THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT: Reflecting on the sin of Greed
This week I’m looking at the sin of greed (avarice), making it the basis of an examination of conscience and pairing it with the second penitential psalm in my lenten reflections. [Read more about that here – and download instructions here.]
Week 2: Psalm 32 — “From the sin of GREED, O Lord, deliver me…”“Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough,” wrote the Dutch crime novelist Janwillem van de Wetering.
I have been blessed with many things – at least, that’s how I’ve always looked at it. But as I struggle to find something to wear in my packed closet, I wonder whether it’s right to say I’ve been “blessed,” materially. No one handed me all of these sweaters and jeans, I bought them. Just as I bought the lovely things in my kitchen and den, the flowering shrubs in my yard. And I wonder – at what point does enjoying God’s beauty and accumulating the good things of this world cross over to greed (aka avarice)?
Having things is not bad. Having money is not bad, either. It’s the love of money that St. Paul warns against in 1 Timothy 6:10. “The root of all evils,” he calls it. It’s like a drug that requires ever higher doses to deliver the same buzz.
Avarice originates in idolatry. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21).
Advertisement for the film “Greed” (1924). Public domain.
Greed is the insatiable desire to have more money or possessions, usually more than you need. Having more is never enough with greed; there is always something else to grasp at, more to be hoarded and stashed away. Our word “greed” comes from the old English graedig, voracious: “always hungry for more.” When we get obsessed with things, they take possession of us instead of the other way around, Pope Francis said in his Wednesday audience 1/24/24. Greed “is a sickness of the heart,” he said, “not of the wallet.”
As possible as it is to be greedy for things, it’s also possible to be greedy with things, so that we fail to be good stewards or to share with others. To the greedy person, goods are not to be given or even used so much as kept under lock and key. And it doesn’t just apply to things. We can be greedy with time, for example, or favor. Greed turns us in on ourselves and shuts others out.
For this reason, greed is directly opposed to love which holds things with open hands and is quick to give.
Lent, which calls us to abstain for ourselves and give to others, is a good time to detach ourselves from those things our hearts disproportionately long for and grasp. Self-denial and generosity help to starve greed.
Examine your heartDo you struggle with insatiable desire and greed? Here are some short verses to ponder as you examine your conscience this week. Or read the “parable of the rich fool” in Luke 12:13-21. Then take any need you find in your own heart to God for healing as you pray with Psalm 32.
“From the sin of greed, O Lord, deliver me…”
Proverbs 28:25James 4:3Ecclesiastes 4:7-8Ecclesiastes 5:10-11Hebrews 13:5
I encourage you to reflect on the Penitential Psalms many times during Lent. Maybe as you sit before the Lord in adoration, before you go to confession, or in your daily prayers. And may your heart open wide to the graces Christ has for you!
© 2025 Sarah Christmyer. Adapted from a series on the 7 Deadly Sins that appeared on this website during Lent 2014.
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