Ch. XXIII Avarice

Radix malorum omnium est cupiditas (The desire of money is the root of all evils).—1 TIM. vi. 10.

AVARICE is a vice so ignoble that its name alone inspires disgust. Let us consider what we must understand by avarice, how abhorrent a vice it is, and what is its remedy.

I. As pride is an inordinate love of glory, so avarice is a passion or an inordinate love for the riches of the earth. We say inordinate, ill-regulated love, because we can care for the riches of this world in an honest and lawful way. We may have wealth, gain money, increase our possessions, but our hearts must not be attached to them. The Saviour Himself had a little money for His own and His disciples' maintenance, and there was one of them who was purse-bearer. We may labor, trade, exercise our ingenuity in business; nothing is more laudable, provided we fulfil a double condition. 1st. We must labor for a Christian end: for example, to live suitably according to our position, to properly rear our children, or even to increase our fortune and improve our condition.

2d. Our labor and enterprises must be honest, and our first attention must be given to the service of God. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His justice: and all these things shall be added unto you (Matt. vi. 33).

A love of riches is ill-regulated; 1st. When it is immoderate or too solicitous. Be not solicitous for to-morrow, says the Saviour—be not solicitous, saying: What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? (Matt. vi.) 2d. When we attach our hearts to riches or seek them for a bad end—either to hoard them or to satisfy vanity or other passions. When we seek them by illicit means, such as working on Sunday, excessive and absorbing labor, dishonest enterprises. Thus it would be an ill-regulated love of money and gain which would prompt us to sell ourselves to the enemies of the Church for a position or any temporal advantage.

Therefore it is evident that the name miser not only applies to those who hoard or who are penurious in giving and slow to pay, but that there are many others to whom the stigma of avarice clings.

One is avaricious when he makes temporal possessions the principal end of his existence here below.

One is avaricious when he seeks riches for an end which is not Christian nor subordinate to salvation.

One is avaricious when he is too much taken up with temporal things, when he lacks confidence in God to obtain them and seeks them at the expense of his soul's salvation.

One is avaricious when he does nothing but accumulate riches upon riches and is never satisfied.

One is avaricious when he gives nothing to the poor, on pretext that he has nothing to spare, and at the same time is unwilling to reduce his expenses to a just limit.

One is avaricious when he presses his debtors too severely.

One is avaricious when he is willing to acquire money unjustly, or by any means contrary to conscience and religion.

One is avaricious when, because of a wrong or a pecuniary loss, he hates his neighbor, abandons himself to despair, or murmurs against Providence.

Finally, one is avaricious when he esteems too highly the goods of this life and prefers them to eternal treasures, contrary to the teaching of our Saviour, who tells us: Lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal (Matt. vi. 20).

II. Detestation. We must detest avarice because it is a debasing and very fatal vice.

1st. Avarice is a debasing vice. We despise a miser, and he merits contempt. His heart, attached to earth, has no nobility or greatness. Buried, as it were, in material things, he has no thoughts that are not material, narrow, and base; everything with him is a question of money—he beholds no other thing. In vain do you speak to him of virtue, good works, the riches of the soul, the treasures of the mind. He understands you not. The sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. ii. 14). Yes; were he clothed in golden raiment he is still a sensual man—animalis homo. He is less than this: wholly buried in the coffers and metal which he adores, his being seems to be identified with the objects of his affection, and he preserves but the semblance of a man.

2d. Avarice is an extravagant vice. Is it not folly to love riches, which are such an obstacle to salvation? How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! (Luke xviii. 24).

Is it not folly to so ardently seek possessions which death can take from us at any moment? How much of all his wealth shall the rich man bear away with him?

Is it not folly to hoard wealth, which will become the prey of ungrateful and mocking heirs?

Is it not folly to leave unproductive perishable riches by which we may gain heaven and immortal treasure?

3d. Avarice is a very fatal vice—a principle of sin, of crime, of unhappiness in this life and the next.

The thirst for money, for gain impels men to injustice, to perjury, to hatred, to murder.

Love of riches leads men to impiety, to forget their salvation, to forget God. No man can serve two masters, says Jesus Christ. You cannot serve God and mammon (Matt. vi. 24). These words explain the following words of the apostle: Covetousness is the service of idols (Col. iii. 5).

He who is ruled by a passion for money scruples nothing. He sells his conscience, his soul, his God, after the example of Judas. . . .

The man who places his happiness in riches is insensible to the sufferings of the poor. He dreams but of himself, his enjoyments, his pleasures, as we see exemplified by the rich man in the Bible (Luke xvi. 19).

The man whose heart is attached to temporal things is not happy. He is ever disquieted and troubled, and when he begins to rest in his abundance death comes upon him and robs him of all his possessions. God said to him: Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee; and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? (Luke xii. 20).

Yes; death comes also to the rich and the avaricious—Mortuus est et dives. But what was the death of the rich man who despised Lazarus? What was the death of Judas, who sold his Master? . . . The covetous, says the apostle, shall not possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor. vi. 10).

III. The remedy. What is the remedy for so great an evil?

1st. Almsgiving. . . .

2d. The teaching and example of Jesus Christ. Blessed are the poor in spirit, He tells us, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. v. 3). Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity, that when you shall fail they may receive you into everlasting dwellings (Luke xvi. 9).

Such is avarice, the second of the seven deadly sins. Let us ask the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, and watch over ourselves that we may ever exclude it from our heart.