Tenth commandment teaches envy moves minds, hearts to commit even more terrible sins

Article 168 - Catechism of the Catholic Church Series, Paragraphs 2534-2550

Many of you may recall, as I do, the catechetical lessons of childhood. When my mom taught me the Ten Commandments, her explanation was simple: “These are God’s laws,” she explained. “By following them, we are preparing ourselves to be with God forever in Heaven.”  I would ask her: “What do we do in Heaven?” My mom would explain: “Oh it is beautiful…We kneel before God and worship Him for all eternity.” My response: “Forever? That sounds boring.” My mom would try to explain that God would make sure it would not be boring for us. I would mostly leave her lap unconvinced about “how” God would make it less boring, but quite convinced that following God’s Commandments would enable us to gain Heaven. 

Still, some of the Commandments were quite a challenge, including the Tenth, because I was often fixated on wanting something another child had but we could not afford. One such item was a bicycle with training wheels owned by a boy down the street. It might have been the tassel ribbons and streamers that caught my attention. In any case, I once spotted the bike left unattended near the sidewalk, so I figured I would “borrow” it, at least for a short ride, since the boy didn’t seem to appreciate what he had. My ride was quite short because my mom spotted me riding near our house. The bike was returned without damage and I learned how to apologize to a young contemporary that day. 

The Tenth Commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods” (Ex 20:17; Dt 5:21), teaches that we have a responsibility to respect the rights of others and forbids us from unjustly desiring, taking, keeping or damaging the property of others. We might understand this Commandment better if we distinguish between wanting our neighbors’ car (and doing everything in our power to take it) OR wanting a car like our neighbors (and doing our best to earn the money to purchase one). As the Catechism teaches: “It is not a violation of this Commandment to desire to obtain things that belong to one’s neighbor, provided this is done by just means” (ccc 2537). 

In commenting on the Tenth Commandment, the Catechism explains further that it “forbids greed and the desire to amass earthly goods without limit…It also forbids the desire to commit injustice by harming our neighbor in his temporal goods” (ccc 2536). The same paragraph goes on to explain: When the Law says, “You shall not covet,” these words mean that we should banish our desires for whatever does not belong to us. Our thirst for another’s goods is immense, infinite, never quenched. Hence it is written: “He who loves money never has money enough” (ccc 2536). In short, “the Tenth Commandment requires [thus] that envy be banished from the human heart” (ccc 2538). Why? Because, “through the devil’s envy death entered the world” (Wis 2:24).

The next paragraph in the Catechism discusses “envy” as a “capital sin.” According to Catholic theology, capital sins or deadly sins such as “envy” move minds and hearts to commit even more terrible sins. In one of his homilies, quoted in the Catechism (ccc 2538), Early Church Father Saint John Chrysostom (347-407) observes: “We fight one another, and envy arms us against one another. . .If everyone strives to unsettle the Body of Christ, where shall we end up? We are engaged in making Christ’s Body a corpse.” A few years later, St. Augustine (354-430) describes envy as as “the diabolical sin” (ccc 2539). Finally, St. Gregory the Great (540-604) explains: “From envy are born hatred, detraction, calumny, joy caused by the misfortune of a neighbor, and displeasure caused by his prosperity” (ccc 2539). The Catechism concludes: “Envy represents a form of sadness and therefore a refusal of charity; the baptized person should struggle against it by exercising good will. Envy often comes from pride; the baptized person should train himself to live in humility” (ccc 2540).

The next section of the Catechism teaches the “desires of the Spirit.” God’s law and grace “turns men’s hearts away from avarice and envy. It initiates them into desire for the Sovereign Good; it instructs them in the desires of the Holy Spirit who satisfies man’s hearts” (ccc 2541). The next paragraph explains: “The gap between wanting and doing points to the conflict between God’s Law which is the ‘law of my mind,’ and another law ‘making me captive to the law of sin’ (ccc 2542). Therefore, as faith members of Christ’s body, we his children, are ‘led by the Spirit and [are called to] follow the desires of the Spirit” (ccc 2543). 

We are to love God above all others; “to prefer him to everything and everyone” (ccc 2544). We are to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Is this easy for us to do? Not necessarily. Is it possible? Absolutely! The Catechism counsels: “All Christ’s faithful are to ‘direct their affections rightly, lest they be hindered in their pursuit of perfect charity by the use of worldly things and by an adherence to riches which is contrary to the spirit of evangelical poverty” (ccc 2545). As Sacred Scripture teaches through the words of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Mt 5:3), and the Catechism concludes: “The Beatitudes reveal an order of happiness and grace, of beauty and peace” (ccc 2546). 

In his famous book, The City of God, Fourth Century theologian St. Augustine affirms: “God himself will be virtue’s reward…[the] greatest reward that could exist...we shall contemplate him without end, love him without surfeit, praise him without weariness.”

Father Hillier is director, diocesan Office of Pontifical Mission Societies, the Office for Persons with Disabilities, and Censor Luborum