Never Enough

Today’s reading is from the monk Bernard de Clairvaux, who we met yesterday. Bernard lived in France in the 1100s, and was often drawn away from his monastery to help resolve religious and political disputes. He had many encounters with rich men and women, and even rival Popes. Today he reflects on the problem with the desire for wealth, in words that sound just as true today:

“Is it not a thing we see every day, the owner of immense property and wealth buying up more land, and never content but in extending his estates? Those who dwell in vast palaces, are they not forever building new ones, always altering, making round the corner, and the corner rounded? Are not men in high position constantly aspiring to higher, constantly striving to rise, out of an ambition more and more difficult to satisfy? There’s no limit to such restlessness, because, in all such things, it is impossible to reach a point absolutely good and high. But it is not astonishing that so long as a man can see beyond him something greater and more perfect, he should be dissatisfied with his own possession of what is less and worse. What does seem foolish beyond all expression is always to be longing for things which cannot even lull to sleep our desires, far less satisfy them. What follows? This – that the heart, tempted by many deceitful charms, wearies itself to no purpose, is always craving, and counts for nothing that it has enjoyed, compared to what it imagined it would have.” 

Do our richest men and women seem happy and satisfied? Does great wealth bring wisdom and equanimity? Carl Jung says somewhere that if wealth was the key to human worth, the richest people would be the most spiritually advanced of all. This was not true in Bernard’s day, nor does it seem true today. Instead, the constant clamour for wealth and attention is never satiated. As Bernard observed almost 1000 years ago, the longing for things “cannot even lull to sleep our desires, far less satisfy them.” Something to remember as today's society lionizes billionaires. Peace. 

-Rev. Stephen Milton, Lawrence Park Community Church, Toronto

( Source: Bernard de Clairvaux, "On the Love of God," Chapter VII)

Note: if you have missed any the posts, they can now all be found on our website, updated daily:

https://www.lawrenceparkchurch.ca/blog

If you would like to subscribe to this series, please contact stephen@lawrenceparkchurch.ca