'Mine! Mine! Mine!' can lead down a bad, bad road

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

"Rich! I'm rich! I'm filthy rich! I'm a rich little duck!"

One of my favorite cartoon characters is Daffy Duck, a greedy, black duck who wants it all - and doesn't care how he gets it.

Greed is one of the seven capital vices - called "capital" because they head us in the wrong direction, down the road of bad habits toward potential sins.

So it is with Daffy. In one such wrong-headed journey, he finds himself in Ali Baba's famous cave. "Mine, mine, mine!" screams Daffy, diving into piles of coins and jewels. And nobody better get in his way - including his friend, Bugs Bunny, or the genie of the lamp. A genie who doesn't like being pushed aside for some gold.

Daffy never keeps any of his riches - instead he ends up blasted, burned or squashed. Over and over.

That's the problem with greed, it gets people hurt. Greed is also called covetousness or avarice - from its Latin root word of avaritia, meaning "to crave." We all know about cravings (which don't sound as bad as greed) and desire (which doesn't always mean something bad either).

That's why greed - and its close neighbor, lust - are properly called vices and not sins: they don't start out bad - just as Daffy's trip was just a journey across the desert - but they can end up in a mess. And greed and lust - like their siblings, sloth and gluttony - are called corporal vices, or vices of the body. (There are also spiritual vices, but those are for another journey.)

The word "lust" comes from the Latin luxuria, which also gives us the word "luxury." Again, not necessarily a bad thing, right?

A little luxury is fine. Just as the desire for nice things or a nest egg is fine. It's more a question of control. Who controls what? With both greed and lust, we see natural desires going out of control - just like the screaming, frantic Daffy. And by trying to get control of what we desire, we try to control other people and the things around us.

"How much is too much?" and "You can't be too rich" are slogans of a natural desire for possessions and security that goes out-of-control and careens into greed. And the natural desire of a husband and wife for intimacy with each other can spin out of control into lust when it becomes controlling and manipulative: directed either outside the marriage or, within the marriage, toward ignoring the needs of the other spouse for the sake of one's own passions and pleasure.

"Mine, mine, mine!"

Greed and lust can take many forms. Lust is not just about sexual gratification, but also includes domination, abuse, seeking gratification for pleasure's sake, and all forms of physical excess and insatiable appetites. Greed is also about excess - excess fear about not having enough, excess need for fame and the power that possessions and riches can bring, and excess fascination with bigger and better things. And all this happens at the expense of - and control over - others.

With both greed and lust, there is no sharing, no interdependence, no openness to the other or to mutual growth. And there is no room for God. Lust and greed lead down a dark road.

As spiritual theologian Sr. Brid Long, SSL, wrote about avarice: "It may lead to the inability to share with others or even to receive from others, and the refusal to acknowledge the need for interdependence."

The same danger applies to lust. The out-of-control consequences of both greed and lust are all around us: pornography, prostitution, poverty; famine and even war.

Fortunately, greed and lust are vices - bad habits that are not sins in themselves. They don't control us, but they are tendencies that can lead us into sin and loss. However, as habits and tendencies, they can be overcome by new and better habits. All we have to do is take back control of which direction we're heading. That gets easier with practice; like any journey, it just takes a first step.

Greed can be overcome by the virtues of moderation and generosity, and lust can be turned aside by chastity. (No, chastity doesn't mean celibacy; it means living in a loving and pure relationship.) Neither of these virtues means we have to totally deny our desires, instead they lead us to purify those desires. God gave us a desire for good things - he created us in a garden. He just wanted us to enjoy it - together with others.

A desire for good things should extend to a desire that everyone and everything share in what is good. And a desire to share one's self with another should lead to a desire for the good, joy and security of that other person, and building up trust and leading to new life.

It's not something that greedy, little duck ever learned. He never did get to keep any of those riches. But then again, he never understood how to take the way that seeks out riches that "neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves ... steal" (Mt. 6:20).