Med. XLV Covetousness in a priest; its effects; Judas

1.—This Passion Blinds Us.

2.—It Hardens the Heart and Leads to the Greatest Crimes.

3.—It Leads to Final Impenitence.

First Point.—Covetousness blinds us. This blindness is indeed the first effect of every passion, but it is more frightful in the covetous man. Who could know so well as Judas the nothingness of riches, the excellence of voluntary poverty? He had heard the divine teachings of Jesus Christ concerning detachment from things of earth, the anathemas He had pronounced against the rich, the pressing recommendations He had addressed the other apostles and himself when He sent them to preach the Gospel. He had experienced like the others to what extent heaven blesses the ministry of the poor. At the very time that He gives way to his passion, by murmuring against Magdalen, he hears his Master praise the pious prodigality of this woman, and declare that what she has done shall be told to her honor through the whole world.

The example of the Saviour, however, should have convinced him more effectually than anything else. He believed in His divinity, for he had seen so many evidences of it. He could not but believe that everything that He condemned deserved contempt, and everything He praised deserved esteem. Now, he had under his eye the Lord of the Universe, who possessed and would possess no earthly treasures. In the midst of so much light, Judas does not see, nay more, he is so far blinded by his love of money that he forgets the best interests of his passion; for, as he knew the deadly hatred of the enemies of Jesus, he might have turned this knowledge to his advantage, and asked a very high price for his betrayal, as they were prepared to accede to his demand. This, however, he does not do; he is satisfied with their offer. Quid vultis mihi dare? He takes the thirty pieces of silver, though shortly before he expressed regret for having lost three hundred pence. "This ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred pence and given to the poor."

O madness, O monstrous blindness! St. John Chrysostom exclaims. But is it less inexplicable to-day in the heirs of the priesthood of Jesus Christ? Do not the priests preach the same Gospel which condemns so severely the love of the goods of the earth, which commands so expressly not to be solicitous as the pagans were. "After all these things do the heathens seek." (Matt. vi. 32.) Have they not, like Judas, the same examples of the Saviour, and, moreover, the terrible lesson which Judas himself has given them?

Ah! how much havoc has love for money wrought in the sanctuary since the origin of the Church? Is it free from it in our day? There are so many kinds of covetousness; hence, says Bossuet, Jesus Christ does not say, Beware of covetousness, but "beware of all covetousness." (Luke xii. 15.) It knows how to hide itself under very specious pretexts. If something is put by, it is in view of future projects. It is intended to found or to sustain some good work. So much would be done if one had the means. In the meantime the poor are allowed to suffer. Scandal is given and life passes away without good works.

St. Bernard, commenting upon the well-known text, "Having food and wherewith to be covered, with these we are content." (1 Tim. vi. 8), asks: "Where are the priests who are content with the strictly necessary and care not for the superfluous?" This rule of the apostles we find written in books, but who practises it? Yet it is written of the just, that the law of God it in his heart. All agree with St. Paul that he is to be excluded from the pastoral ministry who seeks for "sordid gain." What priest deserves to be so stigmatized? He, says St. Jerome, who is too much concerned about things present, and over-solicitous for the future, who disregards divine providence. Let us beware of a passion which made an apostate of an apostle at the school and under the eyes of Jesus Christ, and which fills the mind with the densest darkness.

Second Point.—Love of money hardens the heart of the priest and makes him capable of committing the greatest crimes. As soon as Judas allows himself to be overcome by covetousness, he has no feeling for anything else save for money. The efforts of Our Saviour to frighten him, and to move his heart, are useless. When He speaks of His approaching death, of the treason of one of His disciples, all are filled with sadness; Judas alone remains impassive. When he humbles himself so far as to wash their feet, Peter could not consent to it, and exclaimed: "Dost Thou wash my feet?" Judas, however is not concerned and presents his feet to be washed. He is witness of miracles in the Garden of Olives; armed men fall to the ground at the sound of a word; the ear of Malchus is healed instantaneously; he sees the ineffable meekness of the Saviour, who bows down His head to receive the treacherous kiss, and who at that very moment calls him His friend. In order to convert him Our Saviour uses every means: admonitions, reproaches, threats, tears, caresses, tender insinuations, but he feels nothing; all is in vain, his hardened soul resists every effort, and his cupidity leads him to commit the darkest and most sacrilegious of all crimes. "What will you give me, and I will deliver Him unto you?": thus Judas. A God becomes the victim of covetousness! The Creator of the world is offered for sale, for there was here a real bargain—Jesus, on the one hand, was, if we dare use the expression, the merchandise offered for sale; the price, thirty pieces of silver; Judas, the merchant; the princes of the people, the buyers. A God sold! The unworthy communion which preceded, and the despair which followed it complete the list of those horrors.

You should tremble, O Priest, if you discover in yourself the least germ of this detestable passion. Unless you root it out of your heart, the Church can expect no good of you, and there is no sin that you will not be liable to commit. "The desire of money is the root of all evil." (1. Tim. vi. 10.) It will extinguish in you every honorable sentiment. Neither charity, religion, humanity, nor even propriety and the respect which you owe to your own state, will be able to stop you. The functions of the ministry, nay, the deposit of faith, everything will be sacrificed to the love of money. "Teaching the things they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake." (Tit. i. 11.) God grant that you may not go so far as to ascend the altar in order to give up to the devil the same body and blood of Jesus Christ which Judas delivered to the Jews after his unworthy communion in the cenacle. "Nothing is more wicked than the covetous man. There is not a more wicked thing than to love money; for such a one setteth even his own soul to sale." Innocent III. says of the covetous man: Offendit Deum, offendit proximum, offendit seipsum. Nam Deo retinet debita, proximo denegat necessaria, sibi subtrahit opportuna: Deo ingratus, proximo impius, sibi crudelis. (De vilitat. cond. hum.)

Third Point.—Love of money leads to final impenitence. It can not be denied that a particular malediction is attached to this vile inclination. "They that will become rich," says St. Paul, "fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition." (1. Tim. vi. 9.) St. Bernard affirms that there will be no inheritance in heaven for the priest who desires to have his inheritance on earth. Oh, how difficult it is for the covetous priest to bring back sincerely to God the heart which he had set upon money! Age, which weakens the other passions, strengthens that of covetousness. Let us take a lesson from Judas. The rocks of Calvary are rent, but his heart remains hard. Not to say that this priest gave no sign of return to better sentiments; he even gives the very signs which inspire most confidence in the true conversion of sinners. He repents: poenitentia ductus; he avows his crime: Peccavi, tradens sanguinem justum; he repairs it, it seems, as much as he can: Retulit triginta argenteos principibus sacerdotum (Matt. xxvii. 3. 4); and with all that he dies impenitent.