| Msgr. Peter J. Vaghi
Title of Series: "Moral Life: Living the Hope Within Us"
Part 9: "The Ninth & Tenth Commandments: Purity and Poverty of Heart"
June 4th, 2009
First Thursday
It is hard to believe that we are at the end of another year of First Friday reflections. I thank you for your faithful attendance and am hopeful that this walk through the ten commandments has been helpful to your developing lives as followers of Jesus. Today we combine both the 9th and 10 commandments-- “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife and You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.” I have entitled this meditation the “The 9th and 10th Commandments: Challenges to Purity AND Poverty of Heart.” As usual, there is the three step approach: l.) The Hebrew understanding of the commandment; 2.) The Effect of the Christ Event on these commandments and 3.) Some Practical Implications for our time.
l.) The Hebrew Understanding of the Commandment
The proscription against coveting another’s wife or goods, in the Hebrew dispensation, was considered one commandment, not two separate commandments, as has come to be accepted in our Catholic tradition. In the Hebrew mind, our ninth and tenth commandment was their tenth commandment and we will treat them together in this section of my reflection.
In Exodus 20, the word “covet” is used twice. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass, nor anything else that belongs to him.” The word “covet” is used there first with respect to a neighbor’s house as object and second with respect to a neighbor’s wife. In Deut 5, in contrast, the word “covet” is used only once and with respect to a neighbor’s wife as object. In the second part of Deut’s version of this commandment, “not desire” is used and its object is the neighbor’s house etc. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not desire your neighbor’s house or field, nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass, nor anything that belongs to him.”
In biblical circles, there has been much discussion regarding the meaning of the word “covet.” In a nutshell, the question is whether the Hebrew word for “covet” means simply an emotion, an inordinate desire for something not one’s own, the disposition of an individual in the direction of the deed OR whether it must include the action that stems from the emotion. In the Hebrew language and culture, the distinction between cause and effect is often blurred. Often the desire and the resulting action are seen as a deep unity. The best synthesis, taking into account that the Exodus word for covet HAMAD and the Deuteronomic word HIT AWWEH, is that, for the Hebrew mind, desiring and the deed are closely related but not identical and not necessarily simultaneous acts. The emphasis of HAMAD falls on the emotion (desire) which often leads to a commensurate action; whereas the focus of HIT AWWEH rests on the emotion itself, the very strong desire, indeed the craving of something not one’s own.
The Hebrew understanding of “covet” thus does not necessarily apply active misappropriation . The mere fact that the verb HAMAD occasionally implies some act of seizure or the like is not to be understood that such an act must always belong to its proper meaning. Fundamentally, the commandment is thus a guard against an internal attitude or feeling that tends to erupt into public and violent acts against one’s neighbor.
Consider for a moment King Ahab’s coveting Naboth’s vineyard, his desire to have the adjourning property as his vegetable garden. It is an excellent example of how an inordinate inner feeling of envy or greed can lead to an act or acts commensurate with the desire and be violative of the 10th commandment. This is at the heart of the Hebrew understanding of the proscription against covetousness. Such inner feelings of envious and greedy desire--left unchecked--can lead to the violation of any and all the commandments against killing, adultery, stealing and false witness. This is precisely what happened in the story of Ahab’s coveting Naboth’s vineyard in I Kings 2l:17-29. When Naboth refused to give him the property, subsequent acts of false witness, judicial murder and royal confiscation (theft) took place. This did not find favor with Yahweh.
Or focus for a moment on the story of King David’s passion for Bathsheba. She is a married woman. Nonetheless, David seduces her. You know the story: how David places Bathsheba’s soldier-husband in the front line when he finds out she was pregnant by him. Her husband dies. This baby is born but becomes desperately ill. David repents, prays that the child will live. But the child dies.
Speaking of the underlying issue here, Fr. Al McBride writes:
“In his psalm of repentence, David does not talk about adultery or murder. He does not list his woeful behaviors. He talks about his heart because he knows that is where the real trouble lies. He knows perfectly well that adultery and murder are terrible acts, but he realizes it is far more important to get at the heart of the matter: ‘A clean heart create for me, God; renew in me a steadfast spirit. Do not drive me from your presence…Restore my joy in your salvation…(Psalm 51:12-13a,14a)’ Behavior modification, useful as it may be, will not solve David’s problem. He digs deeper and asks for a conversion of heart. He believes that God can make this happen, so he pleads for the creation of a clean heart. His new heart will bring him three things: a steadfast spirit, a constant union of love with God and joy of salvation.” McBride, Ten Commandments, Covenant of Love, 165.
It was David’s lust that led ultimately to the act of adultery--his coveting another man’s wife and, as with King Ahab in the previous example, it is that inner desire that is violative of this commandment.
II.) The Effect of the Christ Event on these Commandments
“The commandment (9th and 10th commandment in the Hebrew understanding) against coveting creates a bridge or inaugurates a trajectory leading directly to Jesus’ internalization of the commandments in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:21-30). The observation that feelings of anger and lust cannot be controlled in the same way in which murder and adultery can be controlled is to an extent true, but as a sole response to Jesus’ injunctions against those emotions this is inadequate. Already in the commandment against coveting the clear connection between internal feelings and external acts, between private attitudes and public deeds, is explicitly recognized. The point is clear. The inner attitudes and feelings have to do potentially with the well-being and security of one’s neighbor, and they are subject to a degree of control for the good of the community. Jesus’ teaching, therefore, like that of the rabbis and philosophers, is an extension of the instruction clearly set forth in the last commandment and illustrated negatively so often in the Scriptures and in human life.” Miller, Deuteronomy, 96
When we read the 9th commandment against coveting a neighbor’s wife, how can we not think of Jesus’ proscription in the Sermon on the Mount against lust in your heart? He taught that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. In that one line, Jesus links lustful feelings with prohibitive action.
But lust, the principal object of the 9th commandment, must be seen in a broader context. “St. Paul identifies it with the rebellion of the ‘flesh’ against the ‘spirit.’” CCC 2515 In Romans 8:13, he teaches: “If you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Now this “flesh” according to Paul is not the skin on our hand or on our body. For Paul, it is that internal powerful drive within each of us towards self-preservation, self-glorification, selfishness--a bondage to sin that causes us to resist God, to be alienated from Him. It is a product of the disobedience of the first sin of Adam. Lust, for example, proceeds from the “flesh.” But for Christ’s death, resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit, each of us would continue to live at the level of the “flesh.” “All of us once lived among them in the desires of our flesh, following the wishes of the flesh and the impulses...But God, who is rich in mercy...brought us to life with Christ.” Eph 2: 3-5
That does not mean we are without struggles, the struggles of the flesh, the struggles of covetousness. There is spiritual warfare within each of us. It is an integral part of the truth of the human person. In Galatians 5:16-26, Paul is explicit about the battle between the “flesh” and “spirit.” From the Confessions of St. Augustine, we read: “The enemy had taken hold of my will; he had clamped a chain on it and shackled it. For my will had been perverted and had manufactured lust; the more I gave in to lust, the more it developed into a habit, and when I failed to check the habit it became a necessity. These were all links in the chain that held me enslaved. The new will that had begun in me—and made me want to be free to worship and to enjoy you, God, the only certain joy—was not yet strong enough to overpower the old will that had become tough with age. So there were now two wills battling it out inside me, one old, one new; one carnal, one spiritual; and in the conflict they ripped my soul to pieces.” Love Song: Augustine’s Confessions for Modern Man, translated by Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Harper Row, 1971, p.108
The call of the 9th commandment, precisely because of the Christ event, is to crucify our flesh, our passions, our lust, our inordinate desires--in effect to surrender each day to the power of the Holy Spirit living within us, to yield to the movement of the Spirit within us that our flesh might be crucified. “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.” Gal 5: 24-25
We need to take personal responsibility for our sin, the sin of our “flesh,” and make a specific decision to die to it. Through the grace of Baptism, the Holy Spirit makes that decision active within us when we are joined to the death of Jesus and His resurrection. It happens, moreover, each and every time we repent in the Sacrament of Penance-- hence the integral importance of that sacrament in the struggle with our “flesh”--the covetedness proscribed by the 9th commandment. And what a reward that awaits us--“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Mt 5:8.
Turning to the 10th commandment--you shall not covet your neighbor’s goods (that proscription against greed)-- Jesus could not be more explicit: “‘Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Lk 12:15 He even goes so far as to say: “....everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” Lk14: 33 Pointing to the story of the widow’s mite, he holds her up as a wonderful example of Christian living: “for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.” Lk 21: 4
Not only is greed proscribed by Christ, but generosity even from our poverty is required to be a follower of Christ. He teaches us in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Mt 5:3 A certain detachment from riches is the continued and continuing goal of life in Christ that we might follow Him all the more closely and without competition from earthly “material” temptations. “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above...Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” Col 3: 1-2 Jesus teaches us to rely on Him and Him alone: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.” Lk 12:22-23 St. Paul is quite explicit in Eph 5:5 where he writes: “Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person, that is, an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” For him, covetedness is thus a form of idolatry. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Mt 6:21
III.) Some Practical Implications for Us
With respect to the 9th commandment, the underlying values are chastity, purity of heart and self control. We hear the perennial question of the psalmist in Psalm 24: “Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place?” And the answer: “The man with clean hands and pure heart.”
Oh, how we so desire to climb His mountain and stand with Him in His holy place. It is within our reach with God’s help and grace.
Our goal is a pure heart and yet as the catechism acknowledges, and as I have attempted to show in the last section of this meditation, there is a struggle, a “battle for purity” within each and every one of us. It is good to admit to that and not to live in a wonderland of deception.
But it can be won each and every day. Fr. Al McBride writes: “Sex is a strong passion, but not a blind instinct. Humans can control it. Despite many teachings to the contrary, self-control is the road to real freedom, while free love abandons self-control and makes sex the slave of passion. Sexual license is clearly the opposite of freedom. Chaste living implies control of thoughts and desires as well as behavior. Jesus was quite direct on this issue: ‘But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart’ (Matthew 5:28). A chaste person practices modesty and lives a lifestyle that reflects a commitment to purity.”
McBride, The Ten Commandments, Covenant of Love, 167
The talk of chastity is, for sure, counter-cultural if not down right unfashionable, and politically incorrect, in today’s world. But for us Christians, chastity is part of the new-found freedom we enjoy by virtue of Christ’s resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit. Each of our bodies is a part of the Risen Body of Christ. Our bodies are holy places precisely because we are an integral part of His glorified body. To sin in mind or deed sexually with our bodies, bodies linked to Christ at Baptism, is to make sacrilegious use of Christ’s body to which we belong.
In the 1990 document of the American bishops entitled Human Sexuality, they define chastity: “Chastity ‘consists in self-control, in the capacity of guiding the sexual instinct to the service of love and of integrating it in the development of the person.’ Chastity is often misunderstood as simply a suppression or deliberate inhibition of sexual thoughts, feelings, and actions. However, chastity truly consists in the long-term integration of one’s thoughts, feelings and actions in a way that values, esteems, and respects the dignity of oneself and others. Chastity frees us from the tendency to act in a manipulative or exploitative manner in our relationships and enables us to show true love and kindness always.”
Human Sexuality, 19
To win the battle for chastity, one must be eminently practical. If the computer is the problem, be smart in protecting yourself in its use for impurity. If certain friendships are the problem, there are ways diplomatically to move in other circles. If modesty is the challenge, there are other ways to dress and behave and each of us knows the difference.
Most practically, there is the regular reception of the sacrament of reconciliation and daily prayer and the making of chastity an integral part of our desire to follow Christ unreservedly. And do not forget that, in addition to the grace of Christ, the prayers of Our Blessed Mother Mary accompany us on this journey to chastity that is daily both challenging and rewarding.
Now turning to the 10th commandment, we have learned that the avoidance of greed, envy and the preoccupation with money and material possessions are the values to be cherished. We live in a world of insatiable appetites for food, pleasure, luxuries and all kinds of gadgets. In these days of economic uncertainty, specifically in light of the challenges they clearly present for all of us without exception, they also present opportunities for us to reexamine our values and goals. Must our daily temptations include an eye on what our neighbor has or is getting as if to appropriate what we have not and that that will bring us automatic happiness? It is this false belief that covetousness of “things” can bring us happiness. It is a lesson that we seem forever unable to appropriate that it is not “things” but the person of Christ Himself who should be our continuing aim and preoccupation in life.
St. Paul is so clear when he writes: “For the love of money is the root of all evils, and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains.” l Tim 6:10 Covetousness is thus a form of idolatry--replacement of things for the person of Jesus Christ. Underscore the word “love” of money, however. That is different than a healthy respect for money. And there is no better way to learn respect of money than the virtue of generosity. At the base of the 10th commandment is the challenge to be generous-- the adoption and development of a generous heart.
So many of you are deeply generous. This I have personally observed over and over again. It is the best antidote to greed and all that the 10th commandment seeks to prevent. You help in hospitals, shelters, the Ten program, the pro bono legal and medical networks, our annual toy collection, monthly food drives, tutoring in schools, generosity to the Archbishop’s Appeal and to our poor box collections each month in all our many churches.
Citing William Barclay, whom I have cited often in this series of meditations, Fr. McBride sets forth five guidelines for giving that the Jewish rabbis in biblical times laid down. They are as helpful for us today as they were for them in ancient times: “1.) One should accept a gift and not refuse it. 2.) The giver (or giving community) should offer a family more than what is needed to keep body and soul together. The family should receive enough to get it back on its feet in society. 3.) Where possible, the giving should be secret. The noblest form of giving is when the giver does not know who the receiver is and the receiver is unaware of who did the giving. 4.) The giver should be sensitive about the feelings and pride of the recipient. The manner of giving is as important as the gift. 5.) Giving is a privilege as well as an obligation, for in giving to the needy person one gives to God. The person who befriends the poor lends to the Lord and will receive a similar kindness from God.” McBride The Ten Commandments, Covenant of Love,188-189
There is no better way to fight the innate temptation for greed than through generosity of spirit. As the catechism teaches moreover: “Detachment from riches is necessary for entering the Kingdom of heaven. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit.’” CCC2556
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Our next meeting will be Thursday October 1st, 2009. The title of my series is: “Prayer: Gift and Response.” It will be based on the final pillar of the catechism: “Part Four—Christian Prayer.” A blessed, prayerful and relaxing summer to each of you and your families! |
