The seventh and eighth commandments are concerned primarily with our duties toward two possessions of our neighbor _ his material goods and his good reputation. Because human beings are inclined to be selfish and neglectful of the rights of others, God considered it necessary to lay down the explicit commands: "Thou shalt not steal" . . . "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor". Like the other commandments, these two commandments actually prescribe more obligations than those which they explicitly assert. The seventh commandment forbids not only stealing but every type of dishonest dealing; the eighth forbids not only falsehood but also many other sins of the tongue such as gossiping, the unlawful revelation of secrets, etc.
The ninth and tenth commandments are related to the sixth and seventh. The ninth forbidding interior sins regarding matters of purity, while the sixth forbids external acts; the tenth forbidding those internal sins the external performance of which is forbidden by the seventh commandment.
In our days there is much dishonesty, due largely to the excessive desire of people for riches and luxuries. In business, in politics, even in the home, many people are so anxious to enrich themselves that they are entirely unconcerned with the rights of their fellow men. Moreover, crimes of theft and robbery, often accompanied by violence or even murder, are becoming more and more common.
Sometimes people buy stolen goods knowingly, and apparently do not realize that they have no claim to them but that they must give them back to the real owner. Indeed, even if a person buys stolen goods without realizing that they have been stolen, he may not keep them when he finds out that they were stolen if he knows the owner. If the owner appears and proves his right to the goods, the man who has bought them must restore them, even though the owner makes no recompense for the price the recipient has paid; but the latter has a right to get his money back from the thief who sold him the goods.
The civil law is unable to accomplish much toward preventing these violations of the seventh commandment. True, people are sent to prison for theft when they are captured. But many escape the law; many others commit sins of dishonesty in so clever a way that there is no civil law to cover their case. But they do not escape the allseeing eye of God. And no matter how successfully a person may have acquired dishonest gain, no matter how prosperous he may have made himself at the expense of his fellow men, death will come in a few brief years to separate him from his riches and to summon him to judgment before the throne of an alljust God.
Many persons, by not paying their just debts, are guilty of sins against the seventh commandment. Some claim that they are unable to pay, yet they continue to buy luxuries, a fact which shows that they are not sincere. There are even some who deliberately refuse to pay a debt even though they know it was contracted, if the creditor has no written proof of his claim. God's law of justice is not limited to what can be proved in a civil court.
Sins of the tongue which injure others are also prevalent. Without the least qualm of conscience men lie to their fellow men. There are many who gravely injure the reputation of their fellows by their uncharitable, often false, remarks and stories. Backbiting, talebearing, the violation of secrets that one should keep, rash judgments _ how common these are today!
Catholics, followers of Our Lord who was so attentive to the rights of others. should try to lead men to observe these commandments _ and the best way is to inspire them by good example. We must be strictly honest in our dealings with others. Even when there is a question of something of slight value, we must never take it or keep it if it belongs to another. How many, for example, seem to think that if they find something on the street they are entitled to keep it without an attempt to find the owner! Similarly, we must watch over our speech, rejecting every form of falsehood, carefully avoiding anything that might wound our neighbor's character, shunning rash and harsh judgments about our neighbor. "Do not judge, that you may not be judged" (Matt. 7:1).
RESOLUTION: Resolve to be strictly honest both in deed and in word.