Understanding And Resisting Greed
A Catholic priest describes the nature of greed and urges the viewer to resist being overwhelmed by this deadly vice.
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Step 1:
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Human Greed
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Ghandi rightly observed that the Earth will always have enough to provide for human need, but it will never have enough to provide for human greed.
Greed is a vice that promises us security, and happiness, and fulfillment, and in the end robs us of our capacity to really love others, and feel a part of the overall human community, that we are, in fact, connected to.
There's a picture in our family album, when I was about 4 years old, at Christmas time, one of my cousins was playing with one of my toys, and I was trying to take it back from him, with big tears coming down my eyes. It was mine, I didn't want to share it.
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Step 2:
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Basic Needs
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Now all of us, we need food, shelter, and clothing to survive as material beings, but there's something innately selfish about us that propels us to accumulate more and more things until finally we get to a point in our lives where we find that we are owned by the things that we own.
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Step 3:
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The Reality
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There was a bumper sticker a number of years ago that was very popular on many cars that would say "The person who dies with the most toys wins." Well sadly to say, the person that dies with the most toys, simply dies.
And whether a person will be counted among the spiritually wealthy or not will depend on how that person has used the material goods of this world to help not only himself, but his family, his friends and also the weak, the widow, and the orphan. We become enriched by the things we give away. May you have a generous spirit and not have the joy of your life robbed by that vice that we call avarice and greed.