The love of money is the root of all evil: that stark warning contained in St Paul’s
first letter to Timothy was at the heart of Pope Francis’ homily at his morning Mass
in Santa Marta on Friday.
Reflecting on the way in which greed can corrupt
our hearts and weaken our faith, the Pope stressed we can never serve God and money
at the same time. Money, the Pope went on, sickens our minds, poisons our thoughts,
even poisons our faith, leading us down the path of jealousy, quarrels, suspicion
and conflict. While money begins by offering a sense of wellbeing, if we are not careful
wealth can quickly lead to vanity, self-importance and the sin of pride.
Pope
Francis noted many people may object that the Ten Commandments say nothing about the
evils of money. Yet when we worship money, he said, we are sinning against the first
Commandment and making money our idol in place of God. The early Fathers of the Church,
he said, put it in a very blunt way, calling money the dung of the devil which corrupts
and leads us away from our faith.
Instead of focusing on money, the Pope said,
we should strive for justice, piety, faith and charity, as well as the gifts of patience
and meekness which are the ways of the Lord. Pope Francis concluded with the wish
that God will help each one of us to avoid falling into the trap of making money our
idol.