A rich young man asked, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?” Jesus answered, “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments: you shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said, “All these I have observed. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.” When the man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
As stated above, the commandment seven clearly and explicitly mandates that we must not steal. It is wrong to take something that doesn’t belong to us without given permission. It is a dishonest and bad behavior, which is displeasing in God’s eyes. When we want to use or to have something that belongs to someone else, we need to ask politely for permission. If we are told that we cannot use nor have it, then we must not be angry or secretly come back and take it away without the other person’s knowing. It is a sin that we steal because we violate the God’s given respect and dignity for each person.
However, the words of God above not only command that we shall not steal, but also require us to leap beyond ourselves to help the poor and our neighbor. To gain eternal life, to live with God forever in heaven, it is not enough to just not to steal, but to reach out to other people who are in need. Through baptism, we have become brothers and sisters in Christ to each other. Even more so in a wholly human network, we become brothers and sisters to each other through God’s creation—that all of us are created in God’s image and likeness. Therefore, bound together by God, we have the responsibility to care for each other, to try to make sure that each one of our brother and sister have a bowl of rice or bread to eat daily, some clothes to keep them warm, and a home to shelter them from rain and scorching sunlight—a place they can live with their families so they do not have to live on the street. It is just not enough to not take something away from someone; it is all the more important to give something of ourselves to help others who are in need.
At school, Jenny notices that her close friend Anna has a really nice and “cool” necklace that her mother gave as a gift on her birthday. Everyone likes it and compliments Anna for having such a cool necklace. As a close friend, Jenny feels jealous because Anna attracts all the attention. She feels isolated and left out. To be like Anna, Jenny wants to have the same necklace, but to wait to receive it as a gift for birthday is too long—not in another ten months and by then their friendship has probably faded and gone. So, she must have it now. However, the necklace costs $30 and Jenny has only $10. Jenny has attempted to ask her family for another $20 so she could by the necklace, but her family denies and says that it is not good to run after what other people have. Especially these days when new and trendy accessories are constantly coming out and trying to lure people into buying it, her family just cannot afford to buy her things every time her friends have something new. And at her family’s rejection, Jenny is sad.
On a Sunday morning, Jenny’s mother comes back from the supermarket and in a hurry to answer the phone in her bedroom she leaves the purse on the kitchen table. Jenny looks at the purse. Seeing that nobody else is around and her mother is in her bedroom busy talking on the phone, Jenny approaches the table, opens the purse and sees two $20 bills. She thinks, “Mother will know that she has lost $20 when she checks her purse later, but she will not know that I take it because I have always been a good and trusting daughter in her eyes. And maybe she has dropped it on her way out to the car from the market.” With this persuasive thought, Jenny decides to take $20. Later, when she attends Sunday mass, a visiting priest from Vietnam gives a talk about the condition at his parish: many children are dying from hunger because of the recent famine that destroyed all the crops and other stables. The news touches Jenny’s heart and she wants to help those children. She has $30 in her pocket which she would use to buy the necklace the next day. Jenny really wants to buy the necklace but she also wants to help the children in Vietnam so much. What would Jenny do?
There are so many things that we want to have in life. We want to have nice back pack, nice shoes and clothes and beautiful necklace or earrings. We often feel jealous and envious when we see our friends have something that we don’t have. That feeling of jealousy and envy drive and motivate us to strive to achieve to those things. But how do we achieve them? Obviously not by stealing, taking things from our friends without their permission or knowing—no reasons allow us to do that. We could try to ask our parents politely whether or not they could buy the things we want. If they decline to buy for us, we still do not have the right to steal from our friends. Essentially, we cannot take the money from our parents’ or siblings’ purses to buy ourselves what we want.
On the contrary, if in school, you see a friend who is hungry and has only an apple or nothing for lunch, and you have a full brown bag of food, then what would you do? It is very kind and pleasing to God if you approach to that friend and share your lunch. Don’t ignore and walk pass by. Jesus said that whoever cares for a friend who is hungry, thirsty or cold, that person actually cares for Jesus and will receive a hundred fold in heaven. Moreover, by sharing your food, doing something nice for a friend, or helping our mother to wash dishes, we show that we love Jesus because we listen to what he said: love other people as you love yourself.
So, being a good person, we do not take things from other people without permission and we try to help other people when they are in need, such as a friend who is hungry.
The seventh commandment teaches us that we should not steal, taking things that do not belong to us without permission. It is wrong and it is a sin because by stealing we disrespect the right and dignity of other people. Also, we will break the trust and hurt our relationship with others. However, to achieve eternal life—to live with God forever—and to be children of God, we must do more than not just stealing. We must help other people who are in need of our help because through God, we are all brothers and sisters and we have the responsibility to care for each other. We help to make sure that everyone has enough food to eat, clothes to keep warm, and a house where they could call it home.
Dear Jesus, my God and my Friend, please help me to faithfully keep your commandment. Give me courage to resist the temptation to steal from other people things that do not belong to me. More than that, plant within me a compassionate and kind heart so I could reach beyond my selfishness to love and care for my brothers and sisters who are in need, to give them a piece of bread or a glass of water. You said, “whoever cares for the least of my people, that person cares for me.” Jesus, I want to love and care for you.