"This is the Charity of God, That We Keep His Commandments"

Part Ten

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. And every one that loveth him who begot, loveth him also who is born of him. In this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the charity of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not heavy. (1 John 5: 1-3)

A respect for the precepts enjoined by the Seventh Commandment involves also an understanding of the Tenth Commandment:

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods.

That is, one of the ways that we teach our children to respect the legitimate property rights of others is not to covet what they have. As mentioned in the last installment in this series, each of us is to be content with what God has given us. This does not mean, as Saint Francis de Sales noted in a sermon, that a married man, for instance, must not be concerned about generating income to support his family. Not at all. What we must learn as children and interiorize throughout our lives in cooperation with the graces won for us by the shedding of every single drop of Our Lord's Most Precious Blood is to not to seek the luxuries of this passing world and to be content with a sufficiency of means, attempting to imitate the Holy Poverty of the Holy Family of Nazareth and the spirit of a detachment from riches that permeated the life and the work of Saint Francis of Assisi (after he gave up his riches and his life of throwing lavish parties for his young friends).

It is not illegitimate to desire the things that we need to sustain our lives. It is not illegitimate to enjoy the pleasures of life. We are not Jansenists. What is forbidden by the Tenth Commandment is to covet what others other, thinking that we they have is ours by right and that we will be "happier" by having them, thus justifying our breaking the Seventh Commandment in order to obtain them.

The Roman Catechism, also known as The Catechism of the Council of Trent puts it this way:

Concupiscence, then, is a certain commotion and impulse of the soul, urging men to the desire of pleasures, which they do not actually enjoy. As the other propensities of the souls are not always sinful, neither is the impulse of concupiscence always vicious. It is not, for instance, sinful to desire food and drink, when cold, to wish for warmth; when warm, to wish to become cool. This lawful species of concupiscence was implanted in us by the Author nature; but in consequence of the sin of our first parents it passed the limits prescribed by nature and became so depraved that it frequently excites to the desire of those things which conflict with the spirit and reason.

However, if well regulated, and kept within proper bounds, it is often still the source of no slight advantage. in the first place, it leads us to supplicate God continually, and humbly to beg of Him those thins which we most earnestly desire. Prayer is the interpreter of our wishes; and if this lawful concupiscence did not exist within us, prayer would be far less frequent in the Church of God. It also makes us esteem the gifts of God more highly; for the more eagerly we desire anything, the dearer and more pleasing will be its possession to us. Finally, the gratification which we receive from the acquisition of the desired object increases the devotion of our gratitude to God.

If then it is sometimes lawful to covet, it must be conceded that not every species of concupiscence is forbidden. St. Paul, it is true, says that concupiscence is sin, but his words are to be understood in the same sense as those of Moses, whom he cites, as the Apostle himself declares when, in his Epistle to the Galatians, he calls it the concupiscence of the flesh, for the he says: Walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

Hence that natural, well-regulated concupiscence which does not go beyond its proper limits, is not prohibited: still less do these Commandments forbid that spiritual desire of the virtuous mind, which prompts us to long for those things that war against the flesh, for the Sacred Scriptures themselves exhort us to such a desire: Covet yet my words, Come over to me all ye that desire me.

It is not, then, the mere power of desire, which can move either to a good or a bad object that is prohibited by these Commandments; it is the indulgence of evil desire, which is called the concupiscence of the flesh, and the fuel of sin, and which when accompanied by the consent of the will, is always sinful. Therefore only that covetousness is forbidden which the Apostle calls the concupiscence of the flesh, that is to say, those motions of desire which are contrary to the dictates of reason and out step the limits prescribed by God.

This kind of covetousness is condemned, either because it desires what is evil, such as adultery, drunkenness, murder, and such heinous crimes, of which the Apostle says: Let us not covet evil things, as they also coveted; or because, although the objects may not be bad in themselves, yet there is some other reason which makes it wrong to desire them, as when, for instance, God or His Church prohibit their possession; for it is not permitted us to desire these things which it is altogether unlawful to possess. Such were, in the Old Law, the gold and silver from which idols were made, and which the Lord in Deuteronomy forbade anyone to covet

Another reason why this sort of vicious desire is condemned is that it has for its object that which belongs to another, such as a house, maid?servant, field, wife, ox, ass and many other things, all of which the law of God forbids us to covet, simply because they belong to another. The desire of such things, when consented to, is criminal, and is numbered among the most grievous sins. For sin is committed the moment the soul, yielding to the impulse of corrupt desires, is pleased with evil things, and either consents to, or does not resist them, as St. James, pointing out the beginning and progress of sin, teaches when he says: Every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured; then, when concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; but sin, when it is completed, begetteth death.

When, therefore, the Law says: Thou shalt not covet, it means that we are not to desire those things which belong to others. A thirst for what belongs to others is intense and insatiable; for it is written: A covetous man shall not be satisfied with money; and of such a one Isaias says: Woe to you that join house to house, and lay field to field.

But a distinct explanation of each of the words (in which this Commandment is expressed) will make it easier to understand the deformity and grievousness of this sin.

The pastor, therefore, should teach that by the word house is to be understood not only the habitation in which we dwell, but all our property, as we know from the usage and custom of the sacred writers. Thus when it is said in Exodus that the Lord built houses for the midwives, the meaning is that He improved their condition and means.

From this interpretation, therefore, we perceive, that we are forbidden to indulge an eager desire of riches, or to envy others their wealth, or power, or rank; but, on the contrary, we are directed to be content with our own condition, whether it be high or low. Furthermore, it is forbidden to desire the glory of others since glory also is comprised under the word house.

The words that follow, nor his ox, nor his ass, teach us that not only is it unlawful to desire things of greater value, such as a house, rank, glory, because they belong to others; but also things of little value, whatever they may be, animate or inanimate.

The words, nor his servant, come next, and include captives as well as other slaves whom it is no more lawful to covet than the other property of our neighbour. With regard to the free who serve voluntarily either for wages, or out of affection or respect, it is unlawful, by words, or hopes, or promises, or rewards to bribe or solicit them, under any pretext whatever, to leave those to whose service they have freely engaged themselves; nay more, if, before the period of their contract has expired, they leave their employers, they are to be admonished, on the authority of this Commandment, to return to them by all means.

The word neighbour is mentioned in this Commandment to mark the wickedness of those who habitually covet the lands, houses and the like, which lie in their immediate vicinity; for neighbourhood, which should make for friendship, is transformed by covetousness from a source of love into a cause of hatred.

But this Commandment is by no means transgressed by those who desire to purchase or have actually purchased, at a fair price, from a neighbour, the goods which he has for sale. Instead of doing him an injury, they, on the contrary, very much assist their neighbour, because to him the money will be much more convenient and useful than the goods he sells.

Our children must be taught, therefore, to be content with what they have, to treat with respect those material things that God has provided them, as these things come from Him and are to be used in such a way as to help us get home to Him in Heaven as members of the Catholic Church, and to respect the property rights of others. Children must thus be taught this fundamental rule: you cannot touch something if you do not own it--or unless the person who owns it gives you permission to do so.

For example, one of the most amazing things I have witnessed in my own lifetime, which is five months into its fifty-fifth year (some restaurants start their "senior specials at fifty-five; just seven months and two days to go!), is the phenomenon of mothers permitting their children to open up packages of food in stores and to consume the contents of those packages before the item is purchased. Sure, a bag or a box can be "scanned" at the checkout counter. That's not the point. The point is this: you don't own the item until you pay for it. A grocery store is not a restaurant, where you are presented with a bill at the end of a meal (unless you are eating in some "buffet" place that features warmed-up leftovers from 1997). Children must be taught to wait. To gratify children instantly in a grocery store is going to entice them into shoplifting when they are older, if not when they are younger.

Once again, my own parents did not understand the Faith very well. They were the beneficiaries, however, of the residual influence of the Faith in the world. They taught their two sons to respect our neighbors' property and to ask permission if, say, a ball we were playing with wound up in a neighbor's yard and we had to go on that person's property to retrieve it. This is called old-fashioned courtesy and a respect for the property rights of others. How many people just casually assume that it is all right for them to trespass another person's property if permission to do so has not been given in a blanket manner ("Sure, anytime, no problem, come get your ball") or at specific time in a specific instance?

Just as a total aside, this same sort of casual attitude is what prompts a lot of very ill-formed young Catholic parents to teach their children to address adults by their first names, something that breeds egalitarianism and disrespect. An older person is to be called "Mister" or "Miss" or Missus" or "Doctor" or "Professor" or "Father" or "Monsignor," etc. An older person who is a good friend of the family but not a relative can be called "Uncle" or "Aunt." This business of teaching children to call adults by their first name--and the diminutive form thereof, it should be noted--leads to a disrespect that can, in so many instances, lead to theft. "After all," a boy or a girl might reason, "I'm only 'borrowing' Joe's car. He'll understand." Children must be taught order in all things, starting with how to respect older persons and to treat them and their property as they would treat Our Lord Himself and the things of the Holy Family of Nazareth.

Thus, a respect for the Seventh and the Tenth Commandments (the latter is tied to both the Ninth and to the Seventh Commandments) means that we will avoid all attitudes of envying the goods of other people and will not attempt to appropriate those goods by engaging in various acts of thievery, no matter how subtle and sophisticated that they may appear to us. All forms of thievery, therefore, including that engaged in by the civil state today, are forbidden.

That is, over and above the fact that a good deal of the excessive, unjust and incommensurate level of taxation to which we are subjected today by all levels of government goes to fund manifest evils that are contrary to God's law and injurious to the salvation of souls (and thus injurious to the common temporal good of men and their nations), our tax dollars are wasted by the civil state by means of sloth. Many local governments, for example, cannot even discharge the legitimate functions assigned to preserve public safety and good order in their jurisdictions because those who staff their bureaucracies do not work for the honor and glory of God but for the desire simply to hold a job by drinking at the public trough, becoming, if you will, well-paid wards of the citizens.

While admitting that many civil servants and even political appointees are concerned about the common good and do work hard in the midst of difficult circumstances to discharge their duties as ably as they can, most who work in government today are not possessed of the sensus Catholicus, desiring just to "put in their hours" until they can retire and live off of the pensions that have been funded by taxpayer dollars. Sloth is thus bred. Legitimate problems are ignored. Snow is not ploughed promptly. Street lights cannot be synchronized so as to permit a smoother flow of traffic (which would could less pollution and less traffic congestion). Adequate and competent record-keeping is a mystery. The dictates of common sense and courtesy when dealing with the tax-paying public are ignored almost entirely in many instances. Remember the words of Pope Leo XIII in Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900:

We are told that society is quite able to help itself; that it can flourish without the assistance of Christianity, and attain its end by its own unaided efforts. Public administrators prefer a purely secular system of government. All traces of the religion of our forefathers are daily disappearing from political life and administration. What blindness! Once the idea of the authority of God as the Judge of right and wrong is forgotten, law must necessarily lose its primary authority and justice must perish: and these are the two most powerful and most necessary bonds of society. Similarly, once the hope and expectation of eternal happiness is taken away, temporal goods will be greedily sought after. Every man will strive to secure the largest share for himself. Hence arise envy, jealousy, hatred. The consequences are conspiracy, anarchy, nihilism. There is neither peace abroad nor security at home. Public life is stained with crime.

Pope Pius XI sounded a similar theme in Urbi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922:

To these evils we must add the contests between political parties, many of which struggles do not originate in a real difference of opinion concerning the public good or in a laudable and disinterested search for what would best promote the common welfare, but in the desire for power and for the protection of some private interest which inevitably result in injury to the citizens as a whole. From this course there often arise robberies of what belongs rightly to the people, and even conspiracies against and attacks on the supreme authority of the state, as well as on its representatives. These political struggles also beget threats of popular action and, at times, eventuate in open rebellion and other disorders which are all the more deplorable and harmful since they come from a public to whom it has been given, in our modern democratic states, to participate in very large measure in public life and in the affairs of government. Now, these different forms of government are not of themselves contrary to the principles of the Catholic Faith, which can easily be reconciled with any reasonable and just system of government. Such governments, however, are the most exposed to the danger of being overthrown by one faction or another.

Fallen human nature is what it is. Corruption, degradation and sloth were not unknown, sadly, in the civil administration of Catholic States in the Middle Ages and thereafter, especially in the Renaissance. Granted. However, the removal of the Church as the guide of both men and nations results in the absolute triumph of theft and fraud and sloth at all times universally, with virtue being the exception rather than the norm. Citizens thus become deprived of their legitimate private property in order to fund the careerist goals of the leeches known as career politicians and the bureaucrats in the civil service, making citizens more and more the slaves of the state as their legitimate freedoms are restricted to serve the material and career interests of the few.

As noted in the last installment in this series, which was posted yesterday, April 21, 2006, the corporate world engages in the systematic theft of our private property so as to aggrandize itself and to make us their willing slaves. Usurious interest rates are charged for mortgages and other loans. People are encouraged to become the slaves of credit-card debt, from which they may never be able to extricate themselves in their lifetimes. People are encouraged to buy luxury items they do not need by borrowing massive sums of money. Poisons are added to our food to addict us to certain products, which may very well wind up sending us to the doctor, who will prescribe "medication" produced by the pharmaceutical industry that is designed to accustom our bodies to needing said medication for the rest of our lives as we are used as walking, talking human guinea pigs. Vaccines are manufactured that produce autism in children and are meant to change the structure of our DNA.

What is, of course, interesting to note about all of this is that the average American, including the average Catholic, just goes along saying, "Baa, baa, baa, give me more, please. Do with me what you will." The very spirit of docile obedience that should rendered unto Our Lord as He has revealed Himself through His true Church is given to the high priests of the government and entertainment and journalism and the corporate world as they steal our private property from us to make us their intellectual and bodily slaves unto our physical and eternal destruction. We live in a world of theft, a world that was formed by the theft of the true Faith by Martin Luther and John Calvin and Henry VIII as the basis of social order and has been aided and abetted by the theft of Tradition within the true Church in her human elements by the Modernists, those wolves who pose so knowingly as shepherds, in the most forty-eight years.

Apart from the thievery we are subjected to by the government and the corporate world, the Roman Catechism treats the most common form of thefts as follows:

There are so many kinds of stealing that it is most difficult to enumerate them all; but since the others can be reduced to theft and robbery, it will be sufficient to speak of these two. To inspire the faithful with a detestation of such grievous crimes and to deter them from their commission, the pastor should use all care and diligence. Now let us consider these two kinds of stealing.

They are guilty of theft who buy stolen goods, or retain the property of others, whether found, seized, or pilfered. If you have found, and not restored, says St. Augustine, you have stolen. If the true owner cannot, however, be discovered, whatever is found should go to the poor. If the finder refuse to make restitution, he gives evident proof that, were it in his power, he would make no scruple of stealing all that he could lay his hands on.

Those who, in buying or selling, have recourse to fraud and lying, involve themselves in the same guilt. The Lord will avenge their trickery. Those who sell bad and adulterated goods as real and genuine, or who defraud the purchasers by weight, measure, number, or rule, are guilty of a species of theft still more criminal and unjust. It is written in Deuteronomy: Thou shalt not have divers weights in thy bag. Do not any unjust thing, says Leviticus, in judgment, in rule, in weight or in measure. Let the balance be just, and the weights equal, the bushel just, and the sextary equal. And elsewhere it is written: Divers weights are an abomination before the Lord; a deceitful balance is not good.

It is, also, a downright theft, when labourers and artisans exact full wages from those to whom they have not given just and due labor. Again, dishonest servants and agents are no better than thieves, nay they are more detestable than other thieves; against these everything may be locked, while against a pilfering servant nothing in a house can be secure by bolt or lock.

They, also, who obtain money under pretence of poverty, or by deceitful words, may be said to steal, and their guilt is aggravated since they add falsehood to theft.

Persons charged with offices of public or private trust, who altogether neglect, or but indifferently perform their duties, while they enjoy the salary and emoluments of such offices, are also to be reckoned in the number of thieves.

To enumerate the various other modes of theft, invented by the ingenuity of avarice, which is versed in all the arts of making money, would be a tedious and, as already said, a most difficult task.

The pastor, therefore, should next come to treat of robbery, which is the second general division of these crimes. First, he should admonish the Christian people to bear in mind the teaching of the Apostle: They that will become rich fall into temptation, and the snare of the devil; and never to forget the rule: All things whatsoever you will that men do to you, do you also to them; and always to bear in mind the words of Tobias: See thou never do to another what thou wouldst hate to have done to thee by another.

Robbery is more comprehensive than theft. Those who pay not the labourer his hire are guilty of robbery, and are exhorted to repentance by St. James in these words: Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries, which shall come upon you. He adds the reason for their repentance: Behold the hire of the labourers, who have reaped down your fields, which by fraud has been kept back by you, crieth: and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. This sort of robbery is strongly condemned in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Malachy, and Tobias.

Among those who are guilty of robbery are also included persons who do not pay, or who turn to other uses or appropriate to themselves, customs, taxes, tithes and such revenues, which are owed to the Church or civil authorities.

To this class also belong usurers, the most cruel and relentless of extortioners, who by their exorbitant rates of interest, plunder and destroy the poor. Whatever is received above the capital and principal, be it money, or anything else that may be purchased or estimated by money, is usury; for it is written in Ezechiel: He hath not lent upon usury, nor taken an increase; and in Luke our Lord says: Lend, hoping for nothing thereby. Even among the pagans usury was always considered a most grievous and odious crime. Hence the question, "What is usury ?" was answered: "What is murder?" And, indeed, he who lends at usury sells the same thing twice, or sells that which has no real existence.

Corrupt judges, whose decisions are venal, and who, bought over by money or other bribes, decide against the just claims of the poor and needy, also commit robbery.

Those who defraud their creditors, who deny their just debts, and also those who purchase goods on their own, or on another's credit, with a promise to pay for them at a certain time, and do not keep their word, are guilty of the same crime of robbery. And it is an aggravation of their guilt that, in consequence of their want of punctuality and their fraud, prices are raised to the great injury of the public. To such persons seem to apply the words of David: The sinner shall borrow, and not pay again.

But what shall we say of those rich men who exact with rigour what they lend to the poor, even though the latter are not able to pay them, and who, disregarding God's law, take as security even the necessary clothing of the unfortunate debtors ? For God says: If thou take of thy neighbour a garment in pledge, thou shalt give it him again before sunset, for that same is the only thing wherewith he is covered, the clothing of his body, neither hath he any other to sleep in: if he cry to me I will hear him, because I am compassionate. Their rigorous exaction is justly termed rapacity, and therefore robbery.

Among those whom the holy Fathers pronounced guilty of robbery are persons who, in times of scarcity, hoard up their corn, thus culpably rendering supplies scarcer and dearer. This holds good with regard to all necessaries of life and sustenance. These are they against whom Solomon utters this execration: He that hideth up corn, shall be cursed among the people. Such persons the pastor should warn of their guilt, and should reprove with more than ordinary freedom; he should explain to them at length the punishments which await such sins.

Those who steal the goods of others are called to make restitution as far as is possible. This is where a Catholic acting in a private capacity  and a Catholic State, acting in its collective responsibility in behalf of the common good, would apply the sensus Catholicus to the nature of an instance of theft and determine a penalty that is commensurate with the offense. Justice must be sought and accomplished without vengeance, mercy must be shown where a spirit of true repentance and a desire to make restitution is exhibited.

Finally, our children must be taught--and we must be reminded--that we must not covet the talents of our neighbors, committing the sin of Envy as we stew in jealousy over the spiritual and intellectual gifts God has bestowed on others but not on us. Each of us is different. Each of us has a distinct soul. We have distinctive gifts and talents. Each of us builds up the Mystical Body of Christ that is the Church Militant on earth in different ways as a result of our distinctive gifts, used in cooperation with the graces won for us by the shedding of Our Lord's Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross and that flow to us through the loving hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of all graces. We must be content not only with the sufficiency of material means that God has given us, we must be satisfied with the various gifts that God has bestowed upon our souls, mindful of the effort we must make to refine and to perfect those spiritual goods as befits redeemed creatures. We should be inspired by the example of others to be more holy and more committed to the pursuit of spiritual perfection, not exhibiting the jealousy of Abel for his brother Cain when we realize that we have much more work to do to be pleasing in the sight of God: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

We are given the things, people and places of this passing life to help us to get home to Heaven. We must be prepared, as was Holy Job, to lose everything for love of God:

And said: Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord. (Job 1: 21)

We must be the slave of no created thing. We must be the consecrated slave only of Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, letting her give to God all of the merits we earn and sufferings we endure in this vale of tears, where we have not a true and permanent home.

The final part of this series, which will be posted on Tuesday, April 25, 2006, will focus on the Eighth Commandment and its many precepts.

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. And every one that loveth him who begot, loveth him also who is born of him. In this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the charity of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not heavy. (1 John 5: 1-3)

Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Peter Damien, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Mary Magdalene, pray for us.

Saint Philomena, pray for us.

Saint Lucy, pray for us.

Saint Agnes, pray for us.

Saint Agatha, pray for us.

Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint Catherine of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint John of the Cross, pray for us.

Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.

Saint Therese Lisieux, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us.

Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.

Blessed Francisco, pray for us.

Blessed Jacinta, pray for us.

Sister Lucia, pray for us.