462 YOU SHALL NOT COVET YOUR NEIGHBOR'S WIFE

YOUCAT Lesson 462

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

The Ninth Commandment:  You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.

462  Why does the Ninth Commandment forbid sexual desire?

The Ninth Commandment forbids, not desires per se, but rather disordered desires.  The “covetousness” against which Sacred Scripture warns is the rule of impulses over the mind, the dominion of urges over the whole person, and the sinfulness that it causes.  [2514, 2515, 2528, 2529]

Sermon On The Mount by Carl Heinrich Bloch 1834-1890. ….. 462

 “You have heard that it was said,  ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.   It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna. --Matthew 5:27-30 (a portion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount).

The erotic attraction between man and woman was created by God and is therefore good; it is part of a person’s sexual nature and biological constitution.  It ensures that man and woman can unite with one another and descendants can spring from their love.  The Ninth Commandment is meant to protect this union.  The shelter of marriage and family must not be endangered through playing with fire, in other words, through reckless indulgence in the erotic energy that crackles between man and woman.  That is why it is a good rule, especially for Christians: “Keep your hands off married men and women!”  400-425

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”  Colossians 3:5

 [2514, 2515, 2528, 2529]

                                                                                                      

"YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF"

THE NINTH COMMANDMENT

You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shallnot covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's.(  Exodus 20:17.)²⁹⁹ --Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

Every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.( Matthew 5:28.)³⁰⁰ --CCC

2514 St. John distinguishes three kinds of covetousness or concupiscence: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life.(Compare 1 John 2:16.)³⁰¹ In the Catholic catechetical tradition, the ninth commandment forbids carnal concupiscence; the tenth forbids coveting another's goods. --CCC

2515 Etymologically, "concupiscence" can refer to any intense form of human desire. Christian theology has given it a particular meaning: the movement of the sensitive appetite contrary to the operation of the human reason. The apostle St. Paul identifies it with the rebellion of the "flesh" against the "spirit." (Compare Galatians 5:16,17,24; Ephesians 2:3.)³⁰² Concupiscence stems from the disobedience of the first sin. It unsettles man's moral faculties and, without being in itself an offense, inclines man to commit sins.(Compare Genesis 3:11; Council of Trent: Denzinger-Schonmetzer 1515.)³⁰³ --CCC

IN BRIEF

2528 "Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:28). --CCC

2529 The ninth commandment warns against lust or carnal concupiscence. --CCC