The fruits of Avarice

February 1, 2022 • 4 min

From The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, page 95
By St. Catherine of Siena

How the fruit of others is avarice; and of the evils that proceed from it.

A fruit of the earth belongs to some others, who are covetous misers, acting like the mole, who always feeds on earth till death, and when they arrive at death they find no remedy.

Such as these, with their meanness, despise My generosity, selling time to their neighbour. They are cruel usurers, and robbers of their neighbour; because in their memory they have not the remembrance of My mercy, for if they had it they would not be cruel to themselves or to their neighbour; on the contrary, they would be compassionate and merciful to themselves, practising the virtues on their neighbour and succouring him charitably.

Oh, how many are the evils that come of this cursed sin of avarice, how many homicides and thefts, and how much pillage with unlawful gain, and cruelty of heart and injustice! It kills the soul and makes her the slave of riches, so that she cares not to observe My commandments.

A miser loves no one except for his own profit. Avarice proceeds from and feeds pride, the one follows from the other, because the miser always carries with him the thought of his own reputation, and thus avarice, which is immediately combined with pride, full of its own opinions, goes on from bad to worse.

It is a fire which always germinates the smoke of vainglory and vanity of heart, and boasting in that which does not belong to it. It is a root which has many branches, and the principal one is that which makes a man care for his own reputation, from whence proceeds his desire to be greater than his neighbour.

It also brings forth the deceitful heart that is neither pure nor liberal, but is double, making a man show one thing with his tongue, while he has another in his heart, and making him conceal the truth and tell lies for his own profit.

And it produces envy, which is a worm that is always gnawing, and does not let the miser have any happiness out of his own or others’ good.

How will these wicked ones in so wretched a state give of their substance to the poor, when they rob others? How will they draw their foul soul out of the mire, when they themselves put it there?

Sometimes even do they become so brutish, that they do not consider their children and relations, and cause them to fall with them into great misery.

And, nevertheless, in My mercy I sustain them, I do not command the earth to swallow them up, that they may repent of their sins.

Would they then give their life for the salvation of souls, when they will not give their substance? Would they give their affections when they are gnawed with envy?

Oh, miserable vices that destroy the heaven of the soul. Heaven I call her (the soul) because so I made her, living in her at first by grace, and hiding Myself within her, and making of her a mansion through affection of love.

Now she has separated herself from Me, like an adulteress, loving herself, and creatures more than Me, and has made a god of herself, persecuting Me with many and diverse sins. And this she does because she does not consider the benefit of the Blood that was shed with so great Fire of Love.