An Article in "Catholic Digest": How We So Greatly Desire Material Things, Why We Do, and Ways We Could Deal With It

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Fantastic article as always, mdgspencer; thanks for posting. This “countercultural solution” should be strongly focused upon in Catholic schools from the first grade onwards through the post-graduate level! It should be an entire field of study, actually.
 
DaddyGirl said:
I don’t greatly desire material things at all…and I’m so glad that I don’t.
They are not important to me.

I wonder why she calls this detachment from things as “countercultural”.
A lot of our culture *does *suggest this kind of detachment, too. Every day I see articles and advice on this.

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I think it’s because of hippie-era counterculture and beatnik-era bohemians appropriating the word detachment from Buddhism or New Age people. Detachment from material wealth has been central to Christianity since the time of Christ, though, so I agree that it shouldn’t really be framed that way.
 
I don’t find that I covet material things at all, which is a blessing. Where that commandment really gets me is coveting others’ skills, talents, and physical gifts. This is much more poisonous IMHO because thinking yourself inherently and innately inferior ruins self-esteem like nothing else can.
 
I gave up on what few possessions I had when I had to move house a long way with no money to take things with me… Travelled with a rucksack, laptop ,one of my cats,wearing several layers of clothes. Me, I mean, not the cat!!

Never bothered accumulating things since , as I have moved seven times here already. Anything I do not absolutely need gets given away… As I rent, I get the basic appliances in and this house was minimally furnish which was great. Anything I need eg tables, I buy from charity shops and return later if I need to.

Small cheap car, small cheap tablet computer, I grieve the latter as i need an old fashioned laptop for my writing work. HATE the chromebook… lol…

Books from the library of thrift shop and they go back then.

Plain house; crucifix and Sacred Heart the only adornment.

Only thing I accumulate is … cats!

That first move hurt; the things I missed though were eg a favourite casserole dish… Still remember it.

I think the decluttering process has to come from the heart. For me too it is a way of using money for others rather than self.
 
Bill_Martin said:
I don’t find that I covet material things at all, which is a blessing. Where that commandment really gets me is coveting others’ skills, talents, and physical gifts. This is much more poisonous IMHO because thinking yourself inherently and innately inferior ruins self-esteem like nothing else can.
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You speak rather of the vice of envy, the fifth commandment of the Decalogue.

ENVY. Sadness or discontent at the excellence, good fortune, or success of another person. It implies that one considers oneself somehow deprived by what one envies in another or even that an injustice has been done. Essential to envy is this sense of deprivation. Consequently it is not merely sadness that someone else has some desirable talent or possession, nor certainly the ambition to equal or surpass another person, which can be laudable emulation. It is not the same as jealousy, which implies an unwillingness to share one’s own possessions.

It was envy of God that caused the fall of the angels.
That is how hell came into being - through envy.
It was envy which brought on the fall of our first parents. The devil envied their happiness.
It was envy that caused the Scribes and Pharisees to persecute Christ.

Remedies:
Think kindly of the person you are tempted to envy.
Act kindly to the person who you are tempted to envy.
Love the person that you are tempted to envy.
Pray for those who you are inclined to envy.
 
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