£¥€$: "Possess or be possessed?"

This title is the central question of a sermon that Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger (1926-2007), Archbishop of Paris, preached in the mid-eighties. It was during one of the masses he used to preside every Sunday afternoons. I think I'll remember this homely forever.
It was a period of my life when I felt very lonesome . I returned from long years of expatriation, settling definitely in Paris. I worked and lived in La Defense which was — and still remains — a kind of excentered down town and one of Paris Business Districts. As you could guess, the unique theme of discussions around me was at work and after work was: Business!
Denizen in my own country, I tried to find how to spend usefully my time and especially during my week-ends. My Sunday afternoons were filled with a long five-mile walk from home to Notre-Dame, enjoying almost one half of Paris highly touristic avenues and monuments: The Champs and rue de Rivoli, the Concorde, Louvres, Chatelet, etc. The pretext was to attend the organ concert of sacred music in the cathedral.
I was one of few who remained for the mass. Most of the members of the parish of Ile-de-la-Cité — the district around Notre Dame were affluent people beyond the forties, very well-dressed as any Parisian of the upper classes should be.
This Sunday, Father Lustiger discussed on the word "possession" that has a double meaning in French. The first is: ownership ( "To own money, lands, houses: fortune".); The second expresses the state of being possessed by the Evil… He pointed out that the obsession of possession, in the first meaning, leads to possession, in the second meaning.
Turning my head around, I saw in my neighbors’ eyes a kind of sadness… like what the rich young man should have felt after listening Jesus. “When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth” (Matthew 19-22).
Conclusion: Money lies!