What’s the difference between a Macbook computer that has a 13” monitor and 15”? (And the answer isn’t two inches.) What’s the difference between a V4 & V6 engine?

The answer is: I needed one but wanted the other, because of a bit of greed. (By the way, I didn’t want the V6 in my current car. I bought it used and could only find a models with V6 engines.)

We all suffer from wanting things we don’t need. And that leads us to waste money that God asks to be used elsewhere, for better things, and it weighs our spirits down. We’re so greedy sometimes that if something’s on sale, even if we don’t need it, we’ll buy it! We somehow feel we’re using our money well if we get something on sale.

Today we hear in the first reading, “Ahab said to Naboth, ‘Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house; I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money…’ Ahab went home resentful and sullen… He lay down on his bed, turned away his face, and would not eat…. His wife Jezebel said to him, ‘…I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.’” So she plots to kill Naboth because of her and her husband’s greed.

We’re used to greed because it’s so common, and so we can’t see it for what it is.

“My first college experience was as a marketing major in Australia. I will never forget my first lecture… The professor walked into the auditorium… and began, ‘Marketing is about creating needs in consumers. It’s about creating a desire in people that in turn makes them feel that they need your product or service. It’s about making people feel they need things even if they don’t.’ He put it in such crude terms and with a straight face. But worse than that, the people around me didn’t even seem to bat an eyelid. I was stunned. I was amazed. I looked around the lecture hall, which held six hundred people… Everyone was writing down what the professor had just said” (Matthew Kelly, The Rhythm of Life, 47).

Because greed’s so subtle, and because we’re prone to self-deception, one necessary way to free ourselves from it is to give up whatever we’re greedy for.

Before my priestly ordination, it’s customary for a seminarian to buy a chalice for that he will use for Mass. I found myself for days on end looking through the catalogs of chalices (“Wow, that one’s amazing! That one has jewels!”), and I found that I was still thinking about chalices when I was going to bed! I was like a child looking at toys, obsessed with them and not thinking about what I really needed. After some self-reflection and prayer, I said, “Okay, enough is enough. I’m not going to look at chalices anymore. Just buy one that’s simple, beautiful and good quality, and then get on with life.” In the end, I didn’t buy any chalice because I realized I wasn’t ready for it, and I was overly attached. I even waited five years after ordination to buy vestments for Mass, because I had to wait until my heart was pure and I could buy it, not for myself, but for God’s glory.

Recently, I bought a pair of shorts for sports, and went for the cheapest pair. But, when I talked to my mother about it, she asked me where it was made and I said, “Bangladesh.” She then suggested not supporting clothes made in poor countries because it’s most likely that they’re not getting fair wages and working conditions. So I returned the shorts.

When we do let go of material things and our disordered desire for them, we become free, free to love and to find what truly makes us happy. Because things don’t satisfy us. The new car smell always goes, and it goes out of style. There’s more to life, and only God can truly satisfy. But we have to let go of other things to let Him fill our heart.