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Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. Today is another great day to read and learn from St. Francis. 

Thomas Sowell, a great American economist, philosopher, and political commentator, writes and says many excellent things. He is truly a brilliant man. One of my favorite quotes of his, is, “I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.”

We hear pretty consistently that the rich are bad and that the government should take their money and give it to others. I hate this notion for several reasons:

1. We need the wealthy to create jobs. Taxing them to death kills innovation and business growth.
2. You remove charity when you force people to be “charitable.”
3. Nobody wants their money taken from them and forcibly given to others, yet, we demand the rich not only do it, but we call them wicked if they don’t love having their money stripped from them. 

Is it wrong to be rich? No. Can being rich lead you to being greedy? Yes, but so can poverty. Greed doesn’t become suddenly okay if you are poor. It’s always wrong to want to strip from others what is rightfully theirs and what they have rightfully earned. 

Our topic for today is on having a poverty of spirit in the midst of wealth. So, let’s turn to Chapter Fourteen of the Third Part.