Greed

If, as Jesus taught, the quality of a person’s life does not depend on their possessions, something is wrong with many of us, since we consider not having everything we want a genuine cause for unhappiness.

Clearly, living in poverty is no cause for happiness. The great problem is that sometimes all our goals in life are focused on attaining a certain economic status, and the effort to achieve it consumes all our time and energy. How can we find the necessary balance that allows us to live a better life, in dignified and comfortable conditions, without going to extremes or placing too much value on material things or money?

I knew a woman who lived for many years in a good, spacious house, but she was not happy because its roof was made of wood and Spanish tiles, and her lifelong dream was to live in a house with a concrete roof, what we in Cuba call a placa. As her financial circumstances made the fulfillment of her dream seem increasingly distant, one day, convinced that she would never achieve it, she told me:

“I know now that the only slab I’ll ever have over my head will be the one at the cemetery.”

My readers may find her comment tragic, but it was quite the opposite. She said it laughing, convinced that, after all, a concrete roof was not the most important thing. She had other family problems that needed more attention than her desire for a different kind of roof. Those other problems really were making her life much more unhappy.

Jesus taught that we should concern ourselves with storing up treasures in heaven, because there they do not decay. By this he taught that the effort we put into strengthening our spirit is a more important investment. Spiritual wisdom and the self-control to make wise decisions are treasures that contribute far more to our lives than material possessions do. They give us true quality of life and spare us many struggles and setbacks.

It is good to improve our financial circumstances, and we should all make our best efforts to do so. But when Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” he was warning us that centering our lives on money or possessions only makes us more and more greedy. We were created for more than filling our lives with furniture or objects, however useful they may be.

We were created for God, and the only thing that fills our hearts is a deep relationship with Him.

God bless you!