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 which consist of two words and lack an explicit object. The prohibition against theft is akin to the prohibition against murder and adultery.

The church has greatly amplified this commandment, for sure, to include respect for the property of others but more broadly the commands of justice and charity with respect to others (the social teaching of the church) and finally the call to be good stewards of the goods of creation. The catechism sets forth these other concerns about the seventh commandment.

My three-fold approach to this commandment includes, as I have attempted to follow with the preceding commandments: 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.

"(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.

"When a man gives an ass, or an ox, or a sheep, or any other animal to another for safekeeping, if it dies, or is maimed or snatched away, without anyone witnessing the fact, the custodian shall swear by the LORD that he did not lay hands on his neighbor's property; the owner must accept the oath, and no restitution is to be made. But if the custodian is really guilty of theft, he must make restitution to the owner. If it has been killed by a wild beast, let him bring it as evidence, and he need not make restitution for the mangled animal.

"When a man borrows an animal from his neighbor, if it is maimed or dies while the owner is not present, the man must make restitution."

(Exodus 22:1-4,6,9-13)

As in 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 manstealing (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." (See also 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 manstealing 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, 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 II 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.

The LORD sent Nathan to David, and when he came to him, he said: "Judge this case for me! In a certain town there were two men, one rich, the other poor. The rich man had flocks and herds in great numbers. But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He nourished her, and she grew up with him and his children. She shared the little food he had and drank from his cup and slept in his bosom. She was like a daughter to him. Now, the rich man received a visitor, but he would not take from his own flocks and herds to prepare a meal for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead he took the poor man's ewe lamb and made a meal of it for his visitor." 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." (2 Sam 12:1-6)

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, Lk 18:20) We know from the Zacchaeus story 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.

Now someone approached him and said, "Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?" He answered him, "Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." He asked him, "Which ones?" And 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 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" The young man said to him, "All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?" Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to (the) poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible." (Mt 19:16-26)

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 it 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 store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be." (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

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 the 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 given 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 30)

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)

In using them, therefore, man should regard the external things that he legitimately possesses not only as his own but also as common in the sense that they should be able to benefit not only him but also others.(9) On the other hand, the right of having a share of earthly goods sufficient for oneself and one's family belongs to everyone. The Fathers and Doctors of the Church held this opinion, teaching that men are obliged to come to the relief of the poor and to do so not merely out of their superfluous goods.(10) If one is in extreme necessity, he has the right to procure for himself what he needs out of the riches of others.(11) Since there are so many people prostrate with hunger in the world, this sacred council urges all, both individuals and governments, to remember the aphorism of the Fathers, "Feed the man dying of hunger, because if you have not fed him, you have killed him,"(12) and really to share and employ their earthly goods, according to the ability of each, especially by supporting individuals or peoples with the aid by which they may be able to help and develop themselves. (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 by 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.

There is plenty of stealing going on.

Armed robbery, from simple street muggings to heists at automated teller machines, remains the most prevalent crime that Americans should fear from strangers. Robbers strike 1.2 million times a year, injuring their prey about a third of the time. Eighty-four percent of robberies are committed by strangers. One in 20 cases results in serious injury and lost property.

Beyond these instances of stealing are numerous cases of white-collar crime, embezzlement, computer theft, counterfeit money, fraud, mail scams and many other inventive ways of theft. People are worried about their safety and the security of their possessions. They want stronger police protection and bigger jails for the offenders. They are wiring their homes with alarms, moving into guarded gate communities and even hiring personal bodyguards.

God's laws forbid stealing.

(McBride, 126-27)

In a previous book, he argues that 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. Because God has trusted us with creation there can be an environment free from exploitation." (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 would like to conclude with three practical areas where trust is violated and the seventh commandment is often broken in our lives. I rely on Dr. Barclay who speaks of l.) theft of time, 2.) theft of innocence and 3.) theft of a person's character and good name.

(i) There is the theft of time. When a man enters into employment, he also enters into a contract, be it written or be it understood, in which he undertakes to give his employer so much of his time in return for so much pay. He may, for instance, engage to work for eight hours a day. It may well be that, of all thefts, the theft of time is most common. It is a commonplace for people to start late; it is an almost universal custom to finish early; and the number of people who do not waste at least some part of the time during which they are supposed to be working is very small indeed. And, even when most of us are working, we put nothing like our maximum effort into the work. There are very few people who are not guilty of the theft of time and of effort from the people to whom they have contracted to give their time and their effort. Although it is far from being true of every worker, it is true of many that their aim is to do as little as possible and to get as much as possible.

(W. Barclay,The Ten Commandments For Today, 177-78)

On this particular subject of theft of time, let me interrupt Dr. Barclay for a moment to share an instructive story for all of the lawyers:

There once was a lawyer who died and went straight to heaven. At the pearly gates, St. Peter welcomed him with exuberant praise, proclaimed the deceased barrister to have been the hardest working attorney in the history of the human race. Embarrassed and a bit baffled by this accolade, the lawyer suggested to St. Peter that there must be some mistake; sure, he was hard-working, but the hardest working ever in history? He could not accept that with a clear conscience. St. Peter looked over his computer printout and exclaimed, "Oh no, there's no mistake; we just added up your billable hours!"

This joke was first told to me by a non-attorney, which suggests that there is a problem at least in perception, if not in reality. In the daily practice of law, the temptation to steal may take the rather subtle form of overstating one's billable hours or exaggerating the amount of damages claimed. It's not as overt as walking into a bank wielding a gun, yet may certainly be more effective and more harmful.

Continuing with Dr. Barclay:

(ii) There is such a thing as the theft of innocence. There is a kind of person who seduces others into sin. When Robert Burns went as a young man to Irvine to learn flax-dressing, he fell in with a certain man who taught him a good deal about reckless living. Afterwards Burns said of him: 'His friendship did me a mischief.' There are those whose alleged friendship does others a mischief. It is the simple and tragic fact that the invitation to sin often, perhaps oftenest of all, comes from the invitation of some fellow human being. It is by some so-called friend that a young person may receive the initial push that sets him on the pathway whose end is ruin. The teaching of Jesus is clear about one thing in regard to this-it is serious to sin oneself, but it is still more serious to teach someone else to sin. Jesus said: 'Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea' (Matthew 18:5; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:1-2). To rob a person of his or her innocence is one of the most serious of sins in the sight of Jesus Christ.

(iii) There is such a thing as the theft of a person's character or good name. The recklessness with which people repeat stories about other people without checking them is an astonishing thing. There seems to be in human nature something which takes a delight in hearing and repeating that which is discreditable to others. Many a person's good name is stolen away in gossip over the teacups, and harm done in such a way is almost impossible to undo, for it is easy to start a story and almost impossible to stop it. As the proverb has it, there are three things which never come back, the spent arrow, the lost opportunity and the spoken word. And it is further true that there is no more serious wrong that we can do to any man than to rob him of his good name. As Shakespeare wrote in Othello:

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls,
Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.

To listen to the malicious story is almost, if not quite, as bad as to repeat it. It might be well that if, when we were told some discreditable story of someone, we were to say; 'Let us go straight around and ask the person involved if this is true.' It might well be that, more often than not, the story-teller would be unwilling to accept the challenge.

(W. Barclay,The Ten Commandments For Today, 178-79)

The challenge to trust exists. 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.