465 YOU SHALL NOT COVET YOUR NEIGHBOR'S GOODS

YOUCAT Lesson 465

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

The Tenth Commandment:  You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.

465  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]

Avarice, by Jesus Solana. …..465

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]

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT

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

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.( Matthew 6:21.)³¹⁸

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 1 John 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

THE DISORDER OF COVETOUS DESIRES

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

IN BRIEF

2552 The tenth commandment forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power. --CCC