Church Fathers, Day 290: Asterius of Amasea says don’t look for more than what belongs to you

Church Fathers, Day 290: Asterius of Amasea says don’t look for more than what belongs to you May 7, 2015

asteriusDon’t look for more than what belongs to you

Covetousness has a broad definition,says Asterius of Amasea. It’s not just want­ing material things: it’s wanting more than you deserve in everything you do.

Covetousness, then, is not simply being mad for money and other posses­sions, wishing to add what you have no right to have to what you already have. To speak more broadly, it is the desire to have in every transaction more than is due or belongs to you.

And you know that the devil was the first to have this fault: he was an arch­angel, and appointed to the most honorable life and station, but the arrogant creature conceived of absolute rule, and rebellion against God. After that he was cast down from heaven, and, falling into this atmosphere of earth, he became your malicious neighbor. So he did not attain the divinity to which he aspired, and he lost the rank he had enjoyed of being archangel: an unfaithful servant, changed by gradually increasing audacity into a robber. He was like the dog of the Greek fable, who was both deprived of his meat and failed to grasp the shadow—for how could he grasp an intangible thing?

–Asterius of Amasea, Sermon 3

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Aside from material things, does my covetousness sometimes show itself in relation­ships with family? In how I treat people at work?

CLOSING PRAYER

Lord, cleanse my heart from covetousness and make me fit to live with you in heaven and share in your Kingdom. 

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