When's the last time you heard or even used the word avarice? Be honest. It's been quite the while for yours truly and I'm sure that when it came up, I exempted myself from being in its clutches.
But is that really the case?
Fr. Lemiuex makes me look at the word and its power a little more closely:
At camp last week one of the men pointed out in the context of a discussion among the men about sexual purity and the healing of lust that Christian men in particular can miss the boat sometimes by being so focused on struggle with sexual temptations and sins that, once a basic order has been put into our lives in that area we can think we are home free—no more serious moral issues to deal with, yahoo!
Well, lust is one of a set of seven, right? And anger, envy, pride, sloth, and gluttony all can wreak havoc in our lives in their own ways. And… let’s see, let me count… one’s still missing… which is it…
Oh yeah. Avarice. Yeah, that one is not exactly unknown in our world today. Serving money and not
God, in other words. Deciding that happiness comes from security in material goods and that the primary path to that happiness is storing up of treasure on earth.
Not exactly unknown in our world today. We think of avarice in caricature terms, Scrooge McDuck cackling (quackling?) on a pile of gold, but really its manifestations are a lot more subtle and varied than that. Not every angry person is the incredible Hulk, not every lustful person is Casanova, not every glutton is that exploding man in Monty Python’s Meaning of Life (‘care for an after dinner mint?’… (if you don’t know what I’m referring to—good for you!))
And avarice is also much more quiet and pervasive in its effects. It is the privileging of financial security over faith, hope, and love. It is falling into anxiety about the future based on whether we have enough goods to meet its challenges. It is valuing things over people, but above all about giving way to despondency or fear or anger because we have not secured ourselves in the goods of this earth.
All of this is avarice, and all of this is essentially worshipping a false god. We cannot serve two masters. Our true future is secured not by money, but by God. Our true wealth is not the goods we draw in to ourselves, but the love we pour out from ourselves into the world. God takes care of his people, and so we don’t have to hoard.
God, in other words. Deciding that happiness comes from security in material goods and that the primary path to that happiness is storing up of treasure on earth.
One line amongst those excerpted hit me between the eyes.
It is falling into anxiety about the future based on whether we have enough goods to meet its challenges.
Hello. That's me. Time and again.
What I must learn to do is trust Him. What I must give way to is believing that He will indeed take care of my every need (though not my every want).
All over my local area are signs that some faithful person leaves in areas you'd least expect. On those signs, in what appears to be spray painted stencil, are these words:
Trust God, No Matter What
Lord, help us do so. Help us in our unbelief.
Amen.
