Thou shall not covert thy neighbour’s goods Homily for Tuesday of the 9th week in ordinary time JUNE 2023

HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 9TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, CYCLE I (JUNE 06, 2023)

Tobit 2:9-14; Ps.112; Mark 12:13-17

Thou shall not covert thy neighbour’s goods

The tenth commandment says: thou shall not covert thy neighbour’s goods. As clear as this commandment is, hunger, in its various forms, continues to constitute a major justification for the disobedience of this commandment. We may have witnessed, watched or read of situations where a person caught stealing, gives the excuse that he/she was pushed into the vice by the pain of hunger or the need to meet one emergency situation or the today. Today, moralists still argue whether such a person is actually justified for stealing or not.

However, Tobit shows us the right way to go, in the first reading of today. After doing something noble yesterday, Tobit is unfortunately struck with blindness. A blind man is incapacitated. So, Tobit had to depend on others to care for him. The Tobit who had so much to eat and even to share with the poor, was now so poor that he entirely depended on the merger daily wage of the wife. Maybe, before now, the wife was not working since the husband could earn more than enough for their needs and wants. Again, Tobit may have had some savings, but having been blind for more than four years, the savings were exhausted. The question now is: why do bad things happen to good people? We can imagine how much more Tobit’s neighbours would have mocked him that his kindness could not save him from such calamity. The suffering of good people usually strengthens the resolution of bad people to remain bad.

Inspite of this long suffering, Tobit did not regret any of his past kindness. In fact, his faithfulness to God never dimed. Today, he perceived the presence of a kid in his compound. He knew that his wife was not financially capable of buying one; so he thought that the kid was stolen. If it was stolen, he did not justify the theft on account of his suffering or their lack of resources; he will not even interpret it as his wife’s genuine attempt to care for him, rather, he queried the wife and insisted that she returned the kid to its owners. In his suffering, Tobit remained faithful and upright.

Beloved, whatever is not yours has not been designed to bring you satisfaction and happiness. Ps. 16(15): 5 says: the lot marked out for me is my delight. In the gospel reading, Jesus answered those who came to test him: render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. Today, let us examine our consciences to discover those things we are in possession of that we have obtained covetously. It could be something material (eg. Money) or immaterial (eg. A commendation). Possessing what is not yours means keeping the owner in deprivation. If we give to others what belongs to them, what belongs to us will definitely reach us.