← The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 324: The Ninth Commandment (2025)
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What does covetousness mean? Today, we launch into the ninth commandment, which deals with carnal concupiscence. This commandment addresses the tension between the “flesh” and the “spirit.” Fr. Mike emphasizes that purity of heart and temperance are crucial to overcoming lust of the flesh. The more we obey God, the more our hearts see others as God sees them. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2514-2519.
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Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 324. We're reading paragraphs 2514 to 2519. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com ciy and you can click follow or subscribe on your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Because Today is day 324, we left the 8th Commandment yesterday. Not leaving it, as we say before, we have to live all of these commandments, these commandments of the Lord are so important. But we're launching today into the ninth commandment. Now, here's an interesting thing. In the sixth commandment, we talked about what is God's commands? What's God's purpose? What's God's plan for human sexuality. So we talked about that in the sixth commandment, we also talked about possessions, right? In the seventh commandment. And commandments nine and ten come from the same place. Here in Exodus, chapter 20, verse 17, it says, 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. And so it gets to the heart of things. You know, Jesus later on In Matthew chapter 5 said, Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in a heart. And so even though the sixth commandment dealt with actions related to human sexuality, and the seventh commandment deals with actions related to the possession of goods and stuff, the 9th and 10th Commandment remind us that where does sin come from? Where's all the tensions in our lives come from? Where do all the battles in our lives come from? They come from a broken heart. They come from the fact that we have this concupiscence, right? We have this desire for what is not good for us or what is not meant for us. And so here in Commandments nine, and later on in the Tenth Commandment, we're going to be looking at this. We're looking at, yes, we talked about the parameters and the directions that God has given to us when it comes to human sexuality, when it comes to human possessions. We're also taking another look at the human heart. And so that's what we're looking at for the next couple of days as we look at the Ninth Commandment and later on at the tenth Commandment. So as we do that, let's take a moment and call upon our Father in heaven. And as we pray, Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. Thank you. We thank you for giving us guidance, for giving us your commandments. Because your commandments are a reminder that you've brought us into covenant with you. Your commandments are a reminder that you want a relationship with us. Your commandments are a reminder that we matter to you and that our choices matter to you. Not only our choices, but even our heart, the state of our heart matters to you. And we thank you. We thank you for caring about us when sometimes we don't even care about ourselves. But you care and you love. And so we thank you and we just praise you. And today we give you permission to care about us. Today we give you permission to let us matter to you. Today we give you permission to love us. Help us to love you back. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day 324. We are reading paragraphs 25, 2519, article 9, the 9th 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. Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. St. John distinguishes three kinds of covetousness or concupiscence. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life. In the Catholic catechetical tradition, the Ninth Commandment forbids carnal concupiscence. The Tenth forbids coveting another's goods. 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. 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. 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 is part of the daily experience of the spiritual battle. As St. John Paul II stated, 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. Purification of the heart the heart is the seat of moral personality. Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication. The struggle against carnal covetousness entails purifying the heart and practicing temperance. As an ancient Christian source states, remain simple and innocent, and you will be like little children who do not know the evil that destroys man's life. The sixth beatitude proclaims, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Pure in heart refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God's holiness, chiefly in three charity, chastity or sexual rectitude, love of truth and orthodoxy of faith. There is a connection between purity of heart, of body, and of faith. As St. Augustine 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. The pure in heart are promised that they will see God face to face and be like Him. 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 neighbors, as a temple of the Holy Spirit, a manifestation of divine beauty. All right, there we have it. Paragraphs 25:14 to 25:19. As I said, commandment number nine and commandment number ten are kind of recapitulations of the sixth and the seventh commandments. And also they're very connected in this reality that obviously in Exodus chapter 20 they're kind of bunched together here. But also we recognize that there's this concupiscence that we have, this attraction to what is not good for us. Now, paragraph 2514 highlights this. It says, St. John distinguishes three kinds of concupiscence. Lust of the flesh, lust, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. So in this commandment, the ninth commandment, we highlight lust of the flesh, right? Lust of the eyes is that other thing of that greed, right? That thing I want to possess another thing. Now, lust of the flesh is I want to possess another person or want to use another person. Lust of the eyes is I want to possess those things. I want to be able to use those things. And it's that form of greed. Yet, in a similar way, they come from the same place. And it's so remarkable that even though lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes are different, they kind of manifest differently. They come from the same place. They come from the place of I'm willing to take what is not mine as kind of an example of how lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes come from the same broken place in our heart. There was a man who, years ago, told me a story from his own life. And he said that he was out of town at kind of a resort place where a number of conferences were happening. Like, you know, different companies were at this place, and they were hosting their seminars or whatever. And so he said he walked into one of these conference rooms. If you've ever been to those conference rooms, you know what they kind of look like? They're all kind of the same. A big room, a lot of fluorescent lights, and they have long rows of tables and chairs. And on these tables are, you know, bowls of candy a lot of times, right? Or other kind of treats they have. And so he said he walked into this room, and it wasn't his own company, so he walked, and he wanted to have some of the treats they had out there. But he's like, oh, no, no, that's not mine. That's not mine, so I can't take any. And he walked to the window, and the window was facing a body of water. And he said right outside the window was not only the body of water, but there were a number of young women who are also at the resort, and they were by the water wearing swimsuits and whatnot. And so he found himself through the window and just gazing, basically staring at these young women and allowing himself to lust after them, saying, like, well, it's not hurting anybody, because Here I am on this other side of this window. No one's seeing me do this thing. And he was again, this is the lust of the flesh. And at one moment, he was reminded of the treats here that were in this room and how when he walked by those treats, he was like, oh, I want one of those. But then he was like, oh, it's not mine. And he realized that as he was looking out this window and looking at these women, wait, they're not mine either. And he had this conviction of, oh, my gosh, this is the same thing. I wouldn't take these treats. I wouldn't take these, whatever they are, candies, because they don't belong to me. But here I am willing to take or use these women in my mind, and they don't belong to me either. Not that any person belongs to another person. You know what I'm saying? But he realized that, oh, this is the same brokenness, but also it's the same beginning of a solution, right? It's the same beginning of a remedy. Because when he saw the candy there, when he saw the treats there, he was like, oh, that's not mine. I'm not going to take it. I'm not even going to entertain the thought of taking it because it's not mine. And then he realizes, looking out the window at these women, like, okay, I'm not even going to entertain the thought that I could have a second glance at these people because they're not mine. They belong to themselves. They belong to the Lord, hopefully, who knows? But they're not mine. In that same, again, same brokenness that led him to lust of the flesh. And lust of the eyes could be in some ways tempered. We'll say it like that. Some ways calibrated by that same statement of truth. Okay, this is not mine. This is not mine to take, and they are not mine to use. And I think there's something really powerful about this because we recognize that the brokenness is. Is the same in all of us now. We experience this concupiscence in different ways, but the brokenness is the same for some people. The idea of lust of the flesh, that's not even. Maybe not even on your radar. Maybe it's like, yeah, it's there, but like, it's really under control. It's not a big deal. But maybe lust of the eyes or lust for. For food or lust for, you know, cigarettes or lust for whatever the thing is that has a hold on you and it might feel like, okay, how do I. How do I get free from this, how could I ever have this purity of heart? Now, paragraph 2517 highlights this. It says, the heart, of course, is the seat of moral personality, that out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication. Right, of course. That's the scripture from Matthew, chapter 15. And so the struggle against, you know, carnal covetousness, that guy looking out the window, or any way this is manifesting itself, entails purifying the heart and practicing temperance. It's one of the reasons why, again, I'm bringing up that situation of the guy in the conference room, because temperance would be able to say, okay, yeah, these treats are good, but they're not mine, so they're not meant for me to be used. And I can say no to this. That's one of the reasons, I think I've mentioned this before. There was a young woman named Anastasia. And I remember her telling the story that Anastasia at one point went to her father and said, dad, what kind of man should I marry? What should I be looking for in a man to marry? And her father could have said a number of things. You know, find a man who's honest, find a man who's noble, man who's whatever. The thing is, he said, find a man who can fast. That was it. He said, find a man who can fast because that person who can be temperate, right, that person who can say no to their concupiscence, that their desire for food will also be able to say no to himself in many other desires, because it's all connected. Again, struggle against carnal covetousness entails purifying the heart and practicing temperance. And doesn't happen all at once. In fact, actually, I did talk to a man who he had struggled with lust of the flesh for his entire life. In fact, he said it was overwhelming and he could never imagine his life not delving into pornography and masturbation on multiple times a day. But one day he said, I'm going to bring this to confession. And he brought it to confession. And he said, as of that confession, after a whole lifetime of being enslaved by this, I've been free now for. I think he said something 18 years. It is remarkable. It's just incredible because that can happen all at once. For most of us, it happens gradually by a process. And again, there's a connection here, the Catechism says in 2518, between purity of heart, purity of body, and our faith. This is this great quote from St. Augustine. Yes. Some people have this experience where, yeah, I've come to the Lord and he heals automatically. Most of us experience gradual progress in freedom. And so that's why St. Augustine says here, says 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. And so that's, that's the thing. That's, that's one of the, the keys for anyone who finds themselves in a place where, man, I find it really difficult to look at myself or look at others with of heart. Augustine is making this connection, saying, okay, so let's believe the articles of the Creed so that by believing they may obey God. One of the articles of the Creed, of course, is that Jesus Christ suffered and died for you so you could be set free. I'm paraphrasing, obviously, right. But one of the things that we believe as Catholic Christians is that Jesus Christ, by his life, death and resurrection, he has conquered death, he's conquered sin, he's given us a new freedom. Do we believe that or not? Do I really believe that in my life, you know, with all my sins, with all my attractions to sin, my concupiscence, do I really believe that Jesus Christ and his power of his cross can actually set me free? So years ago, my best friend Nick with his wife Jacelyn, they weren't Catholic yet and they had come to a teaching on the theology of the body that I had done. So they were so fired up by this that the next night they were back at their non Catholic church, like young adult Bible study. And at one point they had the outline from the night before that I had given them. And so Nick and Jason were teaching this theology of the body and how God can give us a new heart, right? It's not just about, you know, modifying behavior. He can actually give us a new heart. He can give us a pure heart. And one of the Bible study leaders said, yeah, Nick, that's fine, but you know, just, that's for some people. I'm really glad that you are excited about this, but that's not for everybody. You know, some of us just have a higher libido kind of a situation. And Nick said, he looked at his friend and was like, are you crazy? Are you doing exactly what St. Paul warned against doing? Are you emptying the cross of Jesus Christ of his power? Are you saying that there are some people here that Christ did not die to set them free? Are you saying that Christ, what he did on the cross is not sufficient for you? It's not enough for you, that it's enough for everyone else, but it's not enough to heal you. You in this area. And the guy was kind of like. He was kind of sheepish and he's like, okay, okay, I get it. It's true. Because Here is what St. Augustine's saying. That by believing these articles of the Creed, by believing what Jesus has done for us, we may obey God. If I don't believe that Jesus Christ truly has conquered sin and death, then why obey him? If I don't really believe that he can actually set me free, then why even try? But those who believe, those of us, here we are on day 324, we believe these articles of the Creed. We know what Jesus has done for us. We know the power of the Holy Spirit in us. By believing we can obey God. And when we obey God, we live well. You know, so often people on the outside, and maybe sometimes people on the inside, we can see obedience as slavery. We can see obedience as, I'm in a straitjacket now, as opposed to, oh, my goodness, by obeying the Lord, by being obedient to God, this is a good life. This is what it is to live well. And that also by living well may purify their hearts. You know, it has a compounding effect, right? That by living well, your heart becomes more and more aligned to the truth. We can see God more and more clearly. And then with pure hearts, we can understand what we believe. That's why paragraph 2519 is the last thing highlights. The pure of heart are promised. They will see God face to face and be like him. It's a precondition for the vision of God and even now to grow in that purity of heart. It enables us to see according to God. To accept others as neighbors, lets us perceive the human body, both ours and our neighbors. And as a temple of the Holy Spirit and manifestation of divine beauty, we can actually not just see the person as parts that are either more attractive or less attractive, but we can see the human person, right? We can see the human body and see the person. The body and it alone, says St. John Paul II, says the body and it alone is capable of making visible what is invisible, the spiritual and the divine. And so the more and more we are living in obedience to God, the clearer and clearer we see. So that when we see people's bodies, we are not tempted to reduce them to parts or to use them for our own lusts. But we see the body, then we see the person, because the body and it alone is capable of making visible the invisible, the spiritual and the divine. And so we pray for that. We pray for that gift of sight, gift of purity of heart, so that we can see people and love people as they are and be loved by people as we are. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.