Covetousness

Archpriest Nikolai Deputatov

As a moral feat, Christianity places importance on one’s inner disposition. It looks at actions as consequences of this disposition. The inner disposition serves as an indicator of the spiritual level of attainment of the will. An action is an expression of this disposition. If for some reason the disposition is not realized in actions, its value does not diminish. "We know that without love for those close to you, the mind cannot be enlightened by divine discourse and love… And where there is no opportunity to show love to others around you in visible actions, then our intentions of showing love are sufficient before God (St.Isaac the Syrian). However, the zealots had the means to show love in deeds. These deeds manifested themselves in incessant prayer for all those in peril and in great need.

Unfortunately, a great obstacle to love is people’s predilection for acquisition of material things. The zealots understood love of God in the sense of being constantly in spiritual communion with Him, being in constant thought of Him, together with feelings of love, reverence and gratitude. For this to happen, it is essential to be free of any worldly burdens. One can be with God, when there are no worries and nothing distracts from Him. But for the majority of people, practically their whole life is spent in securing possessions. And whoever succumbs to this, is a slave to his own passion, and is completely engulfed by this anxiety. Ownership demands concerns and the expending of energy not only in gaining possessions, but also in maintaining them. In this, the zealots saw the greatest obstacle for the development in the soul of a constant yearning of love for God.

"If the mind does not free itself from the worries of worldly concerns, then it will never penetrate the innermost. For the humble, the most desirous in the lowliest state, are charity, wanting, poverty. The humble person prefers to remain free, not to have any worries, not to be perturbed by the earthly, the here and now…" (St. Isaac the Syrian).

Life experience convinces us, that the addiction to the pursuit of possessions, is one of the powerful motives of breaking the commandment of love and relationships with others. "If you are not going to be overly tied to your possessions, then it will be easy for you to perform any good deed" (Abba Zosima)… "The ancient adversary disposes our soul to the love of ephemeral things, arouses those close us to be against us, who plots to take away that, which is most precious to us. The ancient adversary does not attempt to destroy the earthly, but to destroy in us love. For we suddenly flare up in hatred, and not wanting to be beaten from the outside, we agonize on the inside. But defending the miniscule on the outside, we lose so much on the inside, because losing a temporary possession, we forgo genuine love, for whoever destroys our possessions is our enemy. For if we bear hatred toward our enemy we lose the inner" (St. Gregory the Dialogist).

To avoid dissension and enmity with those around us, one should free oneself from the addiction of ownership. "Love is a squanderer of not only money, but it also does not even spare earthly life itself" (St. Evagrius). "Even if you found yourself in most dire poverty, but truly not as poor as that widow, who brought all her possessions as a gift (Luke 21:2-4) and not poorer than the widow of Sydon (1 Kings 17), who only had a handful of flour, and did not refuse to feed the prophet! She could see that there were children around her who faced hunger and that she had no more supplies, but nonetheless, she received the prophet with great zeal" (St. John Chrysostom).

To have the opportunity to help the poor, fasting is recommended. "We exhort you to keep the fast every Wednesday and Friday, and that which is left from your fasting, to distribute to the needy (Acts of the Apostles).

True love in itself brings one to impoverishment. Wealth demands constant concern and does not allow the opportunity to concentrate one’s thoughts and feelings exclusively on God. It creates many temptations to break the commandments of love to those around you, causing arguments, hostility and envy. In this way, every possession is an obstacle to fulfilling the commandments of love to God and your near ones. Followers of Christ cannot be rich in the world, while want and poverty reign. A Christian cannot be carefree and happy while there is weeping and affliction. Love towards your near ones, like love of self, though it leads to impoverishment, frees one from many dangerous temptations and unwanted worries and opens up a pathway to a spiritual life and self searching. Searching the self, without fail, leads to a highly intense, supersensitive contact with the Divine.

Abandoning oneself to the love of God, desiring to reach a passionless state and holiness, serenity, humility and the joy and happiness they give rise to, the non-avaricious person tries to keep his thoughts as far away as possible from any material and bodily passions, that stir the soul and do not permit the soul with a pure eye to comprehend the Divine and enjoy the light that is found there (St. Basil the Great).

One must not think that this serves as the ideal only for special people with an inclination towards monasticism. No, — this ideal is pan-Christian. There cannot be any other ideal. There exists only one ideal — that of Christ, unchangeable and eternal for all believing humanity.