Thursday, July 18, 2013
531. What is required and what is forbidden by the tenth commandment? (part 1)
(Comp 531) This commandment, which completes the preceding commandment, requires an
interior attitude of respect for the property of others and forbids greed,
unbridled covetousness for the goods of others, and envy which is the sadness
one experiences at the sight of another’s goods and the immoderate desire to
acquire them for oneself.
“In brief”
(CCC 2551) "Where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Mt 6:21).
To deepen and
explain
(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.
Reflection
(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. [IT CONTINUES]
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