Latest / The Catholic Current / LTACL: The Most Promising Sin? (Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.) 8/10/26

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LTACL: The Most Promising Sin? (Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.) 8/10/26 · The Catholic Current

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  Hey, we're doing it again by popular demand. I'm continuing my series
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  on the 7 deadly sins. Now,
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  I'm asked about sin all the time in lots of
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  odd circumstances, people from every walk
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  of life. Now imagine this,
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  I'm visiting cloistered nuns. These are women who are
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  away from the world, from everything.
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  They really don't get out much. They don't know a lot
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  about what's going on. And we ended up having a conversation about
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  sin when they asked me this question,
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  Father, what's this thing we hear about called
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  Amazon?
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  Can you imagine how I answered? Stay with me, I got a story to tell.
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  I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTeague, your host here every day at The Catholic Current,
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  coming to you from the Station of the Cross Catholic Media Network. Let's take a
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  closer look. Glad you're here. So even in
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  this most remote monastery, cut off from all of
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  the everything, these holy women had heard about Amazon.
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  And I tried to explain, and I said, well, it's kind
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  of a store that you contact through a computer or
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  a phone. Well, what can you buy there, Father? And I said, well,
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  just about everything that's legal. Give them enough time and
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  enough money and they can get you just about anything. And they said, well,
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  gosh, they said, yeah, I guess that can be kind of useful,
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  huh? And I said, well, it's not just
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  useful, it's invasive. And they didn't know what it meant. I said,
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  you know, because you buy this, you buy that, and they figure out, oh,
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  he likes this, he likes that. And then they
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  develop shopping lists of things that they think you will
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  like. And then they send you messages uninvited,
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  and messages that begin with the words,
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  get yourself a little something. And all these holy
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  nuns recoiled in horror, and they didn't
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  want to hear anymore. The very idea,
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  according to them, that a Christian would allow himself
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  to be exposed to some kind of agency that
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  would make you want things that you
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  didn't need. That was beyond the pale. That was unthinkable.
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  Uh, they were going to put their hair— their fingers in their ears, but they
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  got their veils covering their ears, so they couldn't do that. But they would.
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  So that got me to thinking, what did these good holy women know that
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  most of us don't know, including those of us who are umbilically
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  attached to Amazon and eBay and all
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  those other things? You know, 10 things you didn't know
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  you needed until now. Well, this leads
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  us to the deadly sin of greed. And greed is
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  more than just wanting more
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  than what you should have. St. Thomas Aquinas said greed is
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  a sin against God, just as all mortal sins,
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  inasmuch man condemns things eternal for
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  the sake of temporal things. So you see what happens?
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  We're made for the eternal, and we end up wanting—
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  not just using, but wanting and even worshiping things
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  that don't last. Well, when you put it that way,
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  greed sounds kind of dangerous and kind of stupid too.
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  Dante thought so when he wrote his Purgatory.
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  Penitents who were greedy were bound up and laid face
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  down on the ground for having concentrated excessively on
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  things that are earthly. And you
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  look in scripture, there's all sorts of warnings against greed.
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  I'm going to give you just 2 from the Book of Sirach. The eye
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  of the greedy person is not satisfied with his share.
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  Greedy injustice withers the soul.
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  So says my old friend Sirach. What about the prophet Isaiah?
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  Isaiah says, why toil for what does not satisfy?
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  So I started looking at that word satisfy.
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  The Latin for that, for satisfaction, for satisfy, is satisfacere—
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  to be made full, to be made
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  complete. Can any earthly thing,
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  can all earthly things satisfy the human
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  heart? Well, of course not, because we have an immaterial,
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  immortal soul. We're made for the infinite. We're made
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  for God. Even the whole world is
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  not enough. And when we become greedy,
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  we push away Christ, because Christ is always
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  offering himself to us, always offering to
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  be the first and full satisfaction of our hearts.
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  And when we're greedy, when we accept the promises
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  of greed— get yourself a little something,
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  you deserve it, things you didn't know you needed until
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  now, everyone will like you, you won't
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  want anything else after this, blah, blah, blah,
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  blah, blah— we all have heard those lies. And all
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  too many have believed them.
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  Well, how do we get free? Well, this is, this is the
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  hard part. We have to stand before
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  Christ with open hands and open hearts
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  and say, be my enough.
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  Be the first satisfaction of my heart.
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  Be the first one I turn to whenever I am
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  longing or in need. Whenever I have an ache, a pain
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  that won't go away, I want to turn to you
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  first. And if we allow our Lord to fill our
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  hearts, if we come to him expectantly and get into the habit
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  of receiving himself, not stuff,
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  not things, himself,
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  then we can approach the world with fullness
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  and with generosity rather than with craving and rather
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  than a ravenous heart.
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  It's the work of a lifetime, I'll admit it,
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  but we have to start somewhere. So let's begin
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  to step back from the things that we really don't
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  need. And maybe, just maybe,
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  we can ignore Amazon the next time it says,
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  we found something that you'll like.
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  Meanwhile, think on these things today. Take them to prayer and talk
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  about it with those you love. Go in peace, and please do pray for me,
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  for I am a sinner.