t 10th commandment

8/10/2019 T 10th Commandment

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What This Commandment Means Today?

In one hour of television, we re

confronted with about 15 to 20

minutes of commercials telling us

that we need this or want that.

You have the most recent version

of this phone? Not good enough,

because here s the newest

version. We re always being told

that we should want more. Yet

should we?


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The tenth commandment asks us to look insideourselves as our own motivations. Want in itself isnot wrong. We want food. We want to please God.We want love. Those things are good things to want.What is key to fulfilling this commandment is wantingthe right things in the right way. Our possessions aretemporal, they will only please us today, not for

eternity. God reminds us that our wants should reflectour eternal life with Him. Also, we must beware ofour needs and wants becoming obsessions. When ourentire focus is our wants, we can sometimes become

ruthless in trying to get those things. We forget aboutpeople we care about, we forget about Godourdesires become all-encompassing.


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Why This Commandment is Important?

When we look at why the tenth commandmentis so important, we first need to understandwhat it means to covet something. Dictionaries

define covet as to desire something with noregard for the rights of others, to eagerly wishfor something, or to have a wrongful desire. Thedefinition has an underlying tone of someone

being greedy, so when we covet we have agreedy desire. It is one thing to want something,but another to covet it.


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The commandment not to covet is designed

to remind us first to be happy with what we

have. It also reminds us to trust in God that

He will provide. Yet when we covet we have a

greedy desire that goes well beyond a simple

want. Suddenly nothing we have is enough.What we want becomes all-encompassing,

and we hinge our happiness on getting the

things we do not have. The desire becomes initself a form of idolatry.


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How to Live By This Commandment


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Start a gratitude journal.

Start writing down every day what you're

grateful for. Start slow, maybe five things.

Then let it grow. When we see the things we

actually have, and how much they mean to

us, we tend to minimize our want of things

we don't really need.
http://christianteens.about.com/od/christianliving/qt/A-Prayer-Of-Gratitude.htmhttp://christianteens.about.com/od/christianliving/qt/A-Prayer-Of-Gratitude.htmhttp://christianteens.about.com/od/christianliving/qt/A-Prayer-Of-Gratitude.htmhttp://christianteens.about.com/od/christianliving/qt/A-Prayer-Of-Gratitude.htm


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Pray to know God's will.

God has a plan for our lives, and we need to

pray to know that plan. As we live for what

God wants for us, we find that we covet less

of what other people have. When we live in

God's will, we find contentment. It's not

always easy to know God's will, because a lot

of messages come our way each day, but overtime, it becomes easier to tell when we're

living right.


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Use patience.

If you find yourself coveting something, waitto get it. Patienceis a tool that many peoplewith shopping problems use, but it's helpfulto determining what you really want. We

tend to be impulsive people, and our abilityto get what we want immediately does notnecessarily help us evaluate what we reallyneed. If you see something you want, butdon't need, hold off a little bit and thinkabout it.
http://christianteens.about.com/od/fruitofthespirit/a/FruitPatience.htmhttp://christianteens.about.com/od/fruitofthespirit/a/FruitPatience.htm


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Trust God

One of the biggest obstacles we face in ourstruggle with coveting items is our trust in God.There are times when we face doubtsin our faith.There are times when things get dark before they

get better. It's not always easy to just trust thatGod will provide. We're designed in a way that welike our self-sustenance. However, try puttingyour trust in God to provide what you need.

When we accept that God has given us what weneed, then we find that we become less covetousof what other people have.
http://christianteens.about.com/od/christianliving/a/OvercomeDoubt.htmhttp://christianteens.about.com/od/christianliving/a/OvercomeDoubt.htm


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Don't compare

When we spend our time comparing

ourselves too much to others, we lose a

sense of who we are as individuals. God

created each of us as individuals. When we

look to much to others, we will find that we

struggle with overcoming our jealousy.

Instead, lets look to ourselves and appreciatewhat God made each of us.
http://christianteens.about.com/od/advice/a/Overcoming-Jealousy.htmhttp://christianteens.about.com/od/advice/a/Overcoming-Jealousy.htm


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CCC 2534

The tenth commandment unfolds and completesthe ninth, which is concerned withconcupiscence of the flesh. It forbids covetingthe goods of another, as the root of theft,robbery, and fraud, which the seventhcommandment forbids. "Lust of the eyes" leadsto the violence and injustice forbidden by thefifth commandment.319Avarice, like fornication,originates in the idolatry prohibited by the first

three prescriptions of the Law.320The tenthcommandment concerns the intentions of theheart; with the ninth, it summarizes all theprecepts of the Law.


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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 belongsto another or is owed to him.


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2536The 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 forbidsthe desire to commit injustice by

harming our neighbor in his

temporal goods:


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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, neverquenched. Thus it is written: "He

who loves money never has

money enough."321


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2537It 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 whohave a harder struggle against

their criminal desires" and so who

"must be urged the more to keepthis commandment


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. . . merchants who desire scarcityand rising prices, who cannot

bear not to be the only onesbuying and selling so that theythemselves can sell more dearlyand buy more cheaply; those who

hope that their peers will beimpoverished, in order to realize aprofit either by selling to them or

buying from them . . . physicianswho wish disease to spread;lawyers who are eager for manyimportant cases and trials.322


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2538 The tenth commandment requires that

envy be banished from the human heart.

When the prophet Nathan wanted to spur

King David to repentance, he told him the

story about the poor man who had only one

ewe lamb that he treated like his owndaughter and the rich man who, despite the

great number of his flocks, envied the poor

man and ended by stealing his lamb.323

Envycan lead to the worst crimes.324"Through the

devil's envy death entered the world":325


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We fight one another, and envy

arms us against one another. . . .If everyone strives to unsettle the

Body of Christ, where shall we

end up? We are engaged in

making Christ's Body a corpse.

. . . We declare ourselves

members of one and the same

organism, yet we devour oneanother like beasts.326


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2539 Envy is a capital sin. It refers to the

sadness at the sight of another's goods and

the immoderate desire to acquire them foroneself, even unjustly. When it wishes grave

harm to a neighbor it is a mortal sin:

St. Augustine saw envy as "the diabolicalsin."327"From envy are born hatred,

detraction, calumny, joy caused by the

misfortune of a neighbor, and displeasurecaused by his prosperity."328


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2540 Envy represents a form of sadness andtherefore a refusal of charity; the baptized

person should struggle against it byexercising good will. Envy often comes frompride; the baptized person should trainhimself to live in humility:

Would you like to see God glorified by you?Then rejoice in your brother's progress andyou will immediately give glory to God.

Because his servant could conquer envy byrejoicing in the merits of others, God will bepraised.329


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THE DESIRES OF THE SPIRIT

2541The economy of law and grace turns men's

hearts away from avarice and envy. It initiates

them into desire for the Sovereign Good; it

instructs them in the desires of the Holy Spiritwho satisfies man's heart.

The God of the promises always warned man

against seduction by what from the beginninghas seemed "good for food . . . a delight to the

eyes . . . to be desired to make one wise."330


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2542The Law entrusted to Israel

never sufficed to justify those

subject to it; it even became the

instrument of "lust."331The gap

between wanting and doing points

to the conflict between God's Lawwhich is the "law of my mind,"

and another law "making me

captive to the law of sin whichdwells in my members."332


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2543"But now the righteousness of

God has been manifested apart

from law, although the law andthe prophets bear witness to it,

the righteousness of God through

faith in Jesus Christ for all whobelieve."333Henceforth, Christ's

faithful "have crucified the flesh

with its passions and desires";they are led by the Spirit and

follow the desires of the Spirit.334


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POVERTY OF HEART

2544Jesus enjoins his disciples to prefer him

to everything and everyone, and bids them

"renounce all that [they have]" for his sake

and that of the Gospel.335Shortly before his

passion he gave them the example of the

poor widow of Jerusalem who, out of her

poverty, gave all that she had to live

on.336The precept of detachment from richesis obligatory for entrance into the Kingdom of

heaven.


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2545All Christ's faithful are to

"direct their affections rightly,lest they be hindered in their

pursuit of perfect charity by the

use of worldly things and by an

adherence to riches which is

contrary to the spirit of

evangelical poverty."337


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2546"Blessed are the poor in spirit."338The

Beatitudes reveal an order of happiness and

grace, of beauty and peace. Jesus celebrates

the joy of the poor, to whom the Kingdom

already belongs:339

The Word speaks of voluntary humility as

"poverty in spirit"; the Apostle gives an

example of God's poverty when he says: "For

your sakes he became poor."340


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2547The Lord grieves over the rich, because

they find their consolation in the abundance

of goods.341"Let the proud seek and loveearthly kingdoms, but blessed are the poor in

spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of

heaven."342

Abandonment to the providenceof the Father in heaven frees us from anxiety

about tomorrow.343Trust in God is a

preparation for the blessedness of the poor.

They shall see God.


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. "I WANT TO SEE GOD"

2548Desire for true happiness frees man

from his immoderate attachment to the

goods of this world so that he can find his

fulfillment in the vision and beatitude ofGod. "The promise [of seeing God] surpasses

all beatitude. . . . In Scripture, to see is to

possess. . . . Whoever sees God has obtainedall the goods of which he can conceive."344


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2549It remains for the holy people

to struggle, with grace from on

high, to obtain the good things

God promises. In order to possess

and contemplate God, Christ's

faithful mortify their cravings and,with the grace of God, prevail

over the seductions of pleasure

and power.


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Bad examples of coveting

The Bible gives many bad examples ofcoveting, such as when David coveted

Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:1-4) and

Ahab coveted Nabothsvineyard (1

Kings 21:1-6). In both of these cases,

this mental sin led to other sins,including murder.


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When we covet, we give in

to a toxic, selfish mind-setthat leads to sin and death.


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Contentment.

Paul learned how to be content withwhatever I have (Philippians 4:11, New

Living Translation). He wrote, I know how to

be abased, and I know how to abound.Everywhere and in all things I have learned

both to be full and to be hungry, both to

abound and to suffer need. I can do all things

through Christ who strengthens me


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Generosity.

If we learn to be rich in good works, ready

to give, willing to share, we will be storing

up treasure for the time to come, that *we+

may lay hold on eternal life


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Faith.

We can trust in the living God, who gives usrichly all things to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17).

We can know that God has a glorious

inheritance for those who have faith in Him.But without faith it is impossible to please

Him, for he who comes to God must believe

that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those

who diligently seek Him

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