God's world is good and ought to be seen as a means to our bliss. But when we make created things into an end--an idol requiring devotion--we slip into that form of hell known as greed.

    Greed is not gluttony, which indulges to the point of bursting. Greed in many ways couldn't care less about enjoying its spoils. Greed pursues accumulation. Greed is the desire to possess more than I need, because of fear or idolatry. A fitting personification of Greed is Ebenezer Scroge, who sat alone at night with a single candle to light his cold bedroom. "Darkness is cheap," wrote Charles Dickens, "and Scrooge liked it."

    Scrooge's desire for accumulation may seem like an innocent mistake--an unhealthy love of wealth. But when the greedy spend all their time and talents staching away gain, what was meant for all is hoarded in the vaults of the few efficent collectors.

    Dante depicted the greedy as being chained to the ground, with their backs turned to heaven and their eyes fixed on the earth. The destructive power of greed was noted by one of these shades, who said, "Greed quinched our love of good, thus all our labors were in vain."

    Dante rightly sees the problem. Greed is a misdirected love.