Sunday, April 27, 2008
1Cor 6, 1-8 Why not rather put up with injustice?
1Corinthians 6
(1Cor 6, 1-8) Why not rather put up with injustice?[1] How can any one of you with a case against another dare to bring it to the unjust for judgment instead of to the holy ones? [2] Do you not know that the holy ones will judge the world? If the world is to be judged by you, are you unqualified for the lowest law courts? [3] Do you not know that we will judge angels? Then why not everyday matters? [4] If, therefore, you have courts for everyday matters, do you seat as judges people of no standing in the church? [5] I say this to shame you. Can it be that there is not one among you wise enough to be able to settle a case between brothers? [6] But rather brother goes to court against brother, and that before unbelievers? [7] Now indeed (then) it is, in any case, a failure on your part that you have lawsuits against one another. Why not rather put up with injustice? Why not rather let yourselves be cheated? [8] Instead, you inflict injustice and cheat, and this to brothers.
(CCC 2534) The tenth commandment unfolds and completes the ninth, which is concerned with concupiscence of the flesh. It forbids coveting the goods of another, as the root of theft, robbery, and fraud, which the seventh commandment forbids. "Lust of the eyes" leads to the violence and injustice forbidden by the fifth commandment (Cf. 1 Jn 2:16; Mic 2:2). Avarice, like fornication, originates in the idolatry prohibited by the first three prescriptions of the Law (Cf. Wis 14:12). The tenth commandment concerns the intentions of the heart; with the ninth, it summarizes all the precepts of the Law. (CCC 2535) The sensitive appetite leads us to desire pleasant things we do not have, e.g., the desire to eat when we are hungry or to warm ourselves when we are cold. These desires are good in themselves; but often they exceed the limits of reason and drive us to covet unjustly what is not ours and belongs to another or is owed to him. (CCC 2536) The tenth commandment forbids greed and the desire to amass earthly goods without limit. It forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power. It also forbids the desire to commit injustice by harming our neighbor in his temporal goods: When the Law says, "You shall not covet," these words mean that we should banish our desires for whatever does not belong to us. Our thirst for another's goods is immense, infinite, never quenched. Thus it is written: "He who loves money never has money enough" (Roman Catechism, III, 37; cf. Sir 5:8).
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