"Avoid greed in all its forms". Jesus' sayings are so simple and so clear that their wisdom often escapes our attention. The daily news repeatedly reports the world's economic crisis, which continues to cause great hardship to many ordinary people. The root of the crisis was greed either on the part of individual bankers or of banks as corporate entities. The first Letter to Timothy [6:10] expresses Jesus' saying as: "The love of money is the root of all evils". Money is merely an instrument, which can be used for good or evil, but when one loves money for its own sake and for the luxuries it can provide, then the love that Jesus commands us to have for each other is in great danger of disappearing.

We can further reflect on the evil which greed causes by looking clearly at phenomena which have blighted both society at large and the Church in particular. Undoubtedly there have been many sexual scandals in the Church, but anyone who knows the real situation can affirm that some, perhaps many, of the cases brought against the Church are fabricated and motivated by greed. Then too there are scandals with the misuse of aid money given to help poor people and countries.