The Christian Solution to Vanity
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
Ascension
4.9 • 7.1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2020
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Vanity is not what many people think it is. It can come in many forms, and is not necessarily an infatuation with yourself. Vanity is an inordinate preoccupation with what other people think about you—which is different.
It’s important, to an extent, to care what others think about you. It can even be charitable. But when this care becomes unbalanced, it leads to neglecting more important things.
Wanting to be noticed can be vain, but not wanting to be noticed can also be vain. When you shrink back and don’t want anyone to look at you, it can be a form of vanity or false humility; because not wanting to be seen can be an indication that you care an inordinate amount about what people think of you.
Vanity can also cause an unwillingness to share the Faith. Many times we think sharing the gospel will make people think less of us. How many times has the thought of what other people think prevented you from sharing the Faith?
Balance is pertinent in every aspect of vanity, and the best way to achieve that balance is to care about what God thinks of you above all.
These sayings about humility really sum it up well, since humility is the antidote to vanity:
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less” (Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Life).
“If you meet a really humble man … He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all” (C.S. Lewis).
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents. |
| 0:13.2 | You know that song, you're so vain, it's from a long time ago. |
| 0:16.6 | But there's a line in it, you're so vain, you probably think the song is about you and |
| 0:19.1 | it describes how this guy walks into the room and he thinks everyone's looking at him |
| 0:23.2 | or she's like, you think that everyone's looking at you and everyone is looking at you |
| 0:27.2 | basically. Vanity. I'll talk to a lot of people who will say something like, well, Vanity's |
| 0:32.0 | not really something that I wrestle with. Vanity's not really a part of my life. I mean, |
| 0:35.3 | it's not like I think I'm the best at whatever or that. It's not that I think I'm so beautiful |
| 0:39.4 | or so handsome or so athletic or so like, oh, okay, that's an interesting thing because |
| 0:44.1 | yes, we associate that kind of mentality or like, I'm not going to go get liposuction |
| 0:48.8 | or I'm not going to get like plastic surgery just to make myself look better. So I'm not |
| 0:52.8 | very vain or sometimes I even go out without even doing my hair. I'm not very vain. You know |
| 0:56.9 | that kind of idea. That's one aspect of vanity. That is just the symptom of the root of |
| 1:03.7 | what vanity is. Here's what vanity is. Vanity is can be just some hot defined or described |
| 1:09.4 | as an inordinate preoccupation with what other people think very, very simply. Now, I'm going |
| 1:15.8 | to break that down a little bit. What? What? Because it's not just caring about what other |
| 1:19.0 | people think. That's actually a decent thing. It's important to be able to be sensitive to |
| 1:24.1 | how you're being perceived, how you're coming across, how you're communicating yourself, |
| 1:27.3 | to be aware of what other people think and to actually even care about what other people |
| 1:30.7 | think is not a bad thing. They actually can be a very good thing, especially if we're trying |
| 1:34.6 | to love people. To be like, I'm going to struggle. I'm going to wrestle against vanity. |
| 1:37.8 | It means I'm no longer going to care what other people think. No. Actually, that's an |
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