Self-Knowledge and Ambition

Protopresbyter Dionysios Tatsis | October 7, 2026 | Orthodoxos Typos

 

Every day, ordinary people voice complaints about the actions and omissions of those who hold political authority, and not infrequently ecclesiastical authority as well. There is a widespread sense that these persons are incompetent and serve vested interests, in a provocative and scandalous manner. Without overlooking the notable exceptions, unfortunately the majority prove to be incompetent, and this happens because these particular people are ambitious and lack self-knowledge. We are speaking of the presence of a terrible passion and the absence of a great virtue. Ambition and self-knowledge cannot coexist in a person. When ambition predominates, self-knowledge is lost. Whereas when self-knowledge is present, the passion of ambition diminishes and sometimes is even mortified.

The ambitious person loses the sense that he is an ordinary human being with many weaknesses and, naturally, unfit for positions of responsibility in secular authority. This reality is not taken into account, and so major social problems, whose solution requires ability, are entrusted to small and weak people. And the result is that the problems multiply!

Knowledge of ourselves is necessary, without causing us to become discouraged; on the contrary, it leads us to spiritual awakening. Saint John Chrysostom says that “it is no small act of piety and virtue to be able to recognize our true worth. For the one who knows himself best is he who believes that he is nothing, etc.” Likewise, the awareness that we are sinners and worthy of punishment does not exclude us from forgiveness. We can “remain standing in the spiritual arena and engage in the struggles of repentance”!...

Although people display behavior that reveals a lack of self-knowledge, they themselves deny this, because there is much malice in their souls. At the same time, they are absorbed in worldly concerns. Saint John Chrysostom emphasizes that “nothing causes a person to be so ignorant of himself as being absorbed in worldly concerns; and, conversely, nothing causes him to be so absorbed in worldly concerns as ignorance of himself, because these two things depend upon one another.” When a person is free from worldly concerns, he acquires self-knowledge, which leads to every kind of virtue. Saint Basil the Great counsels the well-disposed Christian concerning the acquisition of self-knowledge: “Take heed to yourself, and neither cling to mortal and corruptible things as though they were eternal, nor despise eternal things as though they were temporary.” The Saint also does not fail to mention that it is difficult for one to know his true self: “Man is not what he appears to be, but a certain higher wisdom is needed, through which each one of us may come to know well who, after all, his true self is. But this, unless we purify our mind, is far more difficult than it is for someone with impaired eyesight to look at the sun.”

 

Greek source:

https://orthodoxostypos.gr/%ce%b1%e1%bd%90%cf%84%ce%bf%ce%b3%ce%bd%cf%89%cf%83%ce%af%ce%b1-%ce%ba%ce%b1%ce%af-%cf%86%ce%b9%ce%bb%ce%bf%ce%b4%ce%bf%ce%be%ce%af%ce%b1/