Catechism paragraphs
2514 - 2557
You shall not covet
your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his
manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your
neighbors. Ex 20:17
The Ninth and Tenth Commandments at their heart are about
greed, excesses of what we want. It is
good for man to have sexual desires or desires for things, but there is a line
which can be crossed, whether we desire too much for ourselves or are envious
of what our neighbor has. These
commandments have to do with temperance and modesty, limits on our wants.
“The spiritual tradition of the Church also emphasizes the heart,
in the biblical sense of the depths of one’s being, where the person decides
for or against God. 358 The heart is the seat
of moral personality: ‘Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery,
fornication’ (Mt 15:19) … The struggle against carnal covetousness entails
purifying the heart and practicing temperance. 2517 The sixth beatitude proclaims, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God. ‘Pure in heart’
refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of
God’s holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity; chastity or sexual rectitude;
love of truth and orthodoxy of faith. 2518
Even now it enables us to see according to God, to accept others as ‘neighbors’;
it lets us perceive the human body – ours and our neighbor’s – as a temple of
the Holy Spirit, a manifestation of divine beauty.” 2519
“The baptized must continue to struggle against
concupiscence of the flesh and disordered desires. With God’s grace he will prevail: by the
virtue and gift of chastity, for chastity lets us love with upright and undivided
heart; by purity of intention which consists in seeking the true end of man; by
purity of vision, by refusing all complicity in impure thoughts; and by
prayer. 2520 Modesty means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden. It guides how one looks at others and behaves
toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons. Modesty is decency; it inspires one’s choice
of clothing. It keeps silence or reserve
where there is evident risk of unhealthy curiosity. 2521-2 Teaching modesty to
children and adolescents means awakening in them respect for the human
person. 2524 So-called moral permissiveness rests on an
erroneous conception of human freedom; the necessary precondition for the
development of true freedom is to let oneself be educated in the moral law.” 2526
“Envy is a capital sin.
It refers to the sadness at the sight of another’s goods and the
immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself, even unjustly. When it wishes harm to a neighbor it is a
mortal sin. 2539 Envy comes from pride; the baptized person
should train himself to live in humility.
2540 Man, tempted by the devil, let
his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed
God’s command. This is what man’s first
sin consisted of. 397 Jesus enjoins his
disciples to prefer him to everything and everyone, and bids them ‘renounce all
that (they have)’ for his sake and that of the Gospel (Lk 14:33). The precept of detachment from riches is
obligatory for entrance into the Kingdom of heaven. 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.’ 2544-5
The Lord grieves over the rich,
because they find their consolation in the abundance of goods. Trust in God is preparation for the
blessedness of the poor. They shall see
God. 2547 It remains for the
holy people to struggle, with graces from on high, to obtain the good things
God promises. In order to possess and
contemplate God, Christ’s faithful mortify their cravings and, with the grace
of God, prevail over the seductions of pleasure and power.” 2549
YOUCAT Q464 “What good is shame? Many young Christians live in an environment
where it is taken for granted that everything should be on display and people
are systematically trained to ignore feelings of shame. But shamelessness is inhuman. Animals experience no shame. In a human being, in contrast, it is an
essential feature. It does not hide
something inferior but rather protects something valuable, namely, the dignity
of the person in his capacity to love. Q466:
What is envy, and how can you
fight against it? Envy is sadness
and annoyance at the sight of another’s well-being … Envy decreases when we try to rejoice more
and more in the accomplishments and gifts of others. Hate no
one. Do not be jealous. Do not act out of envy. Do not love quarreling. Flee arrogance. (St. Benedict of Nursia)
This wraps up our reading and learning the section of the
catechism titled: Life in Christ. This section began with the beatitudes and
feelings of the heart, how we should desire to live good lives. The section ended with the Ten Commandments,
the underpinnings of the beatitudes. Accepting
these and obeying the call of these, together, this is living a Life in Christ.
The section we just finished heavily addressed how man is to
live in relation to man. Next we will
pursue the last of the four sections of the catechism: Christian Prayer --- how man is to live in
relation with God. This section talks
about prayer in general, and then the specific prayer Jesus taught us, the Our
Father. On a separate blog post I will
lay out the timing for proceeding through this section.
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