TENTH COMMANDMENT
211. The tenth commandment is: Do not covet the goods of others.
212. In the tenth commandment we are commanded to be content with the state in which God has placed us, and patiently suffer poverty, if the Lord wills us in such a state.
213. The tenth commandment forbids greed or disorderly desire for wealth and envy of the good of others.
214. To guard ourselves from greed and envy of the good of others, we must make alms, works of zeal and charity, thinking that we have been created for heaven and that the goods of this earth cannot make us truly happy, and finally consider that everything is left with death.
The seventh commandment forbids all external injustice, and the tenth commandment forbids all internal injustice.
God is the One who gives all goods of fortune, nature and grace, and arranges everything with infinite wisdom and goodness for the sake of those who love Him.
We must only try to love God and do His divine will.
If God wants us to be poor, we must not want to be rich.
If God gives us wealth, let’s use it not to satisfy whims, but to do the good.
Jesus Christ wanted to be poor and be born of a poor mother, and even called thorns to riches.
The poor are saved more easily than the rich.
Jesus Christ said: "It is easier to pass a camel through the eye of a needle than to enter a rich man into the kingdom of God” (Mark, X, 25).
Therefore the poor, instead of complaining, should give thanks to God for having delivered them from the dangers of eternal damnation that are attached to riches.
The rich must ward off these dangers, doing alms and all good they can to the poor because Jesus Christ has said: "Whatever you do to one of the poor, you do to Me". [It is a summary of chapter XXV of Saint Matthew].
The present life is very short; it will pass like a fleeting shadow.
The true riches are good works.
Better the eternal prize that God will give us for a single Our Father well prayed, than all the gold of the world.
Oh, men, if you knew the value of good works, all your efforts would be to enrich you with them!
Let us trust in God: put into His hands all our future and often remember what Our Lord Jesus Christ said: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all other things will be given to you as an addition".
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Timely observation
How beautiful it would be that all men know and practice the law of God!
The world would be a heaven ahead: there would be no murderers, thieves, drunkards; the poor would be helped abundantly; there would not be so many diseases; we could live peacefully, without fear that anyone will hurt us unjustly.
We cannot make all men know and fulfill the law of God.
But we must help to make it known and practiced by some people in our relationships, and above all:
We can and must know it and practice it ourselves.
This is what interests us most, for in this way we will be healthy members of society, pleasing God and achieving eternal happiness.