| Msgr. Peter J. Vaghi
Title of Series: "Moral Life: Living the Hope Within Us"
Part 7: "The Seventh Commandment: Don't Steal -- Act with Justice and Love"
April 2nd, 2009
First Thursday
I have entitled this Lenten meditation “The 7th Commandment -- Don’t Steal: Act with Justice and Love.” The seventh commandment stated simply is “You shall not steal” and it is the third in a trilogy of commandments that are terse, direct and lack an explicit object. The prohibition against theft is akin to the prohibition against murder and adultery.
The church has greatly amplified its understanding of this commandment to include respect for the property of others, the commands of justice and charity with respect to others (i.e. the social teaching of the church) and the call to be faithful stewards of the goods of creation. “To keep this Commandment, we need to acquire the virtues of moderation in our possessions, justice in our treatment of others, respect for their human dignity, and solidarity with all peoples. Moderation curbs our attachments to worldly goods and restrains our appetite for consumerism. Justice helps us respect our neighbor’s rights and be interested in their human well-being. Solidarity opens our hearts to identifying with the whole human family, reminding us of our common humanity.” USCCA 419
My three-fold approach, as we have used in all of these meditations on the commandments, includes: l.) The Hebrew Understanding of the Commandment; 2.) The Effect of the Christ event and 3.) Some Practical Implications for Us. Let us begin.
I.)The Hebrew Understanding of the Commandment
At first glance, the commandment seems to be a simple prohibition against theft, i.e., the unlawful acquisition of the property and possessions of another person or group of persons. After all, simple theft was forbidden under Hebrew law and restitution was required.
From Exodus, we read: “If a thief is caught in the act of housebreaking and beaten to death, there is no bloodguilt involved. But if after sunrise he is thus beaten, there is bloodguilt. He must make full restitution. If he has nothing, he shall be sold to pay for his theft. If what he stole is found alive in his possession, be it an ox, an ass, or a sheep, he shall restore two animals for each one stolen. When a man is burning over a field or a vineyard, if he lets the fire spread so that it burns in another’s field, he must make restitution with the best produce of his own field or vineyard…When a man gives money or an article to another for safekeeping and it is stolen from the latter’s house, the thief, if caught, must make twofold restitution…” Exodus 22: 1-6
As in parts of the third world today, most people had few belongings. Unlawful theft could be devastating for survival. Hence restitution was an essential penalty. Generally, a thief had to pay twice the value and sometimes up to five times the value of the item stolen.
Upon closer scrutiny, however, it appears that the strictures of the seventh commandment, in the Hebrew mind and understanding, were more specific. At least originally, it was concerned not with property but specifically with relationships among people within the covenant community. The primary prohibition of the commandment is against man stealing (akin to kidnapping). In effect, it is a ban against enslavement. Deut 24:7 states that “If any man is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite in order to enslave him and sell him, the kidnaper shall be put to death.” (Ex 21:16) Like the commandments against murder and adultery, both were capital crimes and the penalty was death.
The best example of this kind of crime is found in Genesis 37:22-28. This speaks of the capture and sale of Joseph by his brothers to travelling Midianite traders. Genesis 40:15 speaks of him as “stolen out of the land of the Hebrews.” He became a slave in Egypt. The essential wrongness of this kind of “personal” theft is its enslaving quality -- the complete dominion or manipulation of one human being by another. Not unlike the second commandment -- the prohibition against taking the Lord’s name in vain (the improper use of God’s name or manipulating God for one’s personal use), the seventh commandment prohibition against man stealing is meant to stop the manipulation of one’s fellow man for person gain. This must always be seen within the covenant context, against attempted domination or manipulation of God or a fellow Israelite, a disruption of the relationship between a person and the community. One can understand theft seen initially (originally) in this light. After all, the Hebrews never forgot they were descendants of slaves themselves. The seventh commandment, understood at least initially as against slavery, was a permanent reminder, a reminder given them by Yahweh Himself.
In time, the form of the commandment, the Hebrew understanding of it, became more inclusive and the application broader, prohibiting property theft as well as the theft of human beings. The Hebrew verb “steal” began to be used with things or property as its object in addition to persons. Note, however, that the same policy considerations undergird the seventh commandment, even as its reach broadens, i.e. the manipulation, disruption, domination, enslavement, exploitation. Substantial domination is possible by controlling another’s property as well as by controlling another’s person.
Witness David’s appropriate rage, in 11 Sam 12:1-6, at hearing Nathan’s story of the rich person’s taking the single lamb of a poor man to avoid using his own. “David grew very angry with that man and said to Nathan: ‘As the Lord lives, the man who has done this merits death! He shall restore the ewe lamb fourfold because he has done this and has had no pity.’” II Sam 12:5-6
The theft of a single lamb was tantamount to stealing the poor man. It was in effect theft of all he had.
The safeguard on property thus protects for each person a sphere of moral self-supervision and self-determination against the threat of enslavement or exploitation. Note how the frequent reaction of persons who are victims to theft of property in their homes is a strong sense of having been personally violated. The joy and danger of having personal property is that it represents, to some extent, an extension of self. At its base, it is this understanding that the seventh commandment seeks to promote.
II.) The Effect of the Christ Event
In all three of the synoptic accounts of the story of the rich young man, Jesus makes the 7th commandment proscription against theft His own. “You shall not steal” is thus a part of Christ’s teaching also. ( Mt 19:18, Mk 10:19, Elk 18:20) From the Zacchaeus story, we know that restitution is also a part of Christ’s teaching. Jesus blesses Zacchaeus for his pledge: “If I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” Lk 19:8.
As if to highlight this proscription, in l Cor 6: 10, St. Paul adds further that neither “thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.” In Mt 24:43, underscoring His vigilance against thieves, Jesus tells the parable about the thief in the night saying: “If the owner knew when the thief was coming, he would keep a watchful eye and not allow the house to be broken into.” Finally, in contrast to the thieves and robbers who come to steal the sheep, Jesus says “The thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy, I came that they might have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) It is Jesus who gives us life by His ever-abiding grace in contrast to the thief, who like sin, is a conveyor of death and enslavement.
Perhaps the most lasting effect of the Christ event regarding the seventh commandment deals with the whole question of property, so often the object of theft, and its relationship to the dignity of the human person. Listen to the story of the rich young man with this in mind.
“Another time a man came up to him and said, ‘Teacher, what good must I do to possess everlasting life?’ He answered, ‘Why do you question me about what is good? There is One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ ‘Which one?’ he asked. Jesus replied, “ ‘You shall not kill’; ‘You shall not commit adultery’”; ‘You shall not steal’; ‘you shall not bear false witness’; ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” The young man said to him, “I have kept all these; what do I need to do further?” Jesus told him, “If you seek perfection, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor. You will then have treasure in heaven. Afterwards, come back and follow me.” Hearing these words, the young man went away sad, for his possessions were many.” Mt 19:16-23
“If you seek perfection, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor.” Mt 19: 21 The Gospel tells us the rich young man went away sad for he had many possessions. What is Jesus telling us about private property, our possessions?
“Here…is the point. Private property is not in the least wrong, when the owner of it remembers that he possesses it, not only to use it for himself, but also to use if for others. But private property is a kind of theft when a man uses it for nothing but his own pleasure and his own gratification, with never a thought for anyone else. It is not the property but the selfishness which constitutes the theft.” W. Barclay, The Ten Commandments For Today, 180
The misuse then of our property is the theft and violative of the seventh commandment. As with the other commandments, Jesus goes beyond the strict letter of the law despite the importance of it on its face. He taught the value of detachment, selfless detachment from material goods and urged that they be sacrificed for higher spiritual goods even if it means abandoning our livelihood to follow Jesus. “They immediately abandoned their nets and became His followers.” (Mt 4:20)
As followers of Jesus, we are exhorted always to seek first the Kingdom of God. “Do not lay up for yourselves an earthly treasure, Moths and rust corrode; thieves break in and steal. Make it your practice instead to store up heavenly treasure, which neither moths nor rust corrode nor thieves break in and steal. Remember, where your treasure is, there your heart is also.” Mt 6:19-21
This teaching helps us understand, after all, that the goods of creation belong to the whole human race. “In the beginning God entrusted the earth and its resources to the common stewardship of mankind to take care of them, master them by labor, and enjoy their fruits.” CCC 2402
Jesus’ admonition not “to lay up for yourselves an earthly treasure” and His counsel to the rich young man, and to each of us, to sell his and our possessions and give to the poor does not undercut the Church’s consistent teaching regarding the right to private property and its important relationship to the development of the human person. The catechism teaches that: “The ownership of any property makes its holder a steward of Providence, with the task of making it fruitful and communicating its benefits to others, first of all his family.” CCC 2404
Servant of God John Paul II writes in one of his social encyclical:
“In Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII strongly affirmed the natural character of the right to private property, using various arguments against the socialism of his time. This right, which is fundamental for the autonomy and development of the person, has always been defended by the Church up to our own day. At the same time, the Church teaches that the possession of material goods is not an absolute right, and that its limits are inscribed in its very nature as a human right.
While he Pope proclaimed the right to private ownership, he affirmed with equal clarity that the ‘use’ of goods, while marked by freedom, is subordinated to their original common destination as created goods, as well as to the will of Jesus Christ as expressed in the Gospel. Pope Leo wrote: ‘those whom fortune favours are admonished…that they should tremble at the warnings of Jesus Christ… and that a most strict account must be give to the Supreme Judge for the use of all they possess’; and quoting Saint Thomas Aquinas, he added; ‘But if the question be asked, how must one’s possessions be used? The Church replies without hesitation that man should not consider his material possessions as his own, but as common to all…’, because ‘above the laws and judgments of men stands the law, the judgment of Christ.’” Centesimus Annus 58
Jesus did not teach that the rich could not be saved. He taught that it would not be easy. Giving up material ownership for the sake of the Kingdom -- the way to “perfection” -- was a better thing. All followers of Jesus, each of us, should own property as if it were on loan from God. It was entrusted to us by Him. “The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness, the world and all its peoples.” (Psalm 24)
The Second Vatican Council teaches: “In his use of things man should regard the external goods he legitimately owns not merely as exclusive to himself but common to others also, in the sense they can benefit others as well as himself. Therefore every man has the right to possess a sufficient amount of the earth’s goods for himself and his family.” Gaudium et Spes 69
“Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise.” Lk 3:ll “St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this: ‘Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs.’” CCC 2446
Undue or illicit attachment to material goods can even lead to the loss of the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the teaching of Jesus -- His teaching about property as theft -- and how our enslavement to property undercuts our dignity as human persons and imperils our salvation.
Self worth--our own self worth -- should never be defined by net worth -- our net worth. You have heard it said that we are what we own. Jesus’ response is we are what we do with what we own. Above all, it is how we help the poor for “The Lord looks tenderly on those who are poor.” He blesses those who come to the aid of the poor. Love for the poor is even a motive for the duty to work in order to have something to share with the poor and needy.
Jesus thus deepens, as He has with the other commandments, our understanding of the seventh commandment by highlighting a more positive way to respect property, to see the duty to care for those in need of property and to appropriate a healthy detachment from our own property. “It commands justice and charity in the care of earthly goods and the fruits of men’s labor.” CCC 2401
III.) Some Practical Implications for Us
In his book entitled The Ten Commandments (Covenant of Love), Fr. Al McBride states that “there is plenty of stealing going on” today. (McBride, 126-27) So often, it is greed that fuels theft. As we see almost daily in the newspapers, greed is a very hard emotion to put in check. Our uncertain economic times have to a great extent been fueled by greed.
On a more personal level, you and I also experience theft from our neighborhood break ins, which are on the increase in these difficult economic times, to the white collar crimes -- the well publicized recent one that has destroyed Jewish philanthropy for an estimated 40 years -- computer thefts and so many inventive ways of theft. These are all violative of the 7th commandment.
In a previous book, Fr. McBride argues that, on a positive note, the seventh commandment celebrates the value of trust. He argues that “safe homes and neighborhoods arise from trust. A just society originates when the poor trust that they can achieve a decent way of life.” McBride, The Ten Commandments (Sounds of Love from Sinai), 94 There seems to be a great need to encourage and teach the value of trust in our society.
I mention three very practical areas where trust is violated and the seventh commandment is often broken in our lives. Three thefts -- l.) theft of time, 2.) theft of innocence and 3.) theft of a person’s character and good name. W. Barclay,The Ten Commandments For Today, 177-79
Theft of time includes starting late for work, leaving early, wasting time during the work day, padding one’s time sheets. Theft of innocence is based on the admonition of Jesus: “Whoever cause one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Mt 18:6 Theft of a person’s character and good name is stolen away in gossip at drinking fountains, while waiting to pick up our children and by the inappropriate use of the internet, blackberries and telephones. Such theft is almost impossible to undo.
Both the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults write about the 7th commandment in the context of the larger social teaching of the Church -- that “rich treasure of wisdom about building a just society and living lives of holiness amidst the challenges of a modern society.” USCCA 421 It is a body of teaching for which we can be justly proud.
In its section on the 7th commandment, the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults sets forth seven major and interrelated themes. In short order, and as a conclusion to these reflections, I wish to list them. They include:
1.)Life and Dignity of the Human Person.
This is foundational to our moral vision for society. We have studied how it is that this value is increasingly undercut: abortion, abuse of the death penalty, use of embryonic stem cells in research and assisted suicide to name the most obvious.
2.) Call to Family, Community and Participation
This underscores the “social” nature of a person. Often under attack, the family -- that central social institution -- is worth preserving and strengthening.
3.) Rights and Responsibilities
Each person has a fundamental right to life and a right for that which is required for human decency. Along with the rights are the duties and responsibilities for each other, our families and the greater society.
4.)Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
The needs of the poor and vulnerable must be put first, especially in this holy season of Lent. The story of the Last Judgment (Mt 25:31-46) reminds us that we will be judged depending on how we treated the “least” among us. St. John Chrysostom, referring to the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, challenges us in these memorable words: “Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are theirs, not ours.” USCCA 425 The Catholic Church, moreover, has demonstrated over and over again its incredible support for the poor and vulnerable throughout the world. What an incredible witness to the credibility of our faith!
5.)The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers
Work makes us co-creators with God. The Church has always been on the special side of workers arguing for their right to productive work, decent and fair wages and the right to organize and join unions.
6.) Solidarity
Increasingly we are challenged to understand the global and international consequences of our domestic economy with all the global and interdependent challenges and opportunities that produces.
7.) Care for the Environment
Our respect for our Creator is concretely demonstrated by our stewardship of creation. The environmental challenge has moral and ethical dimensions that cannot be ignored by any one of us. USCCA 422-424
These themes are starting points to help us see the proscription against theft in the broader social context.
The challenge to trust exists for each of us. The grace is available from God. Now must come our joyful response of faith. Quite simply: don’t steal. Act with justice and love.
Amen |
