I dreamed the other night that I won the lottery—$ 97,000,000. I started to think about who I would give money to. I developed a list, but suddenly I thought, wow, I don’t have much money left, perhaps I don’t need to give so much away.
Happiness lies in engaging in worthwhile activities. We are the only ones who can tell what will make us happy. Occasionally we believe happiness is rooted in material possessions. We want more and more. Remember the bumper sticker “He with the most toys wins”? Where does greed begin?
Greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs or deserves. It may be used to define those who seek excessive material wealth, although it may also apply to the need to feel more excessively moral, social, or otherwise better than someone else.
Greed is one of the Seven Deadly sins. Greed encourages us to become selfish. It is said that greed is the mother of all of the deadly sins. It is said that from greed comes loss of judgment, deception, pride, arrogance, and malice.
Every day we, through Internet, television and print media are bombarded with the most expensive toys. We tend to desire all these things. We start to adore them and the people who own them.
Perhaps the most serious spiritual problem in the country today is reckless and untrammeled greed. Greed causes the disgraceful corporate scandals that fill our newspapers. Greed is responsible for crooked cops and crooked politicians. Greed causes the constant efforts to destroy unions that protect basic worker rights. Greed accounts for the efforts to take profitability out of the pensions and health insurance of working men and women. Greed is responsible for the obscene salaries of CEOs. Greed causes worldwide sex slavery of women and children. Greed drives the murders of the narcotics world.
It is reasonable to expect us as individuals to set limits on our own self-interest through prudence, justice, and benevolence. The goal of self-love is to provide life’s necessities, not its luxuries, and not to take advantage of our neighbor. It is difficult for our neighbor to exist among those of us who are at all times ready to hurt and injure one another.
Recall the Golden Rule?
What can we do?
The real problem is more the desire for power than actual greed. To destroy our desire for power, we must be generous in granting power to others.
If it is necessary, be submissive to others. Avoid jobs that are a temptation for a “power grab.” Share credit for successes with others, and claim a fair share of responsibility for failures being blamed on others.
The idea is to stop trying to control everything and everyone. In being good parents this means encouraging children to find their own way,and respecting their choices. It does not mean abdicating legitimate responsibilities, but loosening our grip on others’ lives as well as our own.
God will take care of us, He has the plan. We can’t control everything anyway, so we might as well learn to relax in God’s hands. Perhaps we may embrace poverty. We may not become homeless, but we can learn to do with less.
Serious campers try to leave their campsite in the same state they found it. Ideally, there should be no trace left when they move on. In the same way, try to use less of the world’s goods. “Live simply, that others may simply live.” Once this kind of freedom is practiced, we realize that we don’t need that much, anyway. This knowledge, in turn, reduces our fear and builds a kind of strength and confidence.
The obvious cure is to divest oneself of as much as possible, but another suggestion might be to consider the grave. When we die, we take nothing with us. If we are bound by “disordered attachments” to worldly goods, the separation forced upon us by death will be even more painful. If we are destined for eternal glory, the temporary enjoyment of trinkets in this life is simply absurd. Meditation on this begins to loosen the grip of objects on the heart.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month our contributor is Deacon Peter Mueller of St. John’s Catholic Church in Grand Marais.
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