Voices ever ancient, ever new. Sunday-Week18-2013.

In commenting on the sin of greed from today’s Mass Readings, Saint Gregory of Nyssa writes:

“But if any one, yearning for greater possessions, and letting his desire become as boundless as a sea, has an insatiable greed for the streams of gain flowing in from every side, let him treat his disease by looking at the real sea. For as the sea does not exceed its boundary with the innumerable streams of water flowing into it, but remains at the same volume just as though it were receiving no new water from streams, in the same way human nature too, restricted by specific limits in the enjoyment of what comes to it, cannot enlarge its appetite to match the extent of its acquisitions; while the intake is endless, the capacity for enjoyment is kept within its set limit.(Homilies on Ecclesiastes, 289).”