What does the 10th Commandment teach?

What Catholics BelieveA Pocket Catechism for the Year of FaithOctober 18, 2013 Pittsburgh CatholicBe satisfied and grateful for what you have receivedWhat does the 10th Commandment teach?The 10th Commandment teaches us to be satisfied with what we have and to be grateful toGod.What does the 10th Commandment forbid?The 10th Commandment forbids us to be jealous of others, their qualities or their possessions.Why should Christians obey the commandments of God?So that they can live in freedom and gain the salvation that Christ won for everyone.Meditation"You shall not covet your neighbor's goods" (Exodus 20:17).The life we create is our own. The things we pursue, the kind of life we desire, is what webecome. For good or bad. "For where your treasure is, there also will be your heart" (Matthew6:21).Charles Dickens explained it all in "A Christmas Carol": "We wear the chains we forged in life."We become what we have lived. What we desire, what we aim for, where we expend our energy,drive and determination, is what we become for good or bad. If what we want is money, sex andpower, our lives will be defined by that, no matter how much we protest to the contrary. If that iswhere our heart is, that is what we will become.If our heart wants the great life — the great life summed up in the commandments —that iswhat we will become. If that is what we really treasure, what we really search for in ourselvesand others, that is what we will find.The old line is that the face we have at 20 is the face we were born with; the face we have at 50is the face we sculpted with our lives. The person we are at 40, 50, 60 and beyond is what wehave sculpted in our life. The difference is that we are stuck with that face we have sculpted.With God's grace, we can change the person we created any day at any age. We just have to find— or redefine —what we treasure. Because there also will be our heart.PrayerThe Ship of LifeSteer the ship of my life, Lord, to your quiet harbor, where I can be safe from the storms of sinand conflict. Show me the course I should take. Renew in me the gift of discernment, so that Ican see the right direction in which I should go. And give me the strength and the courage to

choose the right course, even when the sea is rough and the waves are high, knowing thatthrough enduring hardship and danger in your name we shall find comfort and peace. Amen.— St. Basil of CaesareaBased on the book "What Catholics Believe: A Pocket Catechism," by Father Kris Stubna andMike Aquilina. The questions and answers are excerpted with permission from Our SundayVisitor, 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, Ind. 46750. The book is available from Our Sunday Visitorat 800-348-2440, or by visiting its website at www.osv.com. Unless otherwise noted, themeditations at the end of each question-and-answer series are written by Robert P. Lockwood,general manager of the Pittsburgh Catholic, developed from his book "A Faith for Grown-Ups"(Loyola Press).