Dear People Whom God Loves,
In our quest to be human, we turn now to greed.
Greed The first thing that comes to my mind is hoarding money and possessions. That is a good place to start. We usually hoard in our effort to feel secure. We believe that this will make us happy. (I am not thinking about reasonable care for ourselves and our family.) When we look deeper, we will usually find that there is some kind of emptiness inside. That emptiness needs to be filled. Greed, as well as other addictive cravings, are not capable of filling that emptiness. That is why there is never enough. There is a big hole in the bottom of the jar we are trying to fill. Often that emptiness is caused by a lack of connection with ourselves and others. We are not at peace with others or ourselves. We need love. Nothing else will do it. It is helpful to remember that we are always embraced by Love (God) when others love us and when they don’t.
Do we hoard our gifts instead of using them to help others? Helping others, while very valuable to them, helps ourselves more because we are becoming more whole. Some of the emptiness is being filled.
When we listen to the stories of other people and they listen to ours, we are being connected. There is a bond. The depth of that bond will depend on what kind of relationship we are in. The bond is there. When I listen to you—not with judgment but with understanding and caring—I am saying to you that you are important to me. Likewise when you listen to me in the same way, you are saying that I am important to you.
All kinds of hoarding isolates us from others. We draw rigid boundaries around ourselves. We won’t even open and reveal ourselves to Love (God). No wonder that there is emptiness inside.
With greed—as well as all the other things we are reflecting on in these columns—it does not mean that we are bad. It does mean that we are making some bad decisions and choosing some bad behavior. We are still good; and with the grace of God, we can gradually reverse the way of life that makes us empty.
More next time.
Smile, God Loves You,
Father Clay
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