A rector of a Catholic University writes in the Kyeongyang magazine on the place of avarice in the lives of many. Not really relevant, we might believe, to the monks and the Church Fathers but it was a sin that one needed to be on the watch, for it prevented one from approaching the virtues. Evagrius Ponticus, also called Evagrius the Solitary, considered avarice the vice that prevented one from joy, and pushed them into darkness and a life of sadness and anxiety.
St. Basil the father of monasticism in his sermons often mentioned: "I will tear down my barns" (Luke 12:18) as his talking point in sermons on avarice. He considered the avaricious person not satisfied with enough. They feel a great lack with enough. Pope Gregory I, mentioned the 7 daughters of avarice: betrayal, fraud, lying, falsification, apprehension, violence, apathy towards the poor. They all serve avarice.
St. Augustine sees avarice as the root of all evil. This was not limited to the material but in all areas of life where temperance was not in control.This applies to all our cravings which breaks the order of love. He introduces the two words 'frui': to enjoy— to love something for its own sake contrasted to 'uti' to love something for its use. God should be the object of our joy. The objects of possession (uti) are temporary, relative, limited. When exposed to these we have the break down of love followed by unhappiness which distances us from the virtuous life.
Avarice always wants a little bit more. The Latin word for pitiable, misery is 'miser', in English the derivitive is miser a skinflint—they were considered unhappy and miserable.
In Dante's Divine Comedy he put in Purgatory those that squandered their possessions and those who kept their possession and didn't share with others. They seem to be opposites but they are the same in their attachment to the material. Both in the Scriptures and in world history kings and servants, believers and nonbelievers, those with material goods and those without them, all can fall into this manner of life.
The second problem is the feeling of inferiority that is nurtured. In a capitalist society, a person is judged by the money he has and when one falls short one is absorbed with its possession, not easily dispersed. This is why in the ten commandments we have the 9th and 10th to control this appetite. The craving for honors and material goods can give one the impression that happiness is there. But often behind the mask, we have frustration, depression, and loneliness This can be both a punishment and the means to leave this way of life.
When one sees life through the lens of profit, the workings of the community or the bigger society will always be seen passively or with apathy and life becomes more like an island.
