Breaking the 10th commandment -Do not covet

[maxdouglas402]

Is it a mortal sin to want to do something you can’t already do.

If I wanted to dribble a basketball like someone in the NBA would that be “coveting a skill” of someone else?

The reason I ask is because it seems like jealousy could be the driving factor behind a desire to do something like that. Or could the motivation come from good hardy competition, and desire for achievement?

Or if I want to buy a pair of shoes because someone else has them or because they’re “in style.” Would that be coveting?

 

[R_C]

There’s a difference between ordered desires and disordered desires. Check this section of the Catechism to understand this better.

Some quotes from it:

2535 The sensitive appetite leads us to desire pleasant things we do not have, e.g., the desire to eat when we are hungry or to warm ourselves when we are cold. These desires are good in themselves; but often they exceed the limits of reason and drive us to covet unjustly what is not ours and belongs to another or is owed to him.

2536 The tenth commandment forbids greed and the desire to amass earthly goods without limit. It forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power. It also forbids the desire to commit injustice by harming our neighbor in his temporal goods

2537 It is not a violation of this commandment to desire to obtain things that belong to one’s neighbor, provided this is done by just means.

2538 The tenth commandment requires that envy be banished from the human heart.

 

[OmniShaun]

Covet:

to desire (what belongs to another) inordinately or culpably.
to feel inordinate desire for what belongs to another.

this is of course not the only definition but I think an apt definition for how we are using “covet”

If we think of the Golden Mean it makes perfect sense. We want to be in a healthy level of emotional commitment for anything. To much is bad, to little is bad.

I think that as long as you do not want to take the item or ability from the rightful possessor, nor do you hate the item/ability because you don’t have it, you should be on or adjacent to the Golden Mean.