Thou Shall Not Steal
One
God wants us to earn money and own private property. But the question is, if it’s mine, can I use it any way I want? What does God want me to do with my money and ability to earn money and how will he judge me when I stand before him at my death?
All the questions fall under the seventh commandment, “Thou Shall Not Steal.”
Jesus has a lot to teach us through the Church about money and economic policies.
So we are beginning a series that is basically a crash course on the economic principles God wants us to use in our personal lives, homes, businesses, and in our country that is found in the Catechism ( 2401-2557) that you might not have time to read and digest – so we have done it for you.
In the seventh commandment, He says, “Thou Shall Not Steal.”
So, let’s begin - what does this mean, “To Steal”?
The Catechism gives us an answer: stealing means taking another person’s property against their will. (#2408).
Notice - this means that not all property-taking is unjust. If the owner is being crazy unreasonable in his use of his property, one can sometimes legitimately take it away.
So, like if a guy is using his rifle to rob a store, and the police come in and yell, “Drop the weapon!” the thief can’t say, “Hey, this gun is my private property.”
So, the right to private property does have certain limits. But the first point to get down here is that God’s Commandment says that you can’t steal what belongs to someone else.
So how is it that something can belong to somebody in the first place?
Two
Where does the idea of Private Property come from?
The Church’s answer is that private property comes from work. When we work, we make part of the world our own. (cf. Centesimus Annus, 31).
God gave us a world – and God gave us intelligence and freedom and creativity. When we exercise our intelligence, freedom, and creativity for good in the world, we acquire the right to consider some of that goodness that we have brought into the world “ours.”
God has made us able to share with Him in the joy of creation. That’s what work is supposed to be. God labored to make the world, and it was good. We labor to develop the world and it is good.
Under normal conditions it is fitting that those who make the world better should receive a reward for that. The reward is private property.
So what we have is connected to what we do and what we do must be right and good, it must be done for the sake of making the world a better place.
Then it’s fitting that we should possess something to show for it.
This is the origin of private property.
Three
The Good of Private Property
Not only does private property come from making the world a better place but private property itself makes the world a better place.
St. Thomas gives several reasons as to why it’s good that everyone has certain things that belong to them:
First, everyone always works harder if he can see a direct connection between his work and his own life – and when a man is compensated for work with private property, he sees that connection very clearly.
Secondly, private property helps organize who is in charge of what. I’m in charge of my house, my bank accounts, my yard…Whereas if we basically make everybody in charge of everything, things get very confusing. That is what Communism found out and it didn’t work. Remember the car called the Yugo – didn’t work out so well.
Thirdly, when it’s clear what belongs to whom, there are fewer quarrels than when ownership is unclear, and everything seems up for grabs.
So private property, actually, makes the world and society more peaceful.
Pope Leo XII also added that, “Private property gives people the tools for exercising their creativity and freedom more easily” E.g., if you have your own money, you can invest it more easily w/o having to go through the red tape of a loan.
These are all the goods that come with private property. This is why the Church has always condemned communism as a political system – because it basically attacks ownership and the incentives, creativity, clarity, and peace that come with it.
Thou Shall Not Steal is God’s way of saying that private property, personal ownership, are good institutions – and we have to respect them.
Four
Wanting everyone to have private property
So private property is a good thing. In fact, it’s such a good thing that the Church wants everyone to have private property.
Catholic Social Teaching says this very clearly, “The Church's social doctrine requires that ownership of goods be equally accessible to all, so that all may become, at least in some measure, owners, and it excludes recourse to forms of ‘common and promiscuous dominion’”
The Church is opposed to communism which denies private ownership and the Church is also opposed to laissez-faire capitalists who are fine with there being just a few super-rich people who dominate everything.
So the Communists want nobody to have private property. The laissez-faire capitalists, the radical Capitalists are fine with just some people having all the private property. And the Church says, “No, we want everybody to have private property. So, let’s do what we can to make that happen.”
Five
All of it is on loan from God, it’s ours to do good with.
We also have to remember that since private property comes from working with God, using the gifts and tools we have from Him, and also using the materials of His created world – that tells us that our private property is ultimately on loan from Him.
He has entrusted us with our stuff – like the King entrusted His servants with different amounts of money in the parable – and He wants us to do good with it – not just use it for our own benefit.
So we are beginning a series of meditations on money and the economy – so you need to know these three principles:
Our money is meant to come from doing good in the world
It’s meant to be used to do good in the world
And we will be held accountable for every penny with which we’ve been entrusted.
So take a moment and ask God, am I using my money well? Am I using it to glorify God and help others?
Because if not, you’re going to have a very difficult time when it comes to rendering an account to the King who has given you this money for a time and a season – and who will want to know what you’ve been doing with it.