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Fourth Sunday of
Lent (Laetare Sunday)
Thoughts for the Week - Fr. R. Taouk
26th March 2017
The Dangers of Avarice by Cardinal Angel Herrera Oria
Importance of this theme at the present time:
This you must know well enough, that nobody can claim a
share in Christ's Kingdom, God's Kingdom, if he has that
love of money which makes a man an idolater (Eph. 5).
The evil of avarice:
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(a) |
St
Paul says that the miser is like an idolater; St
Thomas explains this when he describes avarice as a
capital sin.
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(b) |
A sin
is called "capital" when it leads us to commit many
others as means to attain that which we desire.
Happiness is the end desired by all, therefore the
more we place our happiness in any particular good
so much the more do we love that good, and desire
it; and so many more are the means we shall use to
attain it. Now, the miser considers that money is
the source of all happiness and to him it is the
good which will satisfy all his desires; from which
it is easy to see why avarice leads to many other
sins. It is a kind of idolatry, because the miser
substitutes for God this temporal thing, the Supreme
Good for a material one. It has taken God’s place in
his heart |
Evils effects of avarice:
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(a) |
The
miser is like the idolater, not so much because he
adores money, but because he adores it with all his
heart, mind, soul and will:
(i)
As if money were his God.
(ii) From which comes an infinity of evils.
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(b) |
St
Paul gives a summary of these when he says: Those
who would be rich fall into temptation, the Devil’s
trap for them; all those useless and dangerous
appetites which sink men into ruin here and
perdition hereafter. The love of money is a root
from which every kind of evil springs, and there are
those who have wandered away from the faith by
making it their ambition, involving themselves in a
world of sorrows (1 Tim. 6). |
All these evils come from one fact:
Avarice takes possession of a man completely, so much so
that he is blind to the harm it does him, to the evils which
he is seeking and the harm he does to others and their
hatred of him; we shall limit ourselves to a brief summary
of the principal evils it causes:
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(a) |
It
blinds a man. Pluto, god of riches in the Greek and
Roman mythology, was blind.
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(i) |
The miser does not see the supernatural harm
he is doing to himself; he does not see
Heaven and he loses it; "he sacrifices
heavenly imperishable riches; he has eyes
and does not see; he abandons the true good
for the false; that which lasts for that
which will pass; Heaven for Earth".
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(ii) |
Which do you choose? To love temporal things
which pass with time or not love them and
live eternally with God in Heaven?
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(iii) |
He does not see the temporal misery in which
he lives.
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(iv) |
Avarice demands more labour than God
demands; whose yoke is sweet and burden
light.
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(b) |
It
makes a man unjust and rapacious; he no longer
thinks of the rights of others. If, for the Fathers
of the Church, not to give alms is to steal, what
must be said about the miser? The rich man in the
Gospel died and was buried in Hell (Luke 16:22).
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(c) |
It
hurls man into the most horrible crimes, wars,
treachery, hatred between brothers, murder ...
Judas.
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(d) |
It
makes a man ungrateful and envious; ungrateful to
God and envious of his fellow men. |
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