The Fire Of Cupidity

Omne tamen peccatum per poenitentiam recipit vulneris sanitatem. Non potest quisquam spiritalia bella transire, nisi prius edomaverit ardorem cupiditatis. Non potest ad contemplandum Deum mens esse libera, quae cupiditatibus hujus mundi incumbit. Omni peccato pejor est avaritia, et amor pecuniarum. Unde et per Salomonem dicitur: Nihil est scelestius quam amare pecuniam; cupiditas omnium criminum materia est. Unde et Apostulus ait: Radix omnium malorum est cupiditas.  Si ergo succiditur radix criminum, non pullulant caeterae soboles peccatorum. Cupiditas enim Christum vendidit, vendidit vitam, comparavit mortem: nec mirum, quia morientes inferni ignibus deputantur, qui viventes flammam cupiditatis suae non exstinxereunt. Theodulfus Aurelianensis, Fragmentum Sermonis Source: Migne PL 105 278

Every sin through penance receives the remedy for its wounds. But no spiritual warfare can pass by unless first the fire of cupidity is quenched. The mind cannot be free to contemplate God in which rests the desire for the things of this world. No fault is worse than avarice and the love of money. Whence even Solomon says, 'Nothing is more criminal than the love of money; cupidity is the fuel of all evils.' 1 Whence even the Apostle says, 'The root of all evil is the love of money.' 2 Thus if the root of crime is severed, the shoots of the other sins shall not sprout forth. Love of money sold Christ, it sold life, it is like death, and no wonder that dying they should be placed in the fires of hell, who living did not extinguish the flame of cupidity. Theodulf of Orleans, Fragment from a Sermon 1 Sirach 10.10 2 1 Tim 6.10