Article 9
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.298
Every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with
her in his heart.299
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St. John distinguishes three kinds of covetousness or concupiscence: lust of
the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life.300 In the Catholic
catechetical tradition, the ninth commandment forbids carnal concupiscence; the
tenth forbids coveting another's goods.
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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."301 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.302
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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."303
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