"By Mammon is meant
the devil who is the Lord of Money" wrote Thomas Aquinas. AVARICE
is a worldly sin that creates misers, thieves and murderers. The wolf is
the animal usually depicted in medieval bestiaries, coming up from hell
carrying Mammon to inflame the human heart with Greed.
Like the "hungry
ghosts" of the Buddhist hell, the greedy always crave more no
matter how much they have. Wretched and envious, Avarice escalates to a
state of infinite dissatisfaction and the sin's obsession with material
wealth and "things" leads to neglect of spiritual wealth. The
opposing virtue to Avarice is Sufficiency.
