Art. III The love of riches an obstacle to perfection

I. The Love of Riches Causes Three Torments to the Soul—Pagans Have Despised Riches—Sins Which the Inordinate Love of Riches Occasions—II. Remedies: Poverty of Spirit—Means by Which One Can Judge if He is Attached to Riches—True Detachment—III. The Vow of Poverty—Three Considerations to Obtain the Poverty of Spirit—Remarks.

I. WE have now considered the passions of the soul in themselves and their effects upon the soul's most noble faculties, the intellect and will, and now it behooves us to examine what influences exterior things have over them, that we may thereby still better understand the dangerous tendency of our vitiated nature.

The love of riches is one of the obstacles to perfection, for "The desire to acquire and preserve temporal goods is a poison unto charity," says St. Augustine. Why should it prove so? For three reasons. "The insatiable love for riches disquiets the mind more through the desire of them, than it gratifies the soul through their use; for in their acquisition, there is labor; in their possession fear and their loss is bound to be filled with sadness." Our Savior Himself alludes to the torments which the love of riches inflicts upon the soul, when He speaks of the good seed that fell among thorns: "And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded no fruit." Why refer to the heart of man in which the good seed is sown, as a thorny field, unless He wished to inculcate that riches and other excessive cares are like thorns that sting and torment the soul, as His explanation of the parable fully proves.

Although all excessive love for wealth brings about much anxiety to the soul, to wit: great labor of mind in its acquisition, fear of losing it and sadness of the heart when it is lost, we should not extend these evil effects to the moderate love and desire of acquiring a sufficient fortune for one's future necessity and for the comfortable sustenance of one's family. It is the inordinate love for wealth that is condemned for the frantic desire of accumulating to the detriment of honesty and charity.

There have been even Pagans, who considered virtue incompatible with the acquisition and possession of riches. St. Jerome relates that "Crates throwing a considerable weight of gold into the sea, uttered these words: Begone, accursed cupidity; I drown thee lest thou drown me." The holy Doctor explains this singular conduct of the philosopher, by saying that "It was because he could not possess virtue and riches at the same time."

St. Paul attributes the loss of many souls to the desire of earthly riches: "They that will become rich," he says, "fall into temptation and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition, for the desire of money is the root of all evil, and some who have coveted it, have erred from the faith." We might ask what there is in common between avarice and faith. St. Ambrose explains it as follows: "The root of all evil is cupidity; therefore some who have given way to it, have deviated from the faith. You see, that he who has money loses the faith and he who gathers gold, dissipates the faith. Avarice is a blindness that precipitates us into many errors regarding religion. It is blind and in its fraudulous calculations it puts a bandage on the intellect; it sees not the beauty of celestial things, but it understands all too well the interest of its cupidity."

We deem it unnecessary to mention in detail all the evil consequences of avarice. The love of wealth often originates in the heart of the wicked to satisfy their degrading passions, and principally their voluptuousness or their insatiable ambition; for money can buy the means to satisfy all their vicious appetites, or as Ecclesiastes expressess it: "All things obey money." Holy Scripture again teaches us that "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 for sale." By this we understand that he who covets riches will sacrifice anything for their acquisition: his friends, his honor, his reputation, his family, his faith, yea, he will even barter his own soul for gold; for avarice produces hardness of heart and all admonitions, all inspirations from on high are like a good seed that falls on stony ground. From it proceed indifference to our neighbor's wants and interests, oppression of the poor and of the laborer, law-suits, perjury and even murder. What fearful crimes has the sordid wretch not committed to increase his wealth! Who can enumerate the deeds of iniquity for which gold has furnished the occasion? Hence the threat hurled against them who have amassed a fortune: "Woe to you that are rich," says Our Lord, "for you have your consolation." Terrible words, issued from the mouth of the Judge of the living and the dead. What can the rich expect who find their consolation and their contentment in the fulfilment of their wicked desires upon earth, but the fearful sentence on the last day: "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. . . . for I was hungry and you gave Me not to eat. I was thirsty and you gave Me not to drink."? Is this perhaps an extreme view, a possible exaggeration? Far from it, for the Savior expresses more clearly and with more emphasis, if possible, the unhappy lot of the rich after this present life, when He remarked to His disciples: "Amen I say to you, that the rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. . . It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven."

Let us remark that love of riches is not a vice restricted to the wealthy only; for, as poverty of spirit is not a virtue exclusively proper to the poor, the indigent can also sin by coveting the riches they despair ever to possess. We find even covetousness among religious who have made the vow of poverty and especially among them who are in charge of the temporalities in religious institutions. The plea that they are coveting worldly goods not for themselves, but for the welfare of the community, will not be acceptable to God, for as people in the world, if they associate together for commercial and industrial enterprises, with a view to amassing great wealth, fall under Christ's condemnation as well as the single merchant or manufacturer who hoards up much gold, likewise religious who covet wealth for their order or institute are equally worthy of condemnation. Extensive holdings, large estates and sumptuous edifices have often directly caused the relaxation of discipline and of the vows in some religious communities, as their history clearly attests, and the same danger may even extend to wealthy parishes, colleges and other institutions of learning. It is true that this remark is hardly applicable to the present condition of the Church in the United States, where the necessity of maintaining churches, schools and charitable institutions are such that the incomes of many institutions and of nearly all parishes are not adequate to their need; but wealth is rapidly accumulating in the centres of industry and commerce, and vigilance will then be required that wealth may not become a hindrance to the clergy, to religious institutes and to monastic orders as well as to the Church at large. It is a most welcome sign of God's kind predilection for our glorious country that lately more interest has been shown in foreign and domestic missions among heretics, infidels and heathens, and it is to be hoped that the surplus income of all Catholic institutions, instead of being spent in useless extravagances, will be utilized for the most pious and the most noble of all charitable work of mercy, the spread of God's kingdom upon earth.

II. The main remedy for covetousness, to which all other means that may be proposed, must necessarily tend, is the spirit of poverty or detachment of the soul from all worldly goods. The world upholds riches as a great boon, the door to all earthly enjoyments, and Jesus our Savior, who condemns the wicked maxims of the world and particularly its cupidity, proclaims as blessed or especially favored by His Father, the poor in spirit; for among the Beatitudes we find the following: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." To have a full understanding of what the poverty of spirit means, we should bear in mind that earthly goods are not evil in themselves, for they were given us by the Creator for the preservation of our natural life, and hence it is not sinful to desire what God intended as a necessity of our nature, at least after the fall of Adam and Eve; for God said to Adam: "Cursed is the earth in thy work; with labor and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. . . . In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread." The desire of what is not absolutely necessary for our maintenance and our condition in life alone is condemned, and besides, we should not be too solicitous about the necessities of life, for the Savior has warned us against it: "Therefore I say to you," says the Divine Master, "be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on." From this we understand that detachment of the heart from all earthly possessions, even from those things that are useful or necessary, is proposed to us, as the principal means to combat that cupidity in which all evils have their source. This indifference to worldly possessions can exist in the midst of opulence, as cupidity may exist in the heart of the beggar and of religious who possess nothing which they may call their own. Let a master spirit explain more clearly our mind: St. Augustine speaking on what St. Peter had left behind to follow Our Lord, says: "He has abandoned much, he has sacrificed much. And what has he abandoned? He has abandoned not only what he had but also what he desired to possess. For who is the poor man who is not filled with the hope of having one day the goods of this world? Who desires not to increase every day those he possesses? Thus the Apostle Peter has cut off that cupidity from his heart."

Other Doctors of the Church and masters of spiritual life have taught us that avidity for earthly possessions consists in an affection for or inclination towards earthly goods, no matter how trivial they may be, and that it is necessary to suppress that passion, if we desire to be free from its contamination. This vice of cupidity is not always easily detected, because the affection for worldly goods is not like the passions of lust, anger, hatred and revenge, which are accompanied by exterior manifestations, by words or deeds, that are difficult to hide, unless one be so avaricious that all his thoughts, his desires, as well as his exterior actions, yea his whole life tend to nothing else than to amassing wealth. Most often the passion of cupidity is insidiously inimical and can only be detected when the unexpected happens, such as the failure in an enterprise, the loss of something more or less valuable by accident, by fire, theft, drought, inundations or such like. If anyone feels unusually elated over successes or feels sad or despondent over reverses, or exerts himself more than it behooves in preserving what he possesses or in increasing it, the insidious passion is lurking in his breast. Again, when one is unusually occupied with business transactions and frequently revolves in his mind the means of success or ordinarily makes them the topic of conversation with his acquaintances, or often dwells with others in his colloquies on times and circumstances which improve or diminish the chances of a prosperous trade, commerce or industry, it is evident that the mind thus occupied denotes and lays bare a heart attached to earthly goods.

III. It must be conceded that a husband or a father of a family is in duty bound to look after his interest and the interest of those who depend on him, but both must be ready at all times to sacrifice their goods or so much thereof as is necessary, if religion, charity or the will of God should clearly demand it. No one should so eagerly attach his heart to riches that he is unwilling to abandon them, if a motive superior to his future comfort or to family welfare impose it. Abraham was ordered by God to offer up his only son Isaac as a holocaust, how much more should we be willing to suffer the loss of all our earthly possessions, as the holy man Job did, if it be God's holy will. The rich should not complain nor give way to sadness or despondency, when misfortunes befall them; but let them rather say with the same holy man Job: "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; as it hath pleased the Lord so is it done. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Neither should the rich have such an affection for their worldly goods that they neglect thereby their duties to the poor and their religious obligations, and deny through niggardliness their full share for the upkeep of the divine worship, for the maintenance of the parochial clergy and of the parish school, as well as of all the charitable institutions of their neighborhood; for a rich man who refuses to contribute according to his means to those worthy objects, proves but too clearly that his heart is attached to his perishable goods, and he should seriously ponder over Our Lord's saying that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven.

On the other hand, a rich man who is willing to sacrifice all he possesses, if God should demand it of him, and is liberal according to his means toward the Church and the poor, is blameless, although he be as opulent as Cresus, provided his wealth be honestly acquired; and to him can be better applied the consoling Beatitude: "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," than to a religious who has an affection for certain things that are given him for his use, or who prides himself that he lives in a monastery that surpasses in grandeur the humble convent of cloistered nuns nearby, or who with other religious strives to enrich the community to which he belongs, whilst pleading with his own conscience that the riches he seeks is not for himself, but for his holy order! Oh! How much affection for earthly things is often hidden under a coarse and threadbare habit!

As to the rich who have no one dependent on them, if they wish to strive for perfection, we can only tell them what our Savior said to the rich young man, who had asked Him what good he must do to obtain eternal life: "If thou wilt be perfect," remarked the amiable Jesus, "go sell what thou hast, and give it to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me." This doctrine, the disciples of the Master understood well; this the earthly Christians carried out to perfection, for they sold their belongings and laid the price thereof at the feet of the Apostles. "For the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that aught of the things he possessed, was his own, but all things were common unto them."

IV. To obtain that perfect spirit of poverty of which we have just spoken, the help of God is absolutely indispensable, and prayer and meditation are the keys that will open the heavenly treasure of graces, which will flow in abundance on them who desire to live a life of perfection. It is difficult for some people to detach their heart from all worldly goods, but "Ask and you shall receive." To earnest and devout prayer we should add the following considerations, in order that we may entirely wean our hearts from all earthly possessions, which for many have been an occasion of perdition.

1. "The desire of money is the root of all evil, and by coveting it, some have erred from the faith and have entangled themselves in many sorrows," and, as we have seen, it is next to impossible for a rich man to enter into heaven. God alone can work such a miracle.

2. We should frequently meditate on the voluntary poverty of our Redeemer, who although infinitely rich, has willed to become poor for our sake, that He might enrich us by His poverty, that is, merit for us heavenly riches and the joys of the celestial kingdom, which alone are worth our earnest desire. St. Paul concisely expresses the consoling truth, when he points to the benefits that accrue to us through the Savior's poverty: "Being rich, He became poor for your sake that through His poverty you might be rich." In all truth the Redeemer says: "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." How literally this was fulfilled when, naked, He died on the cross, and could not rest His aching head for fear of increasing His pain because of His thorny crown!

3. We should also seriously consider how quickly through private reverses and public calamities riches may be lost and that want may suddenly succeed to opulence and affluence; but it is most important that we should reflect on the certainty that our days upon earth are counted, and that soon, perhaps very soon, we must depart hence without taking with us anything of the goods to which our hearts may be attached. What will become of the rich man's money and property? Most likely they will pass into the hands of ungrateful heirs, who may quarrel over their division, or spend them, like many prodigal sons, unto their perdition and that of others. As to the dead man, it matters not, his riches are lost, unless by his liberality to the poor he made them the treasurers of his meritorious charities, for the Supreme Judge will accept as done to Himself all deeds of mercy. "The treasure of heaven is the hand of the poor man;" says St. Peter Chrysologus, "what he receives he deposits it in