Love of Money

One

Greed

Under its discussion of the tenth commandment (“Thou Shalt not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Goods”) the Catechism says that Christians are forbidden to indulge in greed, which it defines as the desire “to amass earthly goods without limit” (#3536).

This desire to amass money without limits is dangerous for the soul.

Now, if you are really good at what you do, good at making money – or let’s say – really good at winning in this game, think of this: Make sure that what you do to make money is actually good for people and good for the common good. If you have a lot of money and you rely on it to make yourself comfortable, safe, and secure rather than give it to Christ by giving to the Church and the spiritually and materially poor then your soul is in danger.

It is not good for your kids to leave them a bunch of money after you die. In fact, the goal is to exit with no money. Forthcoming meditations on this…

So, why would you ever want to have more money than you would ever need or more stuff than you could possibly use? But, it turns out, that’s exactly what a lot of people, probably you and me, desire without even realizing it.

Two

The Reality Check of Material Goods

A lot of us have had the experience of realizing that we have a lot more clothes than we need. We get to the point where our closets and dressers are overflowing, and we think, “This is ridiculous. Most of this stuff I never even wear.” And then, hopefully, we hesitate the next time we buy more clothing. Hopefully, we begin to learn to moderate our acquisitiveness for clothes. This is the great benefit of concrete, material stuff. At a certain point, you get a reality check that shows you that you have a problem.

You realize that you have more cars than you can drive, more kitchen stuff than you ever cook with, or more towels or sheets than you would possibly need, more Christmas ornaments than you could possibly hang on a tree, or more knick-knacks than you could ever look at and enjoy. You realize that you just have way, way too much stuff, and then you want to go find the infinity stones so you can snap your fingers and make half of it just disappear.

But there are some things that we’re greedy for, and because they are so abstract, so non-concrete, they never build up enough reality to give us a reality check.

These kinds of things, things like space, time, and money, these things are really dangerous, because our desire for them can actually be unlimited, and then you’re falling through a black hole of greed, and you don’t even know it.

Three

Money, Space, and Time: you never have enough

Money, especially in our day and age, is purely symbolic. Its dominant form is digital, which means you don’t have to store it in bags, banks, or pickle jars.

When you get more money, the only thing in the entire world that changes is a tiny little number in a bank’s computer file. And the thing about numbers is there’s no upper limit. There’s no greatest number. Which means there’s no built-in brake to your desire for more money.

So how do you know if your desire for more money is disordered? How can you tell when you have enough money? Because, of course, there’s always something to spend your money on.

The same is true of space and time. Almost everybody wants bigger houses. Nearly everybody dreams about an addition. Doesn’t matter if you live in a 1,500-square-foot house or a 5,000-square-foot house. Either people dream of expanding their house, or they dream of buying another house. Maybe they dream about buying a couple of acres and building a new house. People love having more space. And they always find something to fill it with and then they dream about more space.

You see, space is so unsubstantial that it never piles up to the point that you say, “You know, I guess I have enough space.”

And certainly, that’s true of time. 

Everybody says they don’t have much time, especially people with no urgent responsibilities. All they can talk about is how busy they are. People say they wish they had more time. And then when they get some, they fill it, and then they wish they had more.

Money, space, time – when do you have enough? When do you snap out of it and realize, “Do you know what? I have a greed issue! I have an insatiable desire for more time, space, and money. I need to cut back.”

When does that happen?

Four

Anxiety and Stinginess

Since greed for money and space and time doesn’t give you the same reality checks, what are some of the signs that you need to fight your greed? Probably the best two are anxiety and stinginess.

Begin with anxiety: Are you anxious about money? Are you constantly thinking about it? Talking about it? Complaining about it? Are you always short of time? Are you constantly late, constantly short of time, wondering where the time went, and staying up too late to get stuff done that you didn’t have time to do during the day? How about space? Do you constantly feel cramped, like you need to “get out”?

In the New Testament, anxiety is never about how much you have. It’s about a disordered approach to things. 

So maybe the problem isn’t that you need more money. Maybe you need less. And the same with time and space.

The second great mark of greed is stinginess.

Are you ungenerous with your time? Or your money? Or even your space? Do you not give time or money? Are you not very hospitable? That’s not the sign that you don’t have enough time or money or space – it’s a sign that you’re not using the time, money, and space you have very well.

This is particularly true in being open to life. If you wait until you have extra time, space, or money to have kids – or have more kids – you will never have more kids. Which is why having kids can be such a great antidote to avarice and greed.

You have to do a careful self-examination, because greed is one of the most dangerous of all vices. And it’s one of the vices we only detect in ourselves if we look very carefully for the symptoms of anxiety and stinginess.

Five

God Provides

The Lord says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).

If your heart is set on money and space and time, you’ll find that you never have enough. Never. And that’s the mark of greed. If your heart is set on things of God, on serving Him and reaching union with Him, you’ll find that, actually, God is very generous with giving us a lot of space, a lot of time, and a lot of material security.

If serving God is our priority, we’ll always have enough time, money, and space to do that.

So concretely, we want to go from treasuring time, space, and money, and treasure doing God’s will instead. And a good way to make that change is to ask God to show you where you’re stingy and anxious – and then ask Him for the grace to be more at peace, and more generous.