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THE NINTH COMMANDMENT
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 neighbor's.299Every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.300
2514 St. John distinguishes three kinds of covetousness or concupiscence: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life.301
In the Catholic catechetical tradition, the ninth commandment forbids
carnal concupiscence; the tenth forbids coveting another's goods.
2515
Etymologically, "concupiscence" can refer to any intense form of human
desire. Christian theology has given it a particular meaning: the
movement of the sensitive appetite contrary to the operation of the
human reason. The apostle St. Paul identifies it with the rebellion of
the "flesh" against the "spirit."302 Concupiscence stems
from the disobedience of the first sin. It unsettles man's moral
faculties and, without being in itself an offense, inclines man to
commit sins.303
2516 Because man is a composite being, spirit and body,
there already exists a certain tension in him; a certain struggle of
tendencies between "spirit" and "flesh" develops. But in fact this
struggle belongs to the heritage of sin. It is a consequence of sin and
at the same time a confirmation of it. It is part of the daily
experience of the spiritual battle:
For the Apostle it is not a matter of
despising and condemning the body which with the spiritual soul
constitutes man's nature and personal subjectivity. Rather, he is
concerned with the morally good or bad works, or better, the permanent dispositions - virtues and vices - which are the fruit of submission (in the first case) or of resistance (in the second case) to the saving action of the Holy Spirit. For this reason the Apostle writes: "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit."304
I. PURIFICATION OF THE HEART
2517 The heart is the seat of moral
personality: "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery,
fornication. . . . "305 The struggle against carnal covetousness entails purifying the heart and practicing temperance:
Remain simple and innocent, and you will be like little children who do not know the evil that destroys man's life.306
2518 The sixth beatitude proclaims, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."307
"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;308 chastity or sexual rectitude;309 love of truth and orthodoxy of faith.310 There is a connection between purity of heart, of body, and of faith:
The faithful must believe the articles
of the Creed "so that by believing they may obey God, by obeying may
live well, by living well may purify their hearts, and with pure hearts
may understand what they believe."311
2519 The "pure in heart" are promised that they will see God face to face and be like him.312 Purity of heart is the precondition of the vision of God. 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.
II. THE BATTLE FOR PURITY
2520
Baptism confers on its recipient the grace of purification from all
sins. But 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: with simplicity of vision, the baptized person seeks
to find and to fulfill God's will in everything;313
- by purity of vision, external and internal; by
discipline of feelings and imagination; by refusing all complicity in
impure thoughts that incline us to turn aside from the path of God's
commandments: "Appearance arouses yearning in fools";314
- by prayer:
I thought that continence arose from
one's own powers, which I did not recognize in myself. I was foolish
enough not to know . . . that no one can be continent unless you grant
it. For you would surely have granted it if my inner groaning had
reached your ears and I with firm faith had cast my cares on you.315
2521 Purity requires modesty, an
integral part of temperance. Modesty protects the intimate center of
the person. It means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden. It
is ordered to chastity to whose sensitivity it bears witness. It guides
how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the
dignity of persons and their solidarity.
2522
Modesty protects the mystery of persons and their love. It encourages
patience and moderation in loving relationships; it requires that the
conditions for the definitive giving and commitment of man and woman to
one another be fulfilled. Modesty is decency. It inspires one's choice
of clothing. It keeps silence or reserve where there is evident risk of
unhealthy curiosity. It is discreet.
2523 There
is a modesty of the feelings as well as of the body. It protests, for
example, against the voyeuristic explorations of the human body in
certain advertisements, or against the solicitations of certain media
that go too far in the exhibition of intimate things. Modesty inspires
a way of life which makes it possible to resist the allurements of
fashion and the pressures of prevailing ideologies.
2524 The forms taken by
modesty vary from one culture to another. Everywhere, however, modesty
exists as an intuition of the spiritual dignity proper to man. It is
born with the awakening consciousness of being a subject. Teaching
modesty to children and adolescents means awakening in them respect for
the human person.
2525 Christian purity requires a purification of the social climate.
It requires of the communications media that their presentations show
concern for respect and restraint. Purity of heart brings freedom from
widespread eroticism and avoids entertainment inclined to voyeurism and
illusion.
2526 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. Those in charge of education can reasonably
be expected to give young people instruction respectful of the truth,
the qualities of the heart, and the moral and spiritual dignity of man.
2527
"The Good News of Christ continually renews the life and culture of
fallen man; it combats and removes the error and evil which flow from
the ever-present attraction of sin. It never ceases to purify and
elevate the morality of peoples. It takes the spiritual qualities and
endowments of every age and nation, and with supernatural riches it
causes them to blossom, as it were, from within; it fortifies,
completes, and restores them in Christ."316
IN BRIEF
2528 "Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Mt 5:28).
2529 The ninth commandment warns against lust or carnal concupiscence.
2530 The struggle against carnal lust involves purifying the heart and practicing temperance.
2531 Purity of heart will enable us to see God: it enables us even now to see things according to God.
2532 Purification of the heart demands prayer, the practice of chastity, purity of intention and of vision.
2533 Purity of heart requires the modesty
which is patience, decency, and discretion. Modesty protects the
intimate center of the person.
299 Ex 20:17.
300 Mt 5:28.
301 Cf. 1 Jn 2:16.
302 Cf. Gal 5:16,17,24; Eph 2:3.
303 Cf. Gen 3:11; Council of Trent: DS 1515.
304 John Paul II, DeV 55; cf. Gal 5:25.
305 Mt 15:19.
306 Pastor Hermae, Mandate 2,1:PG 2,916.
307 Mt 5:8.
308 Cf. 1 Tim 4:3-9; 2 Tim 2:22.
309 Cf. 1 Thess 4:7; Col 3:5; Eph 4:19.
310 Cf. Titus 1:15; 1 Tim 1:3-4; 2 Tim 2:23-26.
311 St. Augustine, Defide et symbolo 10,25:PL 40,196.
312 Cf. 1 Cor 13:12; 1 Jn 3:2.
313 Cf. Rom 12:2; Col 1:10.
314 Wis 15:5.
315 St. Augustine, Conf. 6,11,20:PL 32,729-730.
316 GS 58 § 4.
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