Avarice & Greed- The Root Cause of Personal, Family & Social Problems....
The Secret of Good Health is Not Exercise or Diet Rather It is to be Free from Unfulfilled Desires, Greed, Hording, Lust, Jealousy, Pried etc
The World Says Be Ambitious - Bible Says Do Not Be Ambitious
Where the world teaches us to go all out to be the best, to have a bigger house, a fancier car, a larger paycheck than our neighbor, the Bible teaches us the opposite: “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself” (Philippians 2:3).
- - - Bridon Francis Dsouza
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Father John A. Hardon Speaks Now on Avarice & Greed
[Meaning of Avarice - Insatiable greed for riches; Miserly desire to gain and hoard wealth.]
Avarice
Actually, I would distinguish covetousness as generic and avarice as more specific. Covetousness is the inordinate love of possessing anything, any creature. There’s only one being we can love and not love excessively. Who is that? (God). Can we love creatures inordinately? (Yes) Yes. And who’s the one creature that we’re constantly prone to love inordinately? (Ourselves) Oh, sometimes you’re embarrassed of having the same name as the person about whom we know so many nasty things.
There it is. Avarice, more commonly therefore, refers to the inordinate love of material possessions. In other word, three words that are used in English almost synonymously, they are not quite synonymous, and that is greed. So covetousness, avarice, and greed in English which you know is the most confused language in the world. You’re never quite sure what people mean. But theologically, covetousness is generic. Inordinate desire for creatures – possessing creatures. Avarice rather material, physical possessions. And greed is avarice that has become an uncontrollable passion. Never absolutely uncontrollable, but greed then is extreme avarice. Notice what I’ve said: A greedy person loves material possessions but he wants to acquire, accumulate, pile up in an avarice that has become an addiction.
Greed
Greed lacks any reasonableness; greed is extreme avarice. And, hear it; it took me years in the priesthood to learn this, dealing with thousands of souls, that unless a sin or a sinful tendency is controlled, it becomes more impulsive, becomes stronger. And thus, you got to be constantly on our guard regarding say, material possessions. Not to possess anymore than we really need. And the more we possess, the more wealthy we are, the more prone we are to being greedy. I may have told the story of my friend, Terrytown, NY. His brother and his sister lived next door to the provincial residence in Oakpark, IL. I was working with our Jesuit provincial for some six years. The sister especially she was asking if I could ever visit her brother: become a multimillionaire but lost his faith in the process. Finally, mainly to please the sister, I got myself to give her a retreat somewhere in the neighborhood, community of nuns, and then on the last day of the retreat called up this wealthy tycoon, can I come over? And because his sister asked him to talk, he talked to anybody, even a Jesuit priest. Well, went through three secretaries to reach him. Finally, allowed me to talk to him. So we talked. I think I’ve told this story at least to some of you. But the first time we met, he asked me, “Do you believe in Hell?” I sure do. “Well, I don’t. They tell me nobody gets out of hell.” Well, so what. I wouldn’t be here in this hot, July sun. They want to keep you out of hell. In other words, accumulation of wealth becomes, and I’ve dealt with enough wealthy people, becomes, except for supernatural grace, uncontrollable. On more and more and more and that is true of all the seven capital sins. The more sex pleasure a person gets, they want more. They want more. And they do commit some awful crimes to get more pleasure. Pleasure, they get pleasure from killing people say whom they’ve raped. They get pleasure out of it. I’ve talked to them – lifetime prisoners.
Back to avarice and greed. And this is our Lord went out of His way, remember, in telling us how hard it is for rich people to enter Heaven. Oh what stories I could tell. A retreat only to multimillionaires. I told them on one condition. All I want is my transportation from New York to Milwaukee and back. When I got my check, little note on the bottom of the check, $10 besides my travel fare for incidental expenses. But as I was trained to do, I let those millionaires have it. Lest you men use your money, not just throw it away, use your money wisely, for charity, you’re all going to go to Hell. You didn’t have to call me in the first place.
-Father John A. Hardon, S.J
Cause for Canonization of Fr.John A Hardon
https://www.facebook.com/groups/120666934626396/
Fr. John A. Hardon
http://socrates58.blogspot.in/2011/05/servant-of-god-fr-john-hardon-s-j-great.html
Sin of Omission [Not Sharing] & Sin's of Self Pity Leads the Soul to Hell.
Generational Curses - Stinginess, Hoarding, Avarice & Greed
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