On St. John’s Ladder of Ascent, the 16th step is devoted to AVARICE.  St. John writes that avarice is a worship of idols and is the offspring of unbelief and that the miser sneers at the gospel and is a deliberate transgressor. The man of charity spreads his money about him, but the man who claims to possess both charity and money is a self-deceived fool.

How much is too much? Where is the dividing line between what I need and what I want? This problem applies not only to gluttony, but to all material needs, particularly money. Just as gluttony is the passion that distorts our definition of need in terms of food and drink, avarice is the passion that distorts our definition of need in terms of money and luxury.

The first principle of Christian charity is that we should give in accordance with our ability. What   matters in God’s eyes is not how much we give, but how much we sacrifice. As many Church Fathers have said, to give from our poverty is more valuable in God’s eyes than to give from our abundance. This is because the underlying principle of Christian charity is self-denying love. As St. Basil the Great writes, ‘Are you poor? You know someone who is even poorer. Do not shrink from giving the little you have; do not prefer your own benefit to remedying the common distress.’

However, this simple principle of giving what we can is complicated by the way we adjust our definition of need to suit the desire to satisfy our passions.

In our modern world, this 16th step I believe is truly something we should think about. We are so often mesmerized by the latest technology or fashion. We must take this into consideration.
Think about this!