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

Part Nine

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)

God created the world and everything in it, including man, in six days. He assigned to Adam and Eve the care of the earth and all of the things in it, carefully pointing out that the things of this earth belong to him to be used for his sustenance:

And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth. And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth. And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat: And to all beasts of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to all that move upon the earth, and wherein there is life, that they may have to feed upon. And it was so done. (Genesis 2: 26-30)

From the very beginning of Special Creation of man by God, therefore, God has permitted man to own private property, which is to be used for the greater honor and glory of God and for the spiritual and temporal benefit of man. No man has any right to appropriate, that is, to steal the property of another. God gave the right to private property to Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis.

The Seventh Commandment is as follows:

Thou shalt not steal.

Pope Leo XIII, writing in Rerum Novarum, May 15, 1891, commented on the Natural Law right of private property that flows from the Seventh Commandment:

This becomes still more clearly evident if man's nature be considered a little more deeply. For man, fathoming by his faculty of reason matters without number, linking the future with the present, and being master of his own acts, guides his ways under the eternal law and the power of God, whose providence governs all things. Wherefore, it is in his power to exercise his choice not only as to matters that regard his present welfare, but also about those which he deems may be for his advantage in time yet to come. Hence, man not only should possess the fruits of the earth, but also the very soil, inasmuch as from the produce of the earth he has to lay by provision for the future. Man's needs do not die out, but forever recur; although satisfied today, they demand fresh supplies for tomorrow. Nature accordingly must have given to man a source that is stable and remaining always with him, from which he might look to draw continual supplies. And this stable condition of things he finds solely in the earth and its fruits. There is no need to bring in the State. Man precedes the State, and possesses, prior to the formation of any State, the right of providing for the substance of his body.

The fact that God has given the earth for the use and enjoyment of the whole human race can in no way be a bar to the owning of private property. For God has granted the earth to mankind in general, not in the sense that all without distinction can deal with it as they like, but rather that no part of it was assigned to any one in particular, and that the limits of private possession have been left to be fixed by man's own industry, and by the laws of individual races. Moreover, the earth, even though apportioned among private owners, ceases not thereby to minister to the needs of all, inasmuch as there is not one who does not sustain life from what the land produces. Those who do not possess the soil contribute their labor; hence, it may truly be said that all human subsistence is derived either from labor on one's own land, or from some toil, some calling, which is paid for either in the produce of the land itself, or in that which is exchanged for what the land brings forth.

Here, again, we have further proof that private ownership is in accordance with the law of nature. Truly, that which is required for the preservation of life, and for life's well-being, is produced in great abundance from the soil, but not until man has brought it into cultivation and expended upon it his solicitude and skill. Now, when man thus turns the activity of his mind and the strength of his body toward procuring the fruits of nature, by such act he makes his own that portion of nature's field which he cultivates -- that portion on which he leaves, as it were, the impress of his personality; and it cannot but be just that he should possess that portion as his very own, and have a right to hold it without any one being justified in violating that right.

So strong and convincing are these arguments that it seems amazing that some should now be setting up anew certain obsolete opinions in opposition to what is here laid down. They assert that it is right for private persons to have the use of the soil and its various fruits, but that it is unjust for any one to possess outright either the land on which he has built or the estate which he has brought under cultivation. But those who deny these rights do not perceive that they are defrauding man of what his own labor has produced. For the soil which is tilled and cultivated with toil and skill utterly changes its condition; it was wild before, now it is fruitful; was barren, but now brings forth in abundance. That which has thus altered and improved the land becomes so truly part of itself as to be in great measure indistinguishable and inseparable from it. Is it just that the fruit of a man's own sweat and labor should be possessed and enjoyed by any one else? As effects follow their cause, so is it just and right that the results of labor should belong to those who have bestowed their labor.

With reason, then, the common opinion of mankind, little affected by the few dissentients who have contended for the opposite view, has found in the careful study of nature, and in the laws of nature, the foundations of the division of property, and the practice of all ages has consecrated the principle of private ownership, as being pre-eminently in conformity with human nature, and as conducing in the most unmistakable manner to the peace and tranquility of human existence. The same principle is confirmed and enforced by the civil laws -- laws which, so long as they are just, derive from the law of nature their binding force. The authority of the divine law adds its sanction, forbidding us in severest terms even to covet that which is another's: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife; nor his house, nor his field, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his."

The rights here spoken of, belonging to each individual man, are seen in much stronger light when considered in relation to man's social and domestic obligations. In choosing a state of life, it is indisputable that all are at full liberty to follow the counsel of Jesus Christ as to observing virginity, or to bind themselves by the marriage tie. No human law can abolish the natural and original right of marriage, nor in any way limit the chief and principal purpose of marriage ordained by God's authority from the beginning: "Increase and multiply." Hence we have the family, the "society" of a man's house -- a society very small, one must admit, but none the less a true society, and one older than any State. Consequently, it has rights and duties peculiar to itself which are quite independent of the State.

That right to property, therefore, which has been proved to belong naturally to individual persons, must in like wise belong to a man in his capacity of head of a family; nay, that right is all the stronger in proportion as the human person receives a wider extension in the family group. It is a most sacred law of nature that a father should provide food and all necessaries for those whom he has begotten; and, similarly, it is natural that he should wish that his children, who carry on, so to speak, and continue his personality, should be by him provided with all that is needful to enable them to keep themselves decently from want and misery amid the uncertainties of this mortal life. Now, in no other way can a father effect this except by the ownership of productive property, which he can transmit to his children by inheritance. A family, no less than a State, is, as We have said, a true society, governed by an authority peculiar to itself, that is to say, by the authority of the father. Provided, therefore, the limits which are prescribed by the very purposes for which it exists be not transgressed, the family has at least equal rights with the State in the choice and pursuit of the things needful to its preservation and its just liberty. We say, "at least equal rights"; for, inasmuch as the domestic household is antecedent, as well in idea as in fact, to the gathering of men into a community, the family must necessarily have rights and duties which are prior to those of the community, and founded more immediately in nature. If the citizens, if the families on entering into association and fellowship, were to experience hindrance in a commonwealth instead of help, and were to find their rights attacked instead of being upheld, society would rightly be an object of detestation rather than of desire.

Several volumes of books would have to be written to treat with proper thoroughness all of the aspects of the Seventh Commandment. Father Lawrence C. Smith has been re-recording his "Rerum Novarum in Context" course for Christ the King College so as to provide as thorough and as comprehensive a review of this subject as possible. I have no intention of attempting to duplicate his work in this series on the Ten Commandments. What I want to do, though, is to stress some of the principal aspects of the Seventh and Tenth Commandments in summary form in order to provide an overview of the vast number of subjects covered in these two Commandments.

The Sufficiency of Means and the Just Use of One's Own Property

Most of us have labored throughout our lives under the evils of unbridled capitalism, that system of economics that has become, whatever it may have been once in the Eleventh or Twelfth Centuries in the Middle Ages, under the influence of Calvinist materialism the means by which the insatiable human greed for the things of this world has been let loose with abandon. Thus influenced by the lives of atomistic Calvinist materialism, each of us has come to accept as natural and normal the "profit motive" as the basis for a healthy economy, which is supposed to "create wealth," under a monetary system that is entirely artificial and arbitrary, it must be noted, and thus provide people with employment in order to enjoy the "benefits" provided by material goods and leisure activities as ultimate ends in and of themselves that justify all of the means used to acquire them. This system of economics has debased man, despoiled the environment--over which man is called to be a just steward, and broken up the family as the engines of industrialization and technology have taken man off of the land and forced him away from the home to work in factories or offices many miles from his family.

As I have written in other places, the heresy of Calvinism, which is responsible for much of our politics and economics, is founded on many lies. Of the essence of Calvinism is the belief that man has no free will and that he is predestined by an briary act of an arbitrary God to Heaven or to Hell upon his birth. Nothing he can do in this life can change the fact of his eternal predestination. What man can do, however, to demonstrate to his fellow men that he is among the elect is to demonstrate his success in the realm of material wealth and possessions, thus showing God's favor upon his labors. In other words, material success is a sign of predestination for Heaven.

Possessed of the Calvinist notion of predestination, men must work hard not for the honor and glory of God, giving Him all of the fruits of their labors through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but to demonstrate to himself and to others that he is favored by God, Who bestows riches upon the elect and denies them to those who are damned. The purpose of human work, therefore, is thus made ignoble as the creature becomes the slave of created things and defines his very being on the basis of possessing large numbers of these things rather than serving the Creator freely in acts of voluntary self-giving rendered unto Him as the consecrated slave of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. Worried about losing one's "security" in terms of  alleged material "wealth" and possessions, man can never relax and to enjoy the fruits of his labor as a foretaste of eternal glories. No, man must be concerned about expanding his "wealth" and making himself richer and richer all of the time, providing himself with an absolute assurance of financial security for an expected retirement and the subsequent use of said retirement to while his time away doing nothing profitable to the salvation of his soul, which he has assured himself is saved as a result of the success he has achieved in this passing world.

The abuses (fraud, worker exploitation, unsafe products that are advertised in a misleading manner, the manufacture and sale of products that are actually harmful to human lives even though they are advertised to preserve life and to promote good health, usury to finance the sale of goods that one cannot finance on his own) associated with unbridled Calvinist capitalism lead all too logically to calls for "reforms." If those calling for "reforms" of actual, real injustices do not recognize that Calvinism and all of its political and economic lies are the result of its reject of the patrimony of Catholicism, then those reforms will be founded in ideas and/or ideologies that are just as false and lead, ultimately, to the triumph of the State over man and his Natural Law right to private property. All forms of socialism, including Marxism-Leninism, are efforts on the part of those who consider themselves "enlightened" to make decisions as to how best to forcibly confiscate and then to redistribute private property to redress social injustices and thus to create the "better" and "more just" world. Efforts to redress the problems caused by Calvinist capitalism, therefore, lead to even worse exploitation and enslavement, although it should be noted that each of us is the slave to the interests of large multi-national corporations and their profiteering schemes that reduce us to mere cogs in a system founded solely upon material aggrandizement.

The Catholic Church has taught from time immemorial that man should live, as far as it possible (and it is not always possible), off of the land and to be satisfied with a sufficiency of means. Man has not been created to "expand wealth." He has been created by God to know, to love, and to serve Him in this life through the Catholic Church so as to get home to Him to Heaven after dying in a state of sanctifying grace. All of our efforts in this passing world, including the work we must do in this mortal life to support ourselves, must be done with a view to eternity, understanding that none of us is assured of his eternal salvation. Each of us must work by the sweat of our brows to provide for our own needs and to labor assiduously for the salvation of our own souls.

Adam and Eve were given a sufficiency of means in the Garden of Eden to sustain themselves. Adam worked without sweat prior His fall from Grace. He worked as a gardener, tilling the soil in the Garden of Eden, which is why Our Lord manifested Himself as a gardener to Saint Mary Magdalene after His Resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday. Our Lord means to till the garden of souls unto eternity.  He gives us a sufficiency of means--the graces He won for us by the shedding of every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross--to save our souls, just as He wants us to be satisfied with a sufficiency of the means of this earth to support ourselves as we work out our salvation in fear and in trembling. Our lives should not be defined by the endless pursuit of material "wealth," such as it is defined in today's bogus monetary system, but by working hard at the use of the talents given to us to help provide for our own needs--and those of others-while we seek to store up treasure in Heaven.

Our Lord had this to say in the Sermon on the Mount:

Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also.

The light of thy body is they eye. If thy eye be single, they whole body shall be lightsome. But if thy eye be evil they whole body shall be darksome. If then the light that is in thee, be darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be!

No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Therefore, I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment? Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit?

And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. And if the grass of the field, which is to day, and tomorrow cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith?

Be not solicitous therefore, saying, What shall we eat" or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? for after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of these things.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for yourself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. (Mt. 6: 19-34)

Saint Joseph, therefore, is the model of artisans and all who work for a living. The foster-father of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made Man in Our Lady's virginal and immaculate womb worked hard for the honor and glory of God at his chosen field of carpentry, teaching his foster-Son to learn to do as Man those things that He had ordained from all eternity as God for man to do. Saint Joseph had the singular privilege of teaching Our Lord in His Sacred Humanity to work with the very material He had created, wood, with which He would refashion us on the wood of the Holy Cross. Saint Joseph is thus the model of excellence in one's labors for the honor and glory of God and for the good of his fellow-man.

Content with a sufficiency of the means of this mortal life, Saint Joseph charged a just sum for his work, seeking neither to enrich himself nor to gouge his customers. Contrary to those who are slaves to the amoral tyranny of "market forces," Saint Joseph was content to live in Holy Poverty and to have enough to support His family without storing up for himself treasures in this passing world. It must be so for each one of us.

Sharing One's Bounty

The Catholic Church does not condemn those who have come by material wealth honestly. Not at all. His friends in Bethany, that is, Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene, were wealthy. The Catholic Church, keeping with the example and teaching of her Divine Bridegroom, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, exhorts everyone the wealthy to be detached from their wealth and possessions, recognizing that they come from talents God has bestowed upon them and then they can be taken away in an instant, as happened in the case of Holy Job:

God hath shut me up with the unjust man, and hath delivered me into the hands of the wicked. I that was formerly so wealth, am all of sudden broken to pieces: he hath taken me by the neck, he hath broken me, and hath set me up to be his mark. He hath compassed me round about with loins, he heath not spared, and hath poured out my bowels on the earth. He hath torn me with wound upon wound, he hath rushed in upon me like a giant. (Job 16: 12-15)

All of our material goods can be wiped away in an instant. A flood, a fire, a tornado, an earthquake, or some other unexpected disaster, whether natural or man-made, could wipe out all of our precious possessions. So what? Are our souls in a state of sanctifying grace? Are we prepared to suffer the loss of everything, including all of our goods, to save our souls? What matter is it then, that disaster fall upon us and we lose the things of this passing earth?

Those who have been blessed with the riches of this world are called to be detached from those riches and to use at least ten percent of their wealth annually in behalf of the advancement of the salvation of souls. This does not mean that a Catholic has the obligation to support his local Novus Ordo diocese or parish or some religious community that is infested with perverts. Not at all. It means, however, that each man must, according to the degree possible--but especially for those who have been given a bounty of this world's resources, share what God has bestowed upon him with others, after providing for his own family's needs.

Pope Leo XIII noted this exact point in Rerum Novarum:

But the Church, with Jesus Christ as her Master and Guide, aims higher still. She lays down precepts yet more perfect, and tries to bind class to class in friendliness and good feeling. The things of earth cannot be understood or valued aright without taking into consideration the life to come, the life that will know no death. Exclude the idea of futurity, and forthwith the very notion of what is good and right would perish; nay, the whole scheme of the universe would become a dark and unfathomable mystery. The great truth which we learn from nature herself is also the grand Christian dogma on which religion rests as on its foundation -- that, when we have given up this present life, then shall we really begin to live. God has not created us for the perishable and transitory things of earth, but for things heavenly and everlasting; He has given us this world as a place of exile, and not as our abiding place. As for riches and the other things which men call good and desirable, whether we have them in abundance, or are lacking in them -- so far as eternal happiness is concerned -- it makes no difference; the only important thing is to use them aright. Jesus Christ, when He redeemed us with plentiful redemption, took not away the pains and sorrows which in such large proportion are woven together in the web of our mortal life. He transformed them into motives of virtue and occasions of merit; and no man can hope for eternal reward unless he follow in the blood-stained footprints of his Savior. "If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him." Christ's labors and sufferings, accepted of His own free will, have marvelously sweetened all suffering and all labor. And not only by His example, but by His grace and by the hope held forth of everlasting recompense, has He made pain and grief more easy to endure; "for that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory."

Therefore, those whom fortune favors are warned that riches do not bring freedom from sorrow and are of no avail for eternal happiness, but rather are obstacles; that the rich should tremble at the threatenings of Jesus Christ -- threatenings so unwonted in the mouth of our Lord -- and that a most strict account must be given to the Supreme Judge for all we possess. The chief and most excellent rule for the right use of money is one the heathen philosophers hinted at, but which the Church has traced out clearly, and has not only made known to men's minds, but has impressed upon their lives. It rests on the principle that it is one thing to have a right to the possession of money and another to have a right to use money as one ills. Private ownership, as we have seen, is the natural right of man, and to exercise that right, especially as members of society, is not only lawful, but absolutely necessary. "It is lawful," says St. Thomas Aquinas, "for a man to hold private property; and it is also necessary for the carrying on of human existence.'' But if the question be asked: How must one's possessions be used? -- the Church replies without hesitation in he words of the same holy Doctor: "Man should not consider his material possessions as his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need. Whence the apostle saith, 'Command the rich of this world . . to offer with no stint, to apportion largely'." True, no one is commanded to distribute to others that which is required for his own needs and those of his household; nor even to give away what is reasonably required to keep up becomingly his condition in life, "for no one ought to live other than becomingly." But, when what necessity demands has been supplied, and one's standing fairly taken thought for, it becomes a duty to give to the indigent out of what remains over. "Of that which remaineth, give alms."[14] It is duty, not of justice (save in extreme cases), but of Christian charity -- a duty not enforced by human law. But the laws and judgments of men must yield place to the laws and judgments of Christ the true God, who in many ways urges on His followers the practice of almsgiving -- "It is more blessed to give than to receive"; and who will count a kindness done or refused to the poor as done or refused to Himself -- "As long as you did it to one of My least brethren you did it to Me."  To sum up, then, what has been said: Whoever has received from the divine bounty a large share of temporal blessings, whether they be external and material, or gifts of the mind, has received them for the purpose of using them for the perfecting of his own nature, and, at the same time, that he may employ them, as the steward of God's providence, for the benefit of others. "He that hath a talent," said St. Gregory the Great, "let him see that he hide it not; he that hath abundance, let him quicken himself to mercy and generosity; he that hath art and skill, let him do his best to share the use and the utility hereof with his neighbor."

As for those who possess not the gifts of fortune, they are taught by the Church that in God's sight poverty is no disgrace, and that there is nothing to be ashamed of in earning their bread by labor. This is enforced by what we see in Christ Himself, who, "whereas He was rich, for our sakes became poor''; and who, being the Son of God, and God Himself, chose to seem and to be considered the son of a carpenter -- nay, did not disdain to spend a great part of His life as a carpenter Himself. "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?"

From contemplation of this divine Model, it is more easy to understand that the true worth and nobility of man lie in his moral qualities, that is, in virtue; that virtue is, moreover, the common inheritance of men, equally within the reach of high and low, rich and poor; and that virtue, and virtue alone, wherever found, will be followed by the rewards of everlasting happiness. Nay, God Himself seems to incline rather to those who suffer misfortune; for Jesus Christ calls the poor "blessed"; He lovingly invites those in labor and grief to come to Him for solace; and He displays the tenderest charity toward the lowly and the oppressed. These reflections cannot fail to keep down the pride of the well-to-do, and to give heart to the unfortunate; to move the former to be generous and the latter to be moderate in their desires. Thus, the separation which pride would set up tends to disappear, nor will it be difficult to make rich and poor join hands in friendly concord.

The Seventh Commandment imposes obligations upon the wealthy and prosperous to be generous with the bounty God has bestowed upon them. It also calls upon the poor not to seek after being wealthy as an ultimate end in and of itself. While those who are deprived of the means of this world must strive to assist themselves to provide for their needs, as far as they are physically able to do so, they must not believe that their "liberation" or "salvation" will come from "hitting the lottery jackpot," thereby being predisposed to spend fistfuls of disposable income in state-sponsored gambling. Those who have the things of this passing earth must recognize the fleeting nature of their wealth; those who have not the things this passing earth must strive all the more for the richness of an unending Easter Sunday in Paradise. We are not here to collect "toys" and other trinkets. We are here to gain eternal merit for our immortal souls by cooperating with the graces won for us by the shedding of every single drop of Our Lord's Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross and that flows to us through the hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of all graces.

Man has the right to private property. He has the right to enjoy the fruits of his labors. He has the right to legitimate leisure pursuits and to a time of rest from his labors. Man also has the obligation to use the fruits of his labors so that they will store up for himself merit in Heaven and will demonstrate that He loves the things of the Faith more than the things of this passing world, which is why he will spend much time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and to the Mother of God, especially through her Most Holy Rosary.

The "New Things" That Have Taken Man off of the Land and Made Him a Wage-Slave

The modern economic and monetary systems have taken man off of the land and made him a wage-slave, working long hours to satisfy the whims of those who live only for the corporate "bottom line." Although only a small percentage of men actually work in the old industrial factories that sprung up by the beginning of the Eighteenth Century in England, they are nevertheless confined to offices and cubicles to do the bidding of their masters, most of whom would ship their jobs to other countries in a heartbeat, depriving them of their pensions and benefits, if they believed that the corporate"bottom line" necessitated doing so.

The modern economic system was made possible in large part as a result of the laws passed in England following King Henry VIII's break from Rome in 1534 to force tenant farmers off of the lands of monasteries and convents, each of which was seized by the brute force of the state to be distributed to Henry Tudor's political allies to aggrandize them and thus make them ever more dependent upon him for their material largesse. The people who lived and worked on the monastery and convent lands paid a nominal sum to the monasteries and convents and gave over a portion of the yield from their tenant farms to the monks and nuns. They had the right to live in perpetuity on those lands, bringing forth large families who lived in peace and security. Many vocations to the priesthood and to the consecrated religious life were fostered as a result. Entire families had ready access to the daily offering of the Immemorial Mass of Tradition and to the support that could be offered them by their fellow tenant-farmers and by the monks and nuns.

Many of those who were dispossessed by the unjust laws passed by the English Parliament at the behest of King Henry VIII fled to urban centers to find some kind of work. It was the descendants of these dispossessed people, whose families had lived for centuries on the monastery and the convent lands, who were among the first to be recruited by the descendants of those who had been made wealthy by the seizure and redistribution of those monastery and convent lands to be exploited in the industrial factories of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. The entire fabric of the engine of the modern economy  in England was founded on an exploitation of dispossessed Catholics, who became the wage-slaves of the descendants of those who sold out the true Faith in order to acquire wealth and to enjoy great favor and prestige in this passing life.

A little phrase from Chapter 16 of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew comes to mind here:

For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul? (Mt. 16: 26)

Entire books have been written on the injustices of the contemporary economic order that has its roots in Calvinism and the English Protestant Revolt. Our situation is what it is, however. Catholics find themselves living and working in a world shaped by the realities of the profit-motive and "market forces." Those Catholics, therefore, who cannot support themselves on the land and who find themselves enmeshed in the midst of this diabolical system, which has impoverished man spiritually while seeming to enrich him materially, must find some way over the course of time to extricate themselves from a system that is not of God and leads to unbridled self-seeking.

Certainly, there have been and continue to be Catholics who have been fine entrepreneurs, men and women who have paid a living wage to their employees. What is the living wage? Well, the living wage is not a particular sum/ It is the amount necessary to pay the principal breadwinner of the family, which is meant to be the husband and the father in the Order of Creation and in the Order of Redemption, enough so that he can support his family adequately without forcing his wife to to work to help in the support of the family. Pope Pius XI noted this in Quadragesimo Anno:

In the first place, the worker must be paid a wage sufficient to support him and his family. That the rest of the family should also contribute to the common support, according to the capacity of each, is certainly right, as can be observed especially in the families of farmers, but also in the families of many craftsmen and small shopkeepers. But to abuse the years of childhood and the limited strength of women is grossly wrong. Mothers, concentrating on household duties, should work primarily in the home or in its immediate vicinity. It is an intolerable abuse, and to be abolished at all cost, for mothers on account of the father's low wage to be forced to engage in gainful occupations outside the home to the neglect of their proper cares and duties, especially the training of children. Every effort must therefore be made that fathers of families receive a wage large enough to meet ordinary family needs adequately. But if this cannot always be done under existing circumstances, social justice demands that changes be introduced as soon as possible whereby such a wage will be assured to every adult workingman. It will not be out of place here to render merited praise to all, who with a wise and useful purpose, have tried and tested various ways of adjusting the pay for work to family burdens in such a way that, as these increase, the former may be raised and indeed, if the contingency arises, there may be enough to meet extraordinary needs.

There have been many Catholic entrepreneurs who have fulfilled this precept of Catholic social teaching and treated their employees as fellow redeemed creatures. And, yes there have been and continue to be Catholic workers who have worked hard for the honor and glory of God, being careful to avoid sloth and to give a honest day of work for the wages paid to them. No criticism of the false foundations of the modern economic system can in the least detract from the heroic efforts of many Catholics to try to apply the principles of Catholic Social Teaching to the realities of the situations in which they have found themselves.

Moreover, Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum and Pope Pius XI's Quadragesimo Anno, May 15, 1931, have attempted to apply the immutable teaching of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to these realities, mindful that men cannot easily extricate themselves from situations which arose as a result of forces intent on breaking up the family and making man the slave of the savage forces of profit and the "market." These popes have reminded Catholics that there is never a moment in any aspect of human life, including the economic realm, where the truths of the Divine Redeemer do not apply. Consider the words of Pope Pius XI in Quadragesimo Anno:

And so, Venerable Brethren and Beloved Sons, having surveyed the present economic system, We have found it laboring under the gravest of evils. We have also summoned Communism and Socialism again to judgment and have found all their forms, even the most modified, to wander far from the precepts of the Gospel.

"Wherefore," to use the words of Our Predecessor, "if human society is to be healed, only a return to Christian life and institutions will heal it." For this alone can provide effective remedy for that excessive care for passing things that is the origin of all vices; and this alone can draw away men's eyes, fascinated by and wholly fixed on the changing things of the world, and raise them toward Heaven. Who would deny that human society is in most urgent need of this cure now?

Minds of all, it is true, are affected almost solely by temporal upheavals, disasters, and calamities. But if we examine things critically with Christian eyes, as we should, what are all these compared with the loss of souls? Yet it is not rash by any means to say that the whole scheme of social and economic life is now such as to put in the way of vast numbers of mankind most serious obstacles which prevent them from caring for the one thing necessary; namely, their eternal salvation .

We, made Shepherd and Protector by the Prince of Shepherds, Who Redeemed them by His Blood, of a truly innumerable flock, cannot hold back Our tears when contemplating this greatest of their dangers. Nay rather, fully mindful of Our pastoral office and with paternal solicitude, We are continually meditating on how We can help them; and We have summoned to Our aid the untiring zeal of others who are concerned on grounds of justice or charity. For what will it profit men to become expert in more wisely using their wealth, even to gaining the whole world, if thereby they suffer the loss of their souls? What will it profit to teach them sound principles of economic life if in unbridled and sordid greed they let themselves be swept away by their passion for property, so that "hearing the commandments of the Lord they do all things contrary."

The root and font of this defection in economic and social life from the Christian law, and of the consequent apostasy of great numbers of workers from the Catholic faith, are the disordered passions of the soul, the sad result of original sin which has so destroyed the wonderful harmony of man's faculties that, easily led astray by his evil desires, he is strongly incited to prefer the passing goods of this world to the lasting goods of Heaven. Hence arises that unquenchable thirst for riches and temporal goods, which has at all times impelled men to break God's laws and trample upon the rights of their neighbors, but which, on account of the present system of economic life, is laying far more numerous snares for human frailty. Since the instability of economic life, and especially of its structure, exacts of those engaged in it most intense and unceasing effort, some have become so hardened to the stings of conscience as to hold that they are allowed, in any manner whatsoever, to increase their profits and use means, fair or foul, to protect their hard-won wealth against sudden changes of fortune. The easy gains that a market unrestricted by any law opens to everybody attracts large numbers to buying and selling goods, and they, their one aim being to make quick profits with the least expenditure of work, raise or lower prices by their uncontrolled business dealings so rapidly according to their own caprice and greed that they nullify the wisest forecasts of producers. The laws passed to promote corporate business, while dividing and limiting the risk of business, have given occasion to the most sordid license. For We observe that consciences are little affected by this reduced obligation of accountability; that furthermore, by hiding under the shelter of a joint name, the worst of injustices and frauds are penetrated; and that, too, directors of business companies, forgetful of their trust, betray the rights of those whose savings they have undertaken to administer. Lastly, We must not omit to mention those crafty men who, wholly unconcerned about any honest usefulness of their work, do not scruple to stimulate the baser human desires and, when they are aroused, use them for their own profit.

Strict and watchful moral restraint enforced vigorously by governmental authority could have banished these enormous evils and even forestalled them; this restraint, however, has too often been sadly lacking. For since the seeds of a new form of economy were bursting forth just when the principles of rationalism had been implanted and rooted in many minds, there quickly developed a body of economic teaching far removed from the true moral law, and, as a result, completely free rein was given to human passions.

Thus it came to pass that many, much more than ever before, were solely concerned with increasing their wealth by any means whatsoever, and that in seeking their own selfish interests before everything else they had no conscience about committing even the gravest of crimes against others. Those first entering upon this broad way that leads to destruction easily found numerous imitators of their iniquity by the example of their manifest success, by their insolent display of wealth, by their ridiculing the conscience of others, who, as they said, were troubled by silly scruples, or lastly by crushing more conscientious competitors.

With the rulers of economic life abandoning the right road, it was easy for the rank and file of workers everywhere to rush headlong also into the same chasm; and all the more so, because very many managements treated their workers like mere tools, with no concern at all for their souls, without indeed even the least thought of spiritual things. Truly the mind shudders at the thought of the grave dangers to which the morals of workers (particularly younger workers) and the modesty of girls and women are exposed in modern factories; when we recall how often the present economic scheme, and particularly the shameful housing conditions, create obstacles to the family bond and normal family life; when we remember how many obstacles are put in the way of the proper observance of Sundays and Holy Days; and when we reflect upon the universal weakening of that truly Christian sense through which even rude and unlettered men were wont to value higher things, and upon its substitution by the single preoccupation of getting in any way whatsoever one's daily bread. And thus bodily labor, which Divine Providence decreed to be performed, even after original sin, for the good at once of man's body and soul, is being everywhere changed into an instrument of perversion; for dead matter comes forth from the factory ennobled, while men there are corrupted and degraded.

No genuine cure can be furnished for this lamentable ruin of souls, which, so long as it continues, will frustrate all efforts to regenerate society, unless men return openly and sincerely to the teaching of the Gospel, to the precepts of Him Who alone has the words of everlasting life,words which will never pass away, even if Heaven and earth will pass away. All experts in social problems are seeking eagerly a structure so fashioned in accordance with the norms of reason that it can lead economic life back to sound and right order. But this order, which We Ourselves ardently long for and with all Our efforts promote, will be wholly defective and incomplete unless all the activities of men harmoniously unite to imitate and attain, in so far as it lies within human strength, the marvelous unity of the Divine plan. We mean that perfect order which the Church with great force and power preaches and which right human reason itself demands, that all things be directed to God as the first and supreme end of all created activity, and that all created good under God be considered as mere instruments to be used only in so far as they conduce to the attainment of the supreme end. Nor is it to be thought that gainful occupations are thereby belittled or judged less consonant with human dignity; on the contrary, we are taught to recognize in them with reverence the manifest will of the Divine Creator Who placed man upon the earth to work it and use it in a multitude of ways for his needs. Those who are engaged in producing goods, therefore, are not forbidden to increase their fortune in a just and lawful manner; for it is only fair that he who renders service to the community and makes it richer should also, through the increased wealth of the community, be made richer himself according to his position, provided that all these things be sought with due respect for the laws of God and without impairing the rights of others and that they be employed in accordance with faith and right reason. If these principles are observed by everyone, everywhere, and always, not only the production and acquisition of goods but also the use of wealth, which now is seen to be so often contrary to right order, will be brought back soon within the bounds of equity and just distribution. The sordid love of wealth, which is the shame and great sin of our age, will be opposed in actual fact by the gentle yet effective law of Christian moderation which commands man to seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice, with the assurance that, by virtue of God's kindness and unfailing promise, temporal goods also, in so far as he has need of them, shall be given him besides.

But in effecting all this, the law of charity, "which is the bond of perfection," must always take a leading role. How completely deceived, therefore, are those rash reformers who concern themselves with the enforcement of justice alone -- and this, commutative justice -- and in their pride reject the assistance of charity! Admittedly, no vicarious charity can substitute for justice which is due as an obligation and is wrongfully denied. Yet even supposing that everyone should finally receive all that is due him, the widest field for charity will always remain open. For justice alone can, if faithfully observed, remove the causes of social conflict but can never bring about union of minds and hearts. Indeed all the institutions for the establishment of peace and the promotion of mutual help among men, however perfect these may seem, have the principal foundation of their stability in the mutual bond of minds and hearts whereby the members are united with one another. If this bond is lacking, the best of regulations come to naught, as we have learned by too frequent experience. And so, then only will true cooperation be possible for a single common good when the constituent parts of society deeply feel themselves members of one great family and children of the same Heavenly Father; nay, that they are one body in Christ, "but severally members one of another,"so that "if one member suffers anything, all the members suffer with it." For then the rich and others in positions of power will change their former indifference toward their poorer brothers into a solicitous and active love, listen with kindliness to their just demands, and freely forgive their possible mistakes and faults. And the workers, sincerely putting aside every feeling of hatred or envy which the promoters of social conflict so cunningly exploit, will not only accept without rancor the place in human society assigned them by Divine Providence, but rather will hold it in esteem, knowing well that everyone according to his function and duty is toiling usefully and honorably for the common good and is following closely in the footsteps of Him Who, being in the form of God, willed to be a carpenter among men and be known as the son of a carpenter.

Therefore, out of this new diffusion throughout the world of the spirit of the Gospel, which is the spirit of Christian moderation and universal charity, We are confident there will come that longed-for and full restoration of human society in Christ, and that "Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ," to accomplish which, from the very beginning of Our Pontificate, We firmly determined and resolved within Our heart to devote all Our care and all Our pastoral solicitude, and toward this same highly important and most necessary end now, you also, Venerable Brethren, who with Vs rule the Church of God under the mandate of the Holy Ghost, are earnestly toiling with wholly praiseworthy zeal in all parts of the world, even in the regions of the holy missions to the infidels. Let well-merited acclamations of praise be bestowed upon you and at the same time upon all those, both clergy and laity, who We rejoice to see, are daily participating and valiantly helping in this same great work, Our beloved sons engaged in Catholic Action, who with a singular zeal are undertaking with Us the solution of the social problems in so far as by virtue of her divine institution this is proper to and devolves upon the Church. All these We urge in the Lord, again and again, to spare no labors and let no difficulties conquer them, but rather to become day by day more courageous and more valiant. Arduous indeed is the task which We propose to them, for We know well that on both sides, both among the upper and the lower classes of society, there are many obstacles and barriers to be overcome. Let them not, however, lose heart; to face bitter combats is a mark of Christians, and to endure grave labors to the end is a mark of them who, as good soldiers of Christ, follow Him closely.

Relying therefore solely on the all-powerful aid of Him "Who wishes all men to be saved," let us strive with all our strength to help those unhappy souls who have turned from God and, drawing them away from the temporal cares in which they are too deeply immersed, let us teach them to aspire with confidence to the things that are eternal. Sometimes this will be achieved much more easily than seems possible at first sight to expect. For if wonderful spiritual forces lie hidden, like sparks beneath ashes, within the secret recesses of even the most abandoned man -- certain proof that his soul is naturally Christian -- how much the more in the hearts of those many upon many who have been led into error rather through ignorance or environment.

Moreover, the ranks of the workers themselves are already giving happy and promising signs of a social reconstruction. To Our soul's great joy, We see in these ranks also the massed companies of young workers, who are receiving the counsel of Divine Grace with willing ears and striving with marvelous zeal to gain their comrades for Christ. No less praise must be accorded to the leaders of workers' organizations who, disregarding their own personal advantage and concerned solely about the good of their fellow members, are striving prudently to harmonize the just demands of their members with the prosperity of their whole occupation and also to promote these demands, and who do not let themselves be deterred from so noble a service by any obstacle or suspicion. Also, as anyone may see, many young men, who by reason of their talent or wealth will soon occupy high places among the leaders of society, are studying social problems with deeper interest, and they arouse the joyful hope that they will dedicate themselves wholly to the restoration of society.

The present state of affairs, Venerable Brethren, clearly indicates the way in which We ought to proceed. For We are now confronted, as more than once before in the history of the Church, with a world that in large part has almost fallen back into paganism. That these whole classes of men may be brought back to Christ Whom they have denied, we must recruit and train from among them, themselves, auxiliary soldiers of the Church who know them well and their minds and wishes, and can reach their hearts with a tender brotherly love. The first and immediate apostles to the workers ought to be workers; the apostles to those who follow industry and trade ought to be from among them themselves.

The Seventh Commandment, therefore, deals with far more than simply forbidding theft. It deals with the just use of private property. Private property is a right of man. However, that right is not absolute. It must be used according to the laws of God and with a view to both the common good of man in this passing world and his eternal good, that is, of his salvation as a member of the Catholic Church. The world in which we live is in the grip of the devil, having been formed as a result of the devil's triumph in convincing former Catholics to break from the true Church and to foster a New World Order based upon self-interest and greed, which has led to the triumph of the unjust exercise of state power to forcibly confiscate and redistribute wealth and property on the basis of all manner of ideologies reliant upon some form of social engineering.

The depth of depravity of this New World Order, begotten of Protestantism and brought to its perfection in degeneracy by Judeo-Masonry, can be seen in George O'Brien's An Essay on the Economic Effects of the Reformation (IHS Press, Norfolk, Virginia, 2003):

The thesis we have endeavoured to present in this essay is, that the two great dominating schools of modern economic thought have a common origin. The capitalist school, which, basing its position on the unfettered right of the individual to do what he will with his own, demands the restriction of government interference in economic and social affairs within the narrowest  possible limits, and the socialist school, which, basing its position on the complete subordination of the individual to society, demands the socialization of all the means of production, if not all of wealth, face each other today as the only two solutions of the social question; they are bitterly hostile towards each other, and mutually intolerant and each is at the same weakened and provoked by the other. In one respect, and in one respect only, are they identical--they can both be shown to be the result of the Protestant Reformation.

We have seen the direct connection which exists between these modern schools of economic thought and their common ancestor. Capitalism found its roots in the intensely individualistic spirit of Protestantism, in the spread of anti-authoritative ideas from the realm of religion into the realm of political and social thought, and, above all, in the distinctive Calvinist doctrine of a successful and prosperous career being the outward and visible sign by which the regenerated might be known. Socialism, on the other hand, derived encouragement from the violations of established and prescriptive rights of which the Reformation afforded so many examples, from the growth of heretical sects tainted with Communism, and from the overthrow of the orthodox doctrine on original sin, which opened the way to the idea of the perfectibility of man through institutions. But, apart from these direct influences, there were others, indirect, but equally important. Both these great schools of economic thought are characterized by exaggerations and excesses; the one lays too great stress on the importance of the individual, and other on the importance of the community; they are both departures, in opposite directions, from the correct mean of reconciliation and of individual liberty with social solidarity. These excesses and exaggerations are the result of the free play of private judgment unguided by authority, and could not have occurred if Europe had continued to recognize an infallible central authority in ethical affairs.

The science of economics is the science of men's relations with one another in the domain of acquiring and disposing of wealth, and is, therefore, like political science in another sphere, a branch of the science of ethics. In the Middle Ages, man's ethical conduct, like his religious conduct, was under the supervision and guidance of a single authority, which claimed at the same time the right to define and to enforce its teaching. The machinery for enforcing the observance of medieval ethical teaching was of a singularly effective kind; pressure was brought to bear upon the conscience of the individual through the medium of compulsory periodical consultations with a trained moral adviser, who was empowered to enforce obedience to his advice by the most potent spiritual sanctions. In this way, the whole conduct of man in relation to his neighbours was placed under the immediate guidance of the universally received ethical preceptor, and a common standard of action was ensured throughout the Christian world in the all the affairs of life. All economic transactions in particular were subject to the jealous scrutiny of the individual's spiritual director; and such matters as sales, loans, and so on, were considered reprehensible and punishable if not conducted in accordance with the Christian standards of commutative justice.

The whole of this elaborate system for the preservation of justice in the affairs of everyday life was shattered by the Reformation. The right of private judgment, which had first been asserted in matters of faith, rapidly spread into moral matters, and the attack on the dogmatic infallibility of the Church left Europe without an authority to which it could appeal on moral questions. The new Protestant churches were utterly unable to supply this want. The principle of private judgment on which they rested deprived them of any right to be listened to whenever they attempted to dictate moral precepts to their members, and henceforth the moral behaviour of the individual became a matter to be regulated by the promptings of his own conscience, or by such philosophical systems of ethics as he happened to approve. The secular state endeavoured to ensure that dishonesty amounting to actual theft or fraud should be kept in check, but this was a poor and ineffective substitute for the powerful weapon of the confessional. Authority having once broken down, it was but a single step from Protestantism to rationalism; and the way was opened to the development of all sorts of erroneous systems of morality.

Treatment of the Environment and of Animals

The Seventh Commandment requires us to be good stewards of the earth. While man is the master of the earth, which is here to serve his needs, he must not be a selfish pig and refuse to consider the consequences of his actions in his use of natural resources upon the life and health of other human beings. This is not "wako environmentalism," which is founded in pantheism, that is, the worship of nature. Man came from the dust of the earth and from the dust of the earth he is going to return. The earth is not our "mother" as the radical environmentalists, more properly referred to as contemporary pantheists, contend. The earth was created by God to serve our needs. There is, however, a responsibility on the man of part to use the resources of the world justly and commensurately, taking into view the legitimate economic advancement of man while taking reasonable measures to prevent against unnecessary spoliation, most of which is done to maximize profit and to minimize costs.

A Catholic must use the sensus Catholicus to measure a particular situation and to attempt to apply the legitimate insights of the physical sciences upon the effects of various projects on the environment against the common good sought by the undertaking of those projects. In other words, Catholics must apply the moral principle of proportionality, discussed in my treatment of the Fifth Commandment, to the use of natural resources. Will the foreseen evil consequences, if any, of a justified course of action outweigh the intended good sought by that action? That is the standard to be applied in the just use of natural resources, not raw profit and not market forces and not the pantheistic worship of nature.

Similarly, man must be a just steward of animals, which are given to us by God to serve our needs. Some feed us (yummy, yummy, yummy). Some clothe us. Some serve as our companions. Animals are subordinate to the needs of human beings.

Indeed, my late father was a veterinarian. I have great affection for animals. I spent my formative years helping my father at his veterinary hospital at 222-40 Jamaica Avenue, Queens Village, New York, the community in which my father grew up. We see the creative work of God in animals. God willed each of the species into existence in the first week of Creation, exactly as recorded in the Book of Genesis.

Animals, though, do not have rational, immortal souls. They cannot "love" us as they have no capacity to will our eternal good. They have natural instincts of devotion and loyalty. This is not the same as human love. Animals do not "think." They have associative intelligence, not rational intelligence. We cannot "love" them, although we use that word loosely to refer to our pets. We can have sentiments of affection for them, especially for our own pets and those of others, respecting the property rights of others. Animals do not "think" rationally. They have associative intelligence, not rational intelligence. We must not, therefore, engage in anthropomorphism, that is, the projecting of human thoughts and human characteristics into the minds and souls of animals. Lacking immortal souls and thus any capacity to offer up their sufferings to God through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, animals may be euthanized when they get old and disabled. (Yes, we are attached to our pets. This is not easy. Our own Laddie, a beagle we had for over fifteen years, had to be put to sleep on May 9, 1981, in Harlingen, Texas. My late father put many a dog to sleep during his years of private veterinary practice from 1946 to 1992. My mother told me over the phone at the time that it was very hard for my father to bring in Laddie to a fellow veterinarian. The poor dog has just become too crippled with arthritis. We can offer up such a loss, however, to God through Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. I can remember how hard it was for a one-time friend of mine to put his dog, "Peanuts," to sleep around 1986 or so. And that was a priest who felt the loss keenly!)

That having been noted, however, we must never treat any animal cruelly. Men have the right to hunt animals to feed and to clothe their families and to thin out herds that are threatening human habitation and crops. This is not cruelty, which is the deliberate desire to inflict pain and torture on an animal for the sake of making the animal suffer. Men have the right to kill animals that pose a direct menace to their families. How ironic it is that animals are more protected by the civil law in our perverse world than innocent human beings in their mothers' wombs--or disabled human beings after birth who are said to be "too burdensome" for parents or spouses or other relatives to sustain over the course of time. People get all upset about bear hunts in New Jersey each December while innocent babies are assassinated by chemical and surgical means every single day under cover of law. This is yet another inversion of reality and an attribution to dumb animals of "rights," which belong properly only to God and to His rational creatures.

Having reviewed in a very cursory and summary form some of the elements of the Seventh Commandment as regards the right to private property and the just use thereof in light of our eternal destiny, therefore, the next part of this series will review the various forms of theft that take place in the world, including corporate and state theft of private property, and how the sensus Catholicus teaches us not to covet the goods of others (the Tenth Commandment) and that we must respect the legitimate property rights of others as a fundamental command from God Himself while being content with our own sufficiency of means.

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 Anselm, pray for us.

Saint Peter Damien, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint John Bosco, 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.