The Evil Ego Inside

You have heard said and repeated many times. The root of all evil is money! Perhaps you have been on the defensive because you have a little money. You have had to say things like no, life requires balance, and one needs money to live, or perhaps something far more creative than those two examples.

I was reading a most inspirational book about a Catholic priest called Padre Pio. An incredibly holy man blessed with many gifts including stigmata, being in two places at once, being able to read minds and look into the future. He once asked the following question, “Do you know what evil is called?” Those in the vicinity gave all of the usual answers and names but he responded quite surprisingly by saying, “It is called I, and we need to stab it each time it appears, because it never dies!”

Hello, there is a revelation, evil is the ‘I’ within me?

That may sound a little harsh but he was not the only religious person to advance this idea. St Thomas Aquinas writing on the origin of moral evil stated that “egoism, that is the disorderly love of oneself is the cause of all sin”. St Catherine of Siena said “Love of oneself, which removes charity and delight, is the beginning and foundation of all evil”.


One does not have to think too hard or too far to understand that egos are cause for much of the world’s misery. History includes countless stories that talk to the obsessions of mad men and the countless hordes that have followed them.

My question to myself is how much misery do I cause in this life as a result of my ego and my fixation with myself and what I want?

Ah what a stupid question, I am never wrong!