The struggle against the capital sins: avarice

Lenten readings

The struggle against
the capital sins: avarice

"Please, My children, awaken from your slumber and see the road that you have set yourselves upon by sin and avarice and pride! Turn back now! I plead to you as your Mother: Turn back now as the time is growing short!" - Our Lady, June 4, 1977

The following is an excerpt from the classic book, The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology by the Very Reverend Adolphe Tanquerey, S.S., D.D.

AVARICE¹

Avarice is related to the concupiscence of the eyes, of which we have spoken in n. 199. We shall explain: (1) its nature, (2) its malice, (3) its remedies.

n1. St. THOMAS, IIa IIae, q. 118; "de Malo," q. 113; MELCHIOR CANO, op. cit., ch. XII-XIII, MASSILLON, "Discours synodaux, De l'avarice des pretres; MONSA BRE, "Retraites pascales," 1892-1894: Les idoles, la richesse; LAUMONIER, op. cit., ch. VIII.

#891. (1) Nature of Avarice. Avarice is the inordinate love of earthly goods. To point out wherein the disorder lies, we must first recall the end for which God has given man temporal goods.

A) God's purpose is twofold: our own personal benefit and that of our brethren.

a) Earthly goods are given us to minister to our temporal needs of body and soul, to preserve our life and the life of those dependent upon us, and to procure the means of cultivating our mind and developing our other faculties.

Among these goods: 1) some are necessary for the present or the future: it is our duty to acquire them through honest work, 2) others are useful in order that we may gradually increase our resources, safeguard our welfare or that of others, contribute to the common good by promoting the arts or sciences. It is not at all forbidden to desire these for a good purpose, so long as we give a due share to the poor and to good works.

b) These goods are also given us that we may aid those of our brethren who are in need. We are, therefore, in a measure God's stewards, and should use our superfluous goods for the relief of the poor.

#892. B) Now we can more easily show wherein lies the disorder in the love of earthly goods.

a) At times it lies in the intention: we desire wealth for its own sake, as an end in itself, or for other purposes which we ourselves set up as our ultimate end, for instance, to seek pleasures or honors. If we stop there and do not see in riches means to higher ends, then we are guilty of a sort of idolatry; we worship the golden calf; we live but for money.

b) The disorder further manifests itself in the manner of seeking riches: we pursue them with eagerness, by all kinds of means, regardless of the rights of others, to the detriment of our health or that of our employees, by hazardous speculation at the risk of losing all our savings.

C) The disorder likewise shows itself in the way we use money: 1) we spend it reluctantly and in a niggardly manner, because we wish to accumulate it in order to feel more secure, or to wield the influence that comes with riches. 2) We give little or nothing to the poor and to good works. To increase our capital becomes the supreme end of life. 3) Some reach the point where they love their money as an idol, they love to hoard it, to feel it: this is the classical type known as the miser.

#893. C) Avarice is not generally a vice of youth, which as yet thoughtless and improvident, does not dream of hoarding money. There are, however, exceptions found among young people who are by character gloomy, worrisome, crafty. But it is rather in middle life or old age that this fault shows itself, for it is then that the fear of want develops, based sometimes upon the thought of sickness or accidents that might incapacitate for work. Bachelors and spinsters are particularly exposed to avarice, because they have no offspring to care for them m their old age.

#894. D) Modern civilization has developed another form of this insatiable love of riches, plutocracy, the hankering thirst for becoming millionaires or multi-millionaires, not in order to safeguard one's future or that of one's family, but to attain the power and control which money gives. Vast sums at one's command secure a vast influence, a power oftimes more effective than that of governments. Iron-, steel-, oil-magnates, money-kings, rule sovereigns as well as peoples. This reign of gold often degenerates into intolerable tyranny.

#895. (2) The Malice of Avarice. A) Avarice is a sign of mistrust in God, Who has promised to watch over us with the care of a father, and not to allow us to lack the things we need, provided we trust in Him. He would have us consider "the birds of the air that sow not nor do they reap, nor gather into barns, and the lilies of the field that labor not, neither do they spin."¹ This is not to encourage us to sloth, but to calm our anxieties and urge us to place our confidence in our Heavenly Father.² But the avaricious man instead of putting his trust in God, puts it in the abundance of his riches, and insults God by distrusting Him: "Behold the man that made not God his helper: But trusted in the abundance of his riches and prevailed in his vanity."³ This lack of confidence in God is accompanied by too great a confidence in self and personal efforts; man wants to be his own providence and thus he falls into a species of idolatry making money his god. Now, no man can serve two masters, God and Wealth: "You cannot serve God and mammon."⁴

This sin is of itself grave for the reasons just adduced. It is likewise grave when it causes one to infringe upon important rights of others through the employment of fraudulent means to obtain and retain wealth; to sin against charity by omitting necessary almsgiving, or to fail against religion, by allowing oneself to become so absorbed in business that one disregards religious duties. It constitutes but a venial sin when it does not cause one to fail in any of the great Christian virtues, duties to God included.

n1. Matth., VI, 26-28.

n2. Matth.. VII, 24-34.

n3. Ps. LI, 9.

n4. Matth., VI, 24.

#896. B) With regard to perfection, the inordinate love of riches is a very serious obstacle.

a) It is a passion that tends to supplant God in the human heart. That heart which is God's temple is crowded with all sorts of desires bent upon the things of earth, filled with all sorts of anxieties and distracting preoccupations. Yet, to effect our union with God, we must empty our heart of all creatures, of all worldly cares; for God wants "the whole soul, the whole heart, the whole time, the whole activity of his wretched creatures."¹ We must, above all, empty the heart of all pride; but attachment to riches develops pride, since we place greater confidence in our riches than in our God.

To fasten our heart on riches is to hinder the love of God, for where our heart is there is also our treasure.² To detach the heart from riches is to lay it open to God. A soul despoiled of riches has God for its possessions; its wealth is the wealth of God Himself.

b) Avarice also leads to lack of mortification and to sensuality, for when we have money and love it, we either wish to enjoy the pleasures that money can procure, or if we forego these pleasures, our heart clings to the money itself. In either case money becomes an idol that makes us turn away from God.

n1. OLIER, "Introd. aux vertus," c. 11.

n2. Matth., VI, 21.

#897. 30Remedies of Avarice. A)The great remedy is the profound conviction, resting upon reason and faith, that wealth is not an end, but a means given us by Providence to provide for our needs and those of our brethren; that God ever remains the Sovereign Master of all; that we are in truth but administrators who must one day render an account to the Sovereign Judge. Riches moreover are goods that pass away with time, goods we cannot take along with us into the next world. If we are wise, we shall lay up treasures not for this world but for eternity. "Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust and moth consume and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven where neither the rust nor the moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal."¹

B) The most effective way of detaching ourselves from riches is to invest our wealth in the bank of heaven by giving generously to the poor and to good works. A gift to the poor is a loan to God; it yields a hundred -fold even in this world, in the joys which come to us from giving happiness to those around us. But above all, it yields a hundredfold for heaven, where Christ, considering as given to Himself what we have bestowed upon the least of His children, will take care to give us imperishable goods in exchange for those we sacrificed for Him. The truly wise, therefore, are those who exchange the treasures of this earth for those of glory. To seek God and holiness is the sum-total of Christian prudence: "Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God and His justice: and all these things shall be added unto you."²

n1. Matth., VI, 19-20.

n2. Matth., VI, 33.

#898. C) Perfect souls go further: they sell all to give to the poor, or they renounce all ownership by the religious vow of poverty, or they retain their capital but use the income only according to the advice of a wise spiritual director, and thus while they remain in the state in which God's providence has placed them, they live in the practice of detachment of mind and heart.

"Though you may stand alone, persevere, My children, to the end and the Kingdom of Heaven will be yours. Fight not among yourselves. Just pray, for you are all brothers. Satan seeks to separate My children with discord. Heed not his diabolical plan that blinds you to the truth. Sacrifice your pride, your avarice, your greed. Be humble in heart, for only as little children shall you enter the Kingdom." - Our Lady, June 15, 1970

Directives from Heaven... http://www.tldm.org/directives/directives.htm

D89 - Sin
D107 - Pride
D108 - Humility

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