally, spiritually and physically destructive.
Narcissism is as old as humankind itself with its origins in the idyllic Garden of Eden. As told in the poetic and mythic narrative of the first chapters of the Book of Genesis, Adam was tempted to ‘be like God’ by eating of the forbidden fruit. Adam was not content with the incredible beauty and joy that came from being in Eden. He wanted more. He wanted to be like God! And that was the origin of his downfall bringing his wife, Eve, with him. Like a cancer, narcissism infects others.
Sadly, narcissism has even infected and deformed the Good News of Christ with the abhorrent concept of the ‘prosperity gospel.’ The prosperity gospel is a belief that God desires believers to have financial and physical well-being, which can be attained through faith, positive confessions, and donations to the church. It teaches that material wealth and health are signs of God's favor, and illness and poverty are curses that can be broken with faith. Such unbiblical nonsense is generally a devious ploy to enrich the preacher who touts such a perversion of the Good News of Christ.
Our scriptures today present us with a powerful yet paradoxical antidote to the narcissism and the so-called ‘prosperity gospel’ that surrounds us today. It speaks of the anathema subject of humility that is the very antithesis of narcissism. The Christian virtue of humility brings with it the keen awareness that all that we are and all that we have come by way of gift from a good and gracious God. They are not of our own making. Humility brings forth, as the saying goes, the attitude of gratitude from a heart that is keenly aware that all is ‘gift’ in our lives. Even the talents and skills that we have are to be used for the building up of others and not just ourselves.
It has been said that Christianity at its heart is primarily the great conversion from the ‘I’ to ‘we.’ To be Christian is to realize that we are indeed our “sister and brother’s keeper” as we strive to humbly use whatever gifts God has given us to build up the human family, especially the poor, the alien, the immigrant and the disenfranchised. Through us, the Lord now fulfills his word that we have heard in our first reading from the wisdom sayings of Sirach, “…yet he hears the cry of the oppressed. The Lord is not deaf to the wail of the orphan, nor to the widow when she pours out her complaint.”
The narcissist may experience momentary fulfillment as they gorge on self-obsession but in the end, their preoccupation with self will destroy them - for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."