The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 319: Summary of the Seventh Commandment (2025)

Episode Date: November 15, 2025

We have reached the In Brief section, or nugget day, on the seventh commandment. Father Mike reiterates that the right to private property comes from our dignity as humans, and the Church has a duty to weigh in on economic or social matters where that dignity is threatened. He challenges us to ask ourselves, do we see Jesus in “the distressing disguise of the poor” and just walk by him, or do we respond to him? Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2450-2463. 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 pure 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 319. We're reading paragraphs 2450 to 2463. As always, I am using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes 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 into your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com

and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates, daily notifications. You, though, have been here for 319 days, and you know what today means. Paragraphs 2450 to 2463, what are they? They are nuggets. And so we are coming to the conclusion of the Seventh Commandment. And so we have the summary. You know, I don't know if I mentioned this before. I used to skip all the nuggets.

I used to skip all the in briefs because I was, well, I already read the paragraph. Why do I need to read the in brief? There is something really, I'll say it like this, pedagogically effective. And so you kind of learn it. When you have this summary, I remember hearing someone once said, actually many people have once said that when you give a talk, if you can't summarize what you just said in one sentence, then you probably don't even know what it was you were trying to communicate. all of these nuggets are basically one sentence, and all these nuggets of one sentence are like, yeah, that was that, this is a summary of what that section was about. This is a summary of what this section is about. And so, you know, my appreciation for Nugget Day has grown and grown over the last 319 days, which brings us to today, the summary of the Seventh Commandment. Let us pray as we launch into Nugget Day. I did want to rhyme there. That was intentional. Here we go.

Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. Thank you for this. day. Thank you for bringing us all the way, all the way through this Catechism in year to this day. Thank you for bringing us through life to this day. Lord God, we ask that you please continue, continue to challenge us, continue to convict our hearts where our hearts are not like yours, where we don't love what you love, when we don't see the way you see, then we don't act the way you are calling us and you've created and redeemed us to act. We ask that you please send your Holy Spirit to come and meet us in this moment, send your Holy Spirit to come and continue to convict and console us as we are reminded of your high call, the high

call of the disciple when it comes to the use of goods. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. It is Day 319. We're reading Nuggets 2450 to 2463. In brief, you shall not steal. Neither thieves, nor the greedy, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. The Seventh Commandment enjoins the practice of justice and charity in the administration of earthly goods and the fruits of men's labor. The goods of creation are destined for the entire human race. The right to private property does not abolish the universal destination of goods.

The Seventh Commandment forbids theft. Theft is the usurpation of another's goods against the reasonable will of the owner. Every manner of taking and using another's property unjustly is contrary to the Seventh Commandment. The injustice committed requires reparation. Commutative justice requires the restitution of stolen goods. The moral law forbids acts which, for commercial or totalitarian purposes, lead to the enslavement of human beings or to their being bought, sold, or exchanged like merchandise. The dominion granted by the creator over the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe

cannot be separated from respect for moral obligations, including those toward generations to come. Animals are entrusted to man's stewardship. He must show them kindness. They may be used to serve the just satisfaction of man's needs. The church makes a judgment about economic and social matters when the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls requires it. She is concerned with the temporal common good of men because they are ordered to the sovereign good, their ultimate end. Man is himself the author, center, and goal of all economic and social life. The decisive point of the social question is that goods created by God for everyone should in fact reach everyone in accordance with justice and with the help of charity. The primordial value of

labor stems from man himself, its author and beneficiary. By means of his labor, man participates in the work of creation. Work united to Christ can be redemptive. True development concerns the whole man. It is concerned with increasing each person's ability to respond to his vocation and hence to God's call. Giving alms to the poor is a witness to fraternal charity. It is also a work of justice pleasing to God.

How can we not recognize Lazarus, the hungry beggar in the parable, in the multitude of human beings without bread, a roof, or a place to stay? How can we fail to hear Jesus, as you did it not to one of the least of these. You did it not to me. There we have it paragraphs 2450 to 2463, or Nuggets 2450 to 2463. As I said in the intro, that the power, the power, I think, that the wisdom of having an in brief, of having this summarized, what we've been walking through for the last number of days in the Seventh Commandment, to have it summarized like this, makes it

absolutely clear what we're called to. so not just not take other people's property but also that people can have property right that there's a right to private property and there's this thing called the universal destination of goods right that the resources of the world are meant to meet the needs of the world that the resources that are provided for us are meant to meet the needs of those of all of us and that recognition that if that if that's the case then i might need to have my lens reshaped right remember when it came to the Bible in a year, we recognize that what that was doing is giving us a biblical worldview. And this is what the catechism in the year is doing as well. It's giving us a scriptural and

Catholic worldview, which is meant to be the worldview of God himself. How does God look at the world? How does God look at stuff? How does God look at labor? And how does God look at creation? And finally, how does God look at need, right? How does he look at the poor? And so we have this. We have that this, this, a right to private property because you have dignity. Therefore, you have a right to own stuff. You have a right not to have that stuff stolen. You have a right that if that stuff is stolen, that you have a right to reparation, the restitution of stolen goods, or you have a duty to do that.

If you take someone else's stuff, you have a duty to give them reparation or to give them back their stuff. Also, human beings with their dignity may never be enslaved or never treated like merchandise that we remember this we say this so many times that human beings are always meant to be loved things are meant to be used never the other way around and also animals creation that those are things creation in animal yeah we meant to treat animals with kindness at the same time we can have the just use of animals provided that we remember that we are stewards and that animals by their very existence they bless and glorify god

so good. And the church, here back paragraph or nugget 2458, highlights this. It says the church makes a judgment about economic and social matters. Then the church does this. And the church can do this, can make a judgment about economic and social matters. It goes on to say, when, when the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls requires it. And that it makes sense for the church to be involved, or for members of the church who have had their heart, their worldview, their life shaped by the revelation of God in the church for them to make an impact on economic or social or political life. Why? Because the church is concerned, as it goes on to say 2458, the church is concerned with the temporal common good of men. Why? Because the temporal common good of men is

ordered to the sovereign good, their ultimate end. And so this recognition of, you know, how we live this life matters for eternity. And if people are being objectified, if people are being troddened upon. If people are not being lifted up and not treated as individuals made in God's image, then the church will weigh in. And if there's economic systems that are unjust, the church is going to weigh in. If there are social systems, the social structures, and political structures that are not just. The church is going to weigh in. Why? Because that has to do with the dignity of the rights of the human person and the salvation of souls. So important. Paragraph 2459 once again reminds us that what is the center of all economic and social life? The human person,

That is the author, the center, and the goal of all economic and social life is the human person. And so then goes on to say in paragraph 2459, the decisive point of the social question is that goods created by God for everyone should in fact reach everyone in accordance with justice and with the help of charity. And that work, every work, all labor is a gift that all labor has value. I mean, just even, I know we've mentioned this before. Let's take a moment. You know, this catechism even mentioned Christ, the carpenter, that Jesus worked with his hands for years. But have we talked about this, that the Greek word that is used in scripture for what

Jesus and Joseph did, how they made their living, is the Greek word tecton, T-E-K-T-O-N, I believe, you know, the English rendering of the Greek word tecton. And tecton can mean craftsmen, right? It can mean carpenter in the sense of what we think of. When we think of a carpenter, we think of like, you know, the carpenter's workshop where they're working with wood and they're making tables and chairs, kind of like in the movie The Passion of the Christ when they have the flashback to Jesus and building a table, building some chairs.

That can mean that. But the word tecton kind of overarchingly simply means laborer. So it can mean someone who works in wood. It also can mean someone who works in stone like a mason. It also can mean someone who simply carries stone. I remember reading a book by Father Benedict Rochelle years ago about St. Joseph. And in it, he kind of dived doveed over. He went a little deeply into his kind of just his imagination of what could it have been that Joseph and Jesus did when they worked.

And he described how at the time of Jesus' youth, there was a city that was being built a couple miles from Nazareth. And it is likely, he proposed, it is likely that Jesus and Joseph would get up every morning and they would walk to wherever the construction of this city was going on. and all day they might have just hauled rocks. That was it, just hauling rocks so that people could build their homes, haul rocks so that people could, you know, pave the roads, just haul rocks all day. And it could be the case. I'm not saying this is the case.

It could be the case that that is what was meant by, oh, we know who Jesus is. Isn't he the son of Joseph, the tecton? Isn't he the son of Joseph, the guy who just carried rocks all day? Isn't he, Jesus is even called the carpenter? Isn't he just the tecton? Isn't he just the guy who carried rocks all day? If that's the case, or if it's the case that Jesus was a carpenter in the way that we like to imagine,

what we're trying to say is in paragraph 2460, the primordial value of labor stems from man himself, it's author and beneficiary, that by means of his labor, man participates in the work of creation and work united to Christ can be redemptive, all work in this recognition. I tell this to the students all the time. There is no such thing as work that's beneath you. Because here is God himself who for 30 years before he preached and healed and before he saved the world he worked as a tecton carpenter mason guy who carried rocks no such thing as work that's beneath me no such thing as work that's beneath you because our god himself has sanctified all labor and lastly of course the fact that the nuggets at the end highlight the fact that god has a preferential option for

those who are in need. God has a preference your option for those who are the weakest and most vulnerable among us. God has a preferential option for the poor. And remember that parable of Lazarus that's cited in paragraph 2463 from Luke chapter 17. The poor man Lazarus, who was ignored by the rich man. Remember how that ended. That Lazarus was in a place of peace in Abraham's bosom. And the rich man was in a place of torment. Not because it says the rich man was horrible and every morning he saw Lazarus sitting there and kicked him as he walked by. It doesn't say that. He just simply saw Lazarus and ignored him. He saw this person in need and he ignored him. And this is the ultra-convicting thing for you and for me. Is who are the people

around me who are in need? I don't want to ignore Jesus. I don't want to see Jesus in what Mother Teresa called the distressing disguise of the poor and just walk by him not only because i want to save my soul but also because if that's jesus i don't ever want to miss him also but here's the big question what do you do right what do we do when we see the lord in the distressing disguise of the poor do we stop every time we see a person on the side of the road i don't know do we stop every time someone and give something to someone every time they ask for it i don't know the answer to that question and yet what we need to do is ask, if this was Jesus asking me, what would I say? That's one of the ways we can move forward.

Again, I don't know the answer to the question, but I do know that we've been given a challenge by God himself, and that challenge is to see him in the least of these. So I hope I pray that all of us live up to that challenge. Tomorrow we're going to move on and talk about the Eighth Commandment, bearing false witness. But today, I want to let you know that I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mac. I can't wait to see you tomorrow.

God bless.