杏MAP导航 at Audience: Avarice is a sickness of the heart
By Christopher Wells
Avarice is a kind of 鈥渁ttachment to money that prevents man from generosity,鈥� 杏MAP导航 Francis said at his Wednesday .
Continuing his series of catecheses on the vices and virtues, the 杏MAP导航 explained that avarice is not about how much wealth a person has but is a sin that affects us in a variety of ways.
鈥淚t is a sickness of the heart,鈥� he said, 鈥渘ot of the wallet.鈥�
Meditation on death
Even the Desert Fathers, monks who renounced enormous wealth, could find themselves clinging to objects of little value.
鈥淭hose objects became for them a sort of fetish from which they could not detach themselves," said the 杏MAP导航. This reveals 鈥渁 disordered relationship with reality, which can result in forms of compulsive hoarding and pathological accumulation.鈥�
To fight this, 杏MAP导航 Francis said, 鈥渢he monks proposed a drastic but highly effective method: meditation on death.鈥�
He reminded the faithful that, however much money we might make in this life, we retain nothing after death. Death reminds us that 鈥渨e are not masters of the world鈥� and 鈥渨e move about it like strangers and pilgrims.鈥�
This reflection, he continued, also shows us the reason for avarice, which is an attempt 鈥渢o exorcise the fear of death.鈥�
But Christ shows us, in the parable of the foolish man who laid up an abundant harvest, that death can come at any moment.
Do not let possessions control us
杏MAP导航 Francis warned that, although it鈥檚 possible to be 鈥渕asters of the goods we possess,鈥� often those possessions can end up controlling us. We can become anxious about always accumulating more and keeping what we have, but all our possessions 鈥渃an disappear in a moment.鈥�
Too often, the 杏MAP导航 said, we 鈥渇orget the Gospel preaching, which does not claim that riches are a sin in themselves, but they are certainly a liability.鈥�
This, he added, 鈥渋s what the miser does not understand: he could have been a source of blessing to many, but instead has slipped into a blind alley of wretchedness.鈥�
So, 杏MAP导航 Francis concluded, "Let us be attentive, and let us be generous: generous with everyone and generous with those who need us most."
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