Know Yourself and Recognize the Seven Pallbearers that Kill a Man's Character

Fulton Sheen wrote a wonderful book called Lift Up Your Hearts. In it he provides practical guidelines for knowing oneself, an absolute necessity for growing in the spiritual life. He introduces the book by discussing the "ego" and the "I." The ego is who each one of us thinks he is. The I is who I actually am. Because of our fallen natures, self-knowledge is difficult and self-delusion is easy. It's essential to understand where our personalities sink into egotism because, "Egotism - an inordinate love of self - is the basic cause of all sins and of all unhappiness which lacks a rational cause."

Egotism, Bishop Sheen says, leads to self hatred. "A man can hate himself in two ways: either by hating the vanity, conceit, and self glorification which do injury to his soul - and this is the way of purification - or by hating whatever in him interferes with his pretense of being God - and this is the way of self-destruction, one of hell that exists on earth." We need to know the difference. How? By growth in self knowledge through self examination. One way he offers is by examining what he calls the "Pallbearers of character," the seven deadly sins that make us egotists and destroy our integrity. By recognizing the signs and symptoms of the seven deadly sins, one can recognize his own greatest temptations and work to develop the opposing virtues. Bishop Sheen says that "Character grows by leaps and bounds as soon as one has ferreted out the master egotisms....As we depress the ego and face our own predominant fault, the neighbor who before seemed hateful takes on a new lovableness. By losing our own pride and vanity, we gain a world of friends."

So let's examine the seven deadly pallbearers of character that threaten to kill our integrity.

The first pallbearer: Pride
Definition: "too great admiration for oneself. The ultimate stage of pride is to make oneself his own law, his own judge, his own morality, his own god."

Signs of pride: boasting, love of publicity (conceit), hypocrisy (pretending to be what you are not), hardheadedness (stubborn adherence to one's own opinions), quarrelling when challenged, discord (refusing to give up your own will), and disobedience (not accepting any authority other than self).

The second pallbearer: Avarice
Definition: "Perversion of the natural right of every man...[to own] things which minister to the needs of his body and his soul.] desiring wealth as an end rather than a means, disregarding the rights of others in the way wealth is acquired and used."

Signs of avarice: harshness, indifference to the suffering and needs of others, anxiety and restlessness of soul, excessive love of luxury, always wanting more, acquiring and protecting possessions through dishonest means.

The third pallbearer: Envy
Definition: sadness at another's good

Signs of envy: snobbishness, jealousy, possessiveness, backbiting, gossip, tale-bearing, seeking to lower the reputation of another, resentment.

The fourth pallbearer: Lust
Definition: Inordinate love of the pleasures of the flesh. "No passion...more quickly produces slavery than lust [because its] perversions more quickly destroy the power of the intellect and the will."

Signs of lust: selfishness, narcissism, boredom, divorce, infidelity,intellectual blindness, inability to see the truth, imprudence, rashness, inconstancy, thoughtlessness, hatred of God and religion, denial of immortality

The fifth pallbearer: Anger
Definition: A violent desire to punish others (distinct from righteous anger)

Signs of anger: lowest degree - touchiness, undue sensitivity, impatience at small slights, grumbling; 2nd degree - flaring up, violent gestures, throwing things, redness of face; 3rd state - physical violence against another, hatred that seeks to "get even," doing physical harm to others.

The sixth pallbearer: Gluttony
Definition: abuse of lawful pleasure attached to eating and drinking

Signs of gluttony: taking more than necessary, too luxurious a manner of consumption, using food or drink at inappropriate times. Moral effects of gluttony are "despair, a weakening of the will, and the materialization of life."

The seventh pallbearer: Sloth
Definition: "Malady of the will which causes neglect of one's duty...a distaste of the spiritual."

Signs of sloth: procrastination, laziness, idleness, lukewarmness in prayer, contempt for self-discipline, careless execution of work, listlessness, aversion for effort, negligence in works of piety.

Do you recognize yourself among these "pallbearers?" If you do, you are making progress toward self-knowledge. Once a person recognizes his root vice, he can work on developing the corresponding virtue. He can begin to put the ego in its place and let the I, the image of the great I AM, shine forth.

A number of years ago I used Lift Up Your Heart for a two-day personal retreat. I found it a time of self-awakening and challenge. It was a grace that left a few important points stamped on my mind and heart. Bishop Sheen himself once said that, "Any book which inspires us to lead a better life, is a good book." I can't think of a better description for this one.