11th Week of Ordinary Time 2022 - Friday - The sin of consumerism

A few years ago, the Arts & Entertainment channel began airing a show called, “Hoarders”.  The show chronicles people whose accumulation and hoarding of material stuff has become so excessive that it is has become difficult to move through the house; sometimes whole rooms are inaccessible becomes they are filled with material stuff that has begun to decay.  In many cases the houses become so unsanitary that children are forced into foster care, or the house is condemned.  

There are no doubt many psychological factors involved in compulsive hoarding, but often the show challenges the viewer to examine our own attachments to material things.

When Jesus says “do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth” he is not imposing a ban on all possessions, of course; it is not a sin for us to own things. The Catechism speaks of a right to private property. Nor is Jesus forbidding us to “stock up” and save for times of famine.  The book of proverbs tells us to look to the example of the ant that stores up in the summer for what it will need in the winter and calls foolish those who make no provisions for their families or the future.

But, St. Thomas Aquinas would say that concern for earthly things becomes sinful when we treat material things as ends in themselves; we fall into sin when we become so preoccupied with material things that we neglect our duties toward God and our neighbor.

Now, most of us are not compulsive hoarders. But, we live in a very materialistic consumeristic culture where it is easy to overvalue THINGS. The culture promotes preoccupation with earthly things, earthly concerns to the detriment of spiritual matters. Because "money makes the world go round", right? 

But consumerism is deadly because at its root it says my happiness can come from something other than God. It says, “You have stuff and if you are unhappy, you just haven’t found the right stuff, the right thing. So keep buying, keep hoarding, eventually you’ll find it.” And that is radically contrary to the Gospel. To quote St. John Paul II, Consumerism leads to “attitudes and life styles… which are objectively improper and damaging to physical and spiritual health”.

So we need to be on guard against the prevailing consumeristic headwinds, and teach our young people especially, to value spiritual matters, by our own good example.

Every day, we need to be intentional in turning away from the pursuit of happiness-through-consumerism by seeking heavenly treasures through prayer and charitable service. 

When our lives are focused merely on the material, the earthly, we become unhappy and exhausted.  Rather, the spiritual life brings us into right relationship with God—the peace and joy that the world cannot give.  May we spend this day in God’s service, properly ordered, seeking spiritual things over earthly things, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That all Christians will guard themselves against the evils of the world through study and prayer, and cultivate the life of the spirit for the good of all.

For greater generosity for the needs of the poor, the hungry, the homeless, those who are sick, unemployed, or suffering from addiction, mental, or physical illness, and those most in need: that the Lord in his goodness will be close to them in their trials.  

That the Lord will rescue all those who live at a distance from Him because of self-absorption or sin.  

For all those who have died, for all the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for [intention below], for whom this Mass is offered.  

Mercifully hear, O Lord, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in your divine mystery may always benefit from your assistance.