YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 465
Ave Maria series
The Tenth Commandment: You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
What attitude should a Christian take toward other people’s property?
A Christian must learn to distinguish reasonable desires from those that are unreasonable and unjust and to acquire an interior attitude of respect for other people’s property. [2534-2537, 2552]
Parable of the Rich Fool by Rembrandt, 1627.
Covetousness leads to greed, avarice, theft, robbery and fraud, violence and injustice, envy and immoderate desires to own what belongs to others.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” Exodus 20:17
“Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Luke 12:15
Where there are great riches, there are also many to devour them. Of what use are they to the owner except as a feast for the eyes alone? —Ecclesiastes 5:10a
[2534-2537, 2552]
You shall not covet . . . anything that is your neighbor's. . . . You shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's.(Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21.)317
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. (Compare 1John 2:16; Micah 2:2.)319 Avarice, like fornication, originates in the idolatry prohibited by the first three prescriptions of the Law.( Compare Wisdom 14:12.)320 The tenth commandment concerns the intentions of the heart; with the ninth, it summarizes all the precepts of the Law. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition
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: --CCC
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; compare Sirach 5:8.)321–CCC
2537 It is not a violation of this commandment to desire to obtain things that belong to one's neighbor, provided this is done by just means. Traditional catechesis realistically mentions "those who have a harder struggle against their criminal desires" and so who "must be urged the more to keep this commandment": --CCC
. . . merchants who desire scarcity and rising prices, who cannot bear not to be the only ones buying and selling so that they themselves can sell more dearly and buy more cheaply; those who hope that their peers will be impoverished, in order to realize a profit either by selling to them or buying from them . . . physicians who wish disease to spread; lawyers who are eager for many important cases and trials. (Roman Catechism, III,37.) 322--CCC
IN BRIEF
2552 The tenth commandment forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power. –CCC
JT Parable of the Rich Fool
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