Defeating Greed

Greed is wanting something from someone else that you do not have. You can be poor or rich, and still be greedy for more, and take from another. You can be popular and respected, and still want be greedy for more attention, and rob others of being noticed. Put very simply, greed is insatiable desire.

When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son, and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.” He said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me, and prepare for me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat; that I may bless you before I die.” Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, ‘Bring me game, and prepare for me savory food, that I may eat it, and bless you before the LORD before I die.’ Now therefore, my son, obey my word as I command you. Go to the flock, and fetch me two good kids, that I may prepare from them savory food for your father, such as he loves; and you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him, and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” His mother said to him, “Upon me be your curse, my son; only obey my word, and go, fetch them to me.” So he went and took them and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared savory food, such as his father loved. Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son; and the skins of the kids she put upon his hands and upon the smooth part of his neck; and she gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. So he went in to his father, and said, “My father”; and he said, “Here I am; who are you, my son?” Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your first-born. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that you may bless me.” But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the LORD your God granted me success.” Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” Then he said, “Bring it to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.” So he brought it to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed! May God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be every one who curses you, and blessed be every one who blesses you!” As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. He also prepared savory food, and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s game, that you may bless me.” His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your son, your first-born, Esau.” Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? – Yes, and he shall be blessed.” When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” But he said, “Your brother came with guile, and he has taken away your blessing.” Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright; and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” Isaac answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?” Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. Then Isaac his father answered him: “Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you break loose you shall break his yoke from your neck.” Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” – Genesis 27.1-41

In today’s reading from Genesis, we find both sides suffer from greed. We see a mother who craves for her son’s prestige and glory, and we see a son left behind who craves his father’s blessing to the extent that he is willing to kill as revenge when he does not get what he wants. It sounds like many relationships that I know of in today’s world. Instead of mothers it may be friends. Instead of brothers it may be coworkers. Nonetheless, our society is a daily example of the war of greed.

How can this be if we are fasting, that we are still filled with greed? On the one hand, our Great Lenten Journey was supposed to heal us of our passions. On the other hand, fasting has often created a sense of jealousy and greed, as we watch other enjoying their daily celebrations as we pray and fast as God has asked us. Well, it isn’t about today. It is about eternity. Consider the words from the Prophet Isaiah today.

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. O that you had hearkened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.” Go forth from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it forth to the end of the earth; say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!” They thirsted not when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he cleft the rock and the water gushed out. “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.” Listen to me, O coastlands, and hearken, you peoples from afar. The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away. And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God.” – Isaiah 48.17-49.4

God has spoke to us by the mouths of the prophets. When we obey the commandments of God, even if we struggle now, we will have peace. This is only possible when we are following God’s commandments out of love, rather than fear. The other day, I met with someone who was struggling with faith. This person grew watching his mother struggle and never blame God. Instead, she thanked God even when blessings were difficult to find. He son grew to resent God, because his mother always ‘forced him’ to thank God, when all he wanted to do was give himself some credit. Instead of finding peace thanking God, he found resentment. Years later, and he is still resenting God, doubting him even, because he was never allowed to congratulate himself.

This man suffers from greed. He wasn’t financially greedy, but attention greedy. His mother had forgotten to teach him about the joy she had in trusting God during her suffering. All the son saw was his mother’s pain and her insistence that God had blessed her. Instead of giving God attention, the son wanted the attention to be given to his success, as fruit of his labor. Instead of peace, this man suffers.

So, how can we avoid suffering when we suffer, and why is it greedy to want blessings? Most importantly, since we are in the Great Fast, how can fasting change us? Saint John Chrysostom teaches us that when we fast, we learn how not to want. Once we have learned how not to want, then we can be given. In other words, once we learn to not want credit for our blessings, then we will be able to credit others, even God, for our blessings.

This is the final week of Great Lent before Holy Week. Now is your chance to allow your fasting to break your greed. In your daily prayers, ask God to help you find peace in your suffering rather than resentment. Ask God to help you find joy in giving credit to others, rather than demanding credit yourself. Once you are ‘ok’ with others being blessed, you will have gotten one step closer to defeating greed.