Pride and Prejudice

+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Just this past week I finished reading Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. If you haven’t read the book or seen one of the film adaptations, it’s the story of a family with five daughters, chief among them Jane and Elizabeth, a gentleman named Mr. Darcy, and, sad to say, an unbearable Anglican priest! The two things almost all of the characters have in common are Pride and Prejudice― although it takes different forms. Elizabeth has the sort of Pride and Prejudice we usually think of― pride in her character and prejudice against people. On the other hand, Jane has the inverse pride that belittles her own deserving, and prejudice in favor of people no matter how undeserving!

Near the beginning of the book, Elizabeth and her sister Mary and their friend Miss Lucas are discussing Mr. Darcy:

“‘His pride,’ said Miss Lucas, ‘does not offend me so much as pride often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, every thing in his favour, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud.’

“‘That is very true,’ replied Elizabeth, ‘and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.’

“‘Pride,’ observed Mary . . . ‘is a very common failing I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed, that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonimously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.’’’

On that score, our reading from 2nd Kings could be titled Pride and Prejudice!

Naaman certainly has, as Miss Lucas would say, an excuse for pride: he is the “commander of the army of the king of Aram,” “a great man and in high favor with his master,” and even the Lord of Israel is on his side! But when Elisha won’t come out to see him, or call on the name of the Lord, and wave his hand over the leprosy, but simply tells him to wash in the insignificant Jordan River, Naaman’s pride and vanity are terribly wounded and he goes off in a rage!

Elisha’s pride and vanity is also on display. He tells the king of Israel, “Let [Naaman] come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel”― namely, himself! And Elisha refuses to greet Naaman personally, sending a messenger instead.

What a contrast with this morning’s Gospel! There is neither Pride nor Prejudice in the leper who comes to Jesus, begging him, kneeling before him, and not at all presuming that Jesus will choose to heal him. Nor is there any Pride or Prejudice in Jesus, who, moved with compassion, touches the untouchable and heals him.

Here’s what the third century Christian theologian Origen wrote of this passage:

“And why did he touch him, since the Law forbade the touching of a leper? He touched him to show that ‘all things are clean to the clean’ [Titus 1:15].  . . .  So he touches him in his untouchability, that he might instruct us in humility; that he might teach us that we should despise no one, or abhor them, or regard them as pitiable, because [of] some wound of their body or some blemish. . .” (emphasis added).

In other words, Jesus touches the leper to teach us that Pride and Prejudice have no place in the Christian heart.

And that brings us to Baptism, and these two questions especially in the Baptismal Covenant: “Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?” and “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 305)

And now Origen has a question for us: “Let us consider, beloved, if there be anyone here that has the taint of leprosy in his soul, or the contamination of guilt in his heart? If he has, instantly adoring God, let him say, ‘Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.’”

Baptism is all about making us clean, as the Celebrant says when blessing the water: “Now sanctify this water, we pray you, by the power of your Holy Spirit, that those who here are cleansed from sin and born again may continue for ever in the risen life of Jesus Christ our Savior.”

I will never again here the story of Naaman’s baptism without the conviction that he was cleansed from both leprosy and sin in the river Jordan; and without remembering Pride and Prejudice.

Later in the book, Elizabeth finally learns the truth about Mr. Darcy:

“She grew absolutely ashamed of herself. ― Of neither Darcy nor Wickham could she think, without feeling that she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd.

“‘How despicably have I acted!’ she cried. ― ‘I, who have prided myself on my discernment! ― I, who have valued myself on my abilities! who have  . . . gratified my vanity, in useless or blameable distrust. ― How humiliating is this discovery! ― Yet, how just a humiliation! ― Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my folly.’”

Yet for us as Christians, “love, not vanity, must be our folly.” As the twentieth century Christian mystic Evelyn Underhill wrote:

“Love is always to be recognized and adored, for it is the signature of God lying upon creation; often smudged and faded, almost blotted out, yet legible to the eyes that have been cleansed by prayer. It is the peculiar wisdom of the saints that they can read the letters of the Name wherever found and in whatever script; as Francis read them on the face of the Crucified, in the marred features of the leper, and written in the air by the moving wings of the free birds.”

Thanks be to God.