The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 314: Goods of Others (2024)

Episode Date: November 9, 2024

What does it mean to have respect for the goods of others? Fr. Mike unpacks the Catechism’s answer to this question and what it teaches about the seventh commandment in regards to respect for persons and their goods. We learn that it comes down to the dignity of persons and the virtues of temperance, justice, and solidarity. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2407-2414. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

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 314. We're reading paragraphs 2407 to 2414. As always, I am 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 slash C-I-Y and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. It is day 314 paragraphs 24 or seven to 24 or 14. Yesterday we began talking about the seventh commandment and we are continuing to talk about that today. Yesterday, remember we had this paradox and the paradox is an apparent contradiction that isn't actually a contradiction.

It is the fullest truth. We might say it like that. And so yesterday we talked about these two, again seemingly contradictory, but actually merely paradoxical goods. One is the universal destination of goods that says that the whole of the world's resources are made to satisfy the whole of the world's needs and the other good is the right to private property that is based and rooted in the dignity of the human person. So we talked about both of

those things. Today we're going to talk about respect for persons and their goods. So remember we're talking about principles here and so when we're talking about principles, yes it touches the world of politics and it touches the world of behavior, but keep in mind what we're really holding up are the principles of virtue, the principles of goodness, the principles of justice. And so you know the very first paragraph we talk about is going to be talking about the virtue of temperance, the virtue of solidarity and the virtue of justice. And we're gonna look at what does it mean to have respect for the goods of others?

Remember, one of the goods is the right to private property. Another one of those goods is the universal destination of goods that the whole of the world's resources can serve to meet the whole of the world's needs. How are we going to try to balance that out and how can we avoid any behavior that would contradict these goods? The goods of the right to private property, the goods of the universal destination of goods, as well as just even the good of the human person. So we're looking at that today.

So as we begin, let's say a prayer. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you for this day. We thank you for revealing to us that you are justice, that you are just, that you are good, and that you come and meet us. Help us this moment. Help us to be men and women who are temperate,

who use the world's goods as we should be using them, to see ourselves, continue to see ourselves as stewards and not owners, using them, to see ourselves, continue to see ourselves as stewards and not owners, and also continue to see ourselves as brothers and sisters of those around us. Lord God, help us to be good brothers and sisters, help us to be good stewards, help us to live temperance and justice and solidarity

in such a way that the people around us are cared for. Help us be men and women of great virtue so that this world can be a world that is full of your goodness. In Jesus name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Once again, it is day 314. We're reading paragraphs 2407 to 2414. Respect for persons and their goods. In economic matters, respect for human dignity requires the practice of the virtue of temperance so as to moderate attachment to this world's

goods, the practice of the virtue of justice to preserve our neighbor's rights and render him what is his due, and the practice of solidarity, in accordance with the golden rule and in keeping with the generosity of the Lord who though he was rich, yet for your sake became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. Respect for the Goods of Others The Seventh Commandment forbids theft, that is, usurping another's property against the reasonable will of the owner. There is no theft if consent can be presumed or if refusal is contrary to reason and the

universal destination of goods. This is the case in obvious and urgent necessity when the only way to provide for immediate essential needs, food, shelter, clothing, is to put at one's disposal and use the property of others. Even if it does not contradict the provisions of civil law, any form of unjustly taking and keeping the property of others is against the seventh commandment. Thus, deliberate retention of goods, lent, or of objects lost, business fraud, paying unjust wages, forcing up prices by taking advantage of the ignorance or hardship of another. The following are also morally illicit.

Speculation, in which one contrives to manipulate the price of goods artificially in order to gain an advantage to the detriment of others. Corruption in which one influences the judgment of those who must make decisions according to law. Appropriation and use for private purposes of the common goods of an enterprise. Work poorly done. Tax evasion. Forgery of checks and invoices.

Excessive expenses and waste. Willfully damaging private or public property is contrary to the moral law and requires reparation. Promises must be kept, and contracts strictly observed to the extent that the commitments made in them are morally just. A significant part of economic and social life depends on the honoring of contracts between physical or moral persons commercial contracts of purchase or sale rental or labor contracts all

Contracts must be agreed to and executed in good faith Contracts are subject to commutative justice which regulates exchanges between persons and between institutions in accordance with a strict respect for their rights between persons and between institutions in accordance with a strict respect for their rights. Commutative justice obliges strictly. It requires safeguarding property rights, paying debts, and fulfilling obligations freely contracted. Without commutative justice, no other form of justice is possible.

One distinguishes commutative justice from legal justice, which concerns what the citizen owes in fairness to the community, and from distrib legal justice, which concerns what the citizen owes in fairness to the community, and from distributive justice, which regulates what the community owes its citizens in proportion to their contributions and needs. In virtue of commutative justice, reparation for injustice committed requires the restitution of stolen goods to their owner. Jesus blesses Zacchaeus for his pledge, If I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold. Those who, directly or indirectly, have taken possession of the goods of another,

are obliged to make restitution of them, or to return the equivalent in kind or in money if the goods have disappeared, as well as the profit or advantages their owner would have legitimately obtained from them. Likewise, all who in some manner have taken part in a theft or who have knowingly benefited from it, for example, those who ordered it, assisted in it, or received the stolen goods, are obliged to make restitution in proportion to their responsibility and to their share of what was stolen. Games of chance, card games, etc., or wagers, are not in themselves contrary to justice. They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others. The passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement.

Unfair wagers and cheating at games constitute grave matter, unless the damage inflicted is so slight that the one who suffers it cannot reasonably consider it significant. The Seventh Commandment forbids acts or enterprises that for any reason, selfish or ideological, commercial or totalitarian, lead to the enslavement of human beings, to their being bought, sold and exchanged like merchandise, in disregard for their personal dignity. It is a sin against the dignity of persons and their fundamental rights to reduce them by violence to their productive value or to a source of profit. St. Paul directed a Christian master to treat his Christian slave no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, as a beloved brother, both in the flesh and in the Lord."

Okay, there we have it, paragraph 24.07 to 24.14. Let's go back to the very beginning, 24.07, talking about respect for persons and their goods. So human dignity, as mentioned at the very beginning, we're talking principles. These principles are actually going to be lived out in policy. They're going to be lived out in policy. They're going to be lived out in politics. They're gonna be lived out in our daily lives, in our civil lives, in our commonly shared life. And yet, and yet this is the key. It all comes back to not only the dignity of the person, but the ability to live this way is a virtue. The ability to live out this seventh commandment, the ability to live in this community,

the ability to live in a society comes back to not, justice is enforced from the outside. Although that has to happen, of course, in a civil society. But the ideal is that people have the virtues, that people have an interior strength and not merely an external structure that holds them in place. And does that make sense?

And so keep this in mind. Keep in mind that the vision of course, is that you and I become men and women of great virtue. And so paragraph 24.07 says, we need the virtue of temperance to moderate attachment to this world's goods. We need the practice of justice to give another what is there due.

And we need the practice of solidarity. Remember, it says here in accordance with the golden rule and in keeping with the generosity of the Lord who though he was rich, yet for our sake became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. Remember that those principles of subsidiarity is that if something can happen at the lowest level, you should be taking care at the lowest level. So if a family can take care of the person who's sick, the family should take care. If the family can't, then it goes to the maybe extended family. If they can't do it,

maybe to the local community or the parish. But that's subsidiarity. Solidarity is this reality that, okay, we belong to each other. And keep this in mind. This is a radical idea. It is a radical idea that we belong to each other. Let's look at Jesus.

Not only we have this scripture that is quoted here at the end of this paragraph 2407 that become like Jesus who though he was rich yet for your sake became poor so that by his poverty you might become rich. Yes, that but also remember the very direct and clear teaching of Jesus. That when Jesus highlights the great commandment right to love the Lord God with all your heart, mind mind soul and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself remember that scribe who points that out and But then he wants to justify himself and he asks the question and who is my neighbor and Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan now the story of the Good Samaritan is very important for us because of this

Because Samaritans and Jews were not of the same people right? They're not of the same tribe. They're not of the same faith. They're not, they're not the same. They're not united by a common commonly shared anything. They are foreigners to each other. And yet what does Jesus describe? Jesus describes the Samaritan coming upon a Jewish man who is in need and recognizing in that Jewish man's need that he has an obligation and that obligation is to treat that man who's not there, not the same, treat him as his neighbor.

And Jesus asks the question, you remember he asked the question because the the Levite passes by, the priest passes by etc. Who treated him like a neighbor Well, the Samaritan did and Jesus says he is exactly. So keep this in mind. Solidarity is we belong to each other. Solidarity is even if we're different we still belong to each other. Does that make sense? Okay, so we have those virtues, temperance, justice, this reality lived out, solidarity. Paragraph 24.08 continues and highlights some of the obvious things like the seventh commandment forbids theft and I just love how the catechism gives us really good accurate complete definitions so theft I don't know taking something what's not that's not yours but it goes on to say that is yes here's a definition usurping another's property against the reasonable will of the owner

now that's that's, it's so well put because it's usurping another's property against the reasonable will of the owner. And it goes on to explain what that means. There is no theft if consent can be presumed or if refusal is contrary to reason and the universal destination of goods. Let's look at that.

There's no theft if consent can be presumed. What's an example of that? That example could be, now don't stretch this too far, but it could be the idea of, okay, I know that this person typically will loan me their car. I know this person typically will let me have some milk for my cereal, like my roommate or something like that.

That idea that, okay, consent can be presumed. Think of Kramer coming into Jerry Seinfeld's apartment and using his milk. Jerry has never said, hey, don't use my milk. So, okay, imagine at this point, Kramer can just presume that he can use Jerry's milk whenever he wants, that kind of a thing. I don't know if that's a dated reference,

but that's what we have. Or, goes on, so no theft if consent can be presumed, or if refusal is contrary to reason and the universal destination of goods. And so, goes on to describe that is obvious when there's an urgent necessity and the only way to provide for immediate essential needs is to put at one's disposal the property of others.

Okay, so here's an example. You are stranded in the mountains and you come upon someone's cabin and it is below zero and you are freezing and you come upon someone's cabin and it is below zero and you are freezing and you are hungry and you come upon what looks like just a locked up cabin. But in order to save your life, you break the lock or open the lock, open the door, use the cabin, use the fireplace,

use whatever resources they have there. That's not theft in the case of this obvious and urgent necessity. and the only way to provide for that immediate essential need food shelter clothing etc is to use someone else's goods because you're saving a life right so in that in that case that is not strictly speaking that does that make sense I hope so so you know it's really fascinating paragraph 2409 gives us a list and gives us a list of things that that these are also offenses

against the Seventh Commandment and I think it's worth just kind of walking through a some of them because you know we kind of ran through them but for example the deliberate retention of goods lent or of objects lost like you know finders keepers losers weepers that is not necessarily a church teaching I say more clearly that is not the church teaching that here's someone they dropped something and You see that and say well, you know, it's their loss That does not justify keeping those goods Business fraud is also a violation of the seventh commandment. How about this paying unjust wages?

Or forcing up prices by taking advantage of the ignorance or hardship of another. You know there's what I think I've heard of like things like payday loans that are an unjust and evil practice where you have this massive massive interest on these loans because people find themselves in need. It goes on to say the following are also morally illicit. So speculation in which one contrives to manipulate the price of goods artificially in order to gain an advantage to the detriment of others. I think that's fascinating that, you know, that happens worldwide. And so because it happens worldwide here in the universal catechism,

it highlights the fact that if you find yourself being a part of that, then you find yourself being a part of a significant problem. It goes on to say, corruption in which one influences the judgment of those who must make decisions according to law. Again, so bribery. Another one, appropriation and use for private purposes of the common goods of an enterprise.

So that idea of, this is actually for all of us, no, I'm just taking it for myself. Work poorly done. We can, you know, there's some of these things where yeah I don't artificially manipulate the price of goods and I don't necessarily, I don't try to bribe others, I have not really taken for my own what was, what actually belonged to the company. but work poorly done. Done consistently, this is an offense against the seventh commandment. Tax evasion.

Forgery of checks and invoices. Again, some of those things are obvious, but remember, justice, the virtue of justice is that, okay, if the government is taxing me on this, then the government, and the government, if it's legitimate taxing, then I legitimately owe the government. and the government, if it's legitimate taxing, then I legitimately owe the government. If I'm forging checks or invoices, again, that's theft.

Excessive expenses and waste. And remember this, no one's gonna bust you, no one's gonna probably, no one's gonna say that's against the law to have excessive expenses and waste. That's one of the reasons why, again, this isn't about law, I mean, it is in some ways, but it's primarily about virtue, it's primarily about the heart. And lastly here in this list, willfully damaging private or public property is contrary to the moral law, requires reparation. So vandalism is contrary to

the Seventh Commandment, clearly. But also here's that last line, requires reparation. Now we talked about a couple kinds of justice here. There's communicative justice, which regulates exchanges between persons and institutions. There is also legal justice, which concerns what the citizen owes in fairness to the community. Distributive justice, which regulates

what the community owes its citizens, and also reparative justice. Reparative justice is, again, we can talk about reparative justice when it comes to the state, when it comes to laws, but ultimately we're always going to keep coming back to virtue. And that virtue of, wait a second, what have I done? If I have done anything to hurt another, if I've done anything to take something away

from another, then reparative justice, I just would say this, has to come from my heart. And that's even the scripture verse that's referenced here. It says, remember Zacchaeus, that as he encounters Jesus, he's moved to this place of reparative justice where he says, if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. Again, this reparative justice, I believe in so many ways, it's most importantly coming from inside.

Because why? Because the law is limited and that recognition of, but my heart, right? My awareness of what I have done, what I have taken and what I owe, that has to come from within. And that's one of the reasons why I think it was John Adams who said that a democracy or a representative republic

must have a religious people, that the idea of the Constitution is founded on the idea that it's made for a religious people because a religious people Can be governed Without the government becoming so large that it is in everything This is this is the key the founders of the least United States of America They recognized that okay in order to have a free people, you have to have a limited state. But in order to have a free people and a limited state,

those people have to be people of virtue. Those people have to be religious people because or else what's gonna happen is, meaning this, they have to realize that there is a higher law than just the civil law. There's a higher law than government. There's a higher power than governmental control. Because of that, even if I can get away with breaking the civil law, even if I can get away from the government power, I realize that I can never get away from God's law and I can never get

away from God's justice. And therefore, this people has to be a religious people. They have to be a virtuous people on their own. There were this kind of justice, this reparative justice or any any justice. In so many ways, yes, obviously we want a state that is just. We want a civil society that is just. But it's only possible truly deeply when our hearts are aligned, right? When we are just, when we are virtuous. And so we recognize that, okay, if I participated in defrauding anyone of anything, just like Zacchaeus says, then I will restore that, not because someone's making me,

but because I'm choosing to do this. That make sense? I just wanna emphasize this. This all comes back to not handing power over to some authority, as much as it is, to actually become that kind of person who's a person of justice. Now, the last two things, 2413 and 2414.

2413 talks about games of chance, like so, right, gambling, et cetera. Those aren't of themselves contrary to justice, but they become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what's necessary to provide for their needs and those of others. Also, the passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement. There are people who are addicted to gambling. We recognize this last note. I think this is a happy last note, 2413.

It says, unfair wagers and cheating at games constitute grave matter unless the damage inflicted is so slight that the one who suffers it cannot reasonably consider it significant. And so this is for all the families who are listening to the catechism of the year and who have family members when you play board games, when you play card games, grandma always cheats or whatever the thing is. And like, okay, keep this in mind, unfair wagers and cheating at games, that's grave matter. Unless the damage inflicted is so slight, grandma's just getting away with winning another hand,

that the one who suffers it cannot reasonably consider it significant, it's not a good thing to do, and no one likes playing with grandma if that's what she always does. I don't know why I'm picking on grandma, but someone told me once that grandma always cheated at cards and I thought that was funny. Again, here's the catechism, just says yes,

this can be serious, but if the damage inflicted is so slight, this is just a family card game, then it's not necessarily grave matter. So keep that in mind. The last thing that is grave matter though, and it's so important for us to highlight this, that the Seventh Commandment forbids acts or enterprises that for any reason, selfish or ideological, commercial or totalitarian, lead to the enslavement of human beings. That is always going to be wrong. And so with the Church completely, because the Seventh Commandment completely forbids the enslavement of human beings to their being bought, sold, and exchanged like merchandise in disregard for their personal dignity. That is a sin against the dignity of the human person. So then

there we are. Okay, another big day, but what a good day is we just are hopefully challenged, hopefully invited, hopefully convicted to deeper and deeper freedom, deeper and deeper trust in the Lord. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.