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Monday, January 27, 2014

Life in Christ: The Ten Commandments


PART THREE
LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION TWO
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Exodus 20 2-17 Deuteronomy 5:6-21 A Traditional Catechetical
Formula
I am the LORD your God,
who brought you out
of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
I am the LORD your God,
who brought you out
of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of
bondage.
1. I am the LORD your God:
you shall not have
strange Gods before me.
You shall have no other gods before
me.
You shall not make for yourself a
graven image,
or any likeness of anything that is in
heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth;
you shall not bow down to them or
serve them;
for I the LORD your God am a jealous
God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children to the third and the
fourth
generation of those who hate me,
but showing steadfast love to
thousands of those
who love me and keep my
commandments.
You shall have no other
gods before me
. . .
You shall not take
the name of the LORD your God in vain;
for the LORD will not hold him guiltless
who takes his name in vain.
You shall not take
the name of the LORD your
God in vain
. . .
2. You shall not take
the name of the LORD your
God in vain.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it Observe the sabbath day, 3. Remember to keep holy
holy.
Six days you shall labor, and do all your
work;
but the seventh day is a sabbath to the
LORD your God;
in it you shall not do any work, you, or
your son,
or your daughter, your manservant,
or your maidservant or your cattle,
or the sojourner who is within your
gates;
for in six days the LORD made heaven
and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
and rested the seventh day;
therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath
day and hallowed it.
to keep it holy
. . .
the LORD'S Day.
Honor your father and your mother,
that your days may be long in the land
which the LORD your God gives you.
Honor your father and your
mother
. . .
4. Honor your father and
your mother.
You shall not kill. You shall not kill. 5. You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery. Neither shall you commit
adultery.
6. You shall not commit
adultery.
You shall not steal. Neither shall you steal. 7. You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness
against your neighbor.
Neither shall you bear false
witness
against your neighbor.
8. You shall not bear false
witness
against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's
house;
you shall not covet your neighbor's
wife,
or his manservant, or his maidservant,
or his ox, or his ass,
or anything that is your neighbor's.
Neither shall you covet
your neighbor's wife . . .
You shall not desire . . .
anything that is your
neighbor's.
9. You shall not covet
your neighbor's wife.
10. You shall not covet
your neighbor's goods.
PART THREE
LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION TWO
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
"Teacher, what must I do . . .?"
2052 "Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?" To the young man who asked this
question, Jesus answers first by invoking the necessity to recognize God as the "One there is who is
good," as the supreme Good and the source of all good. Then Jesus tells him: "If you would enter life,
keep the commandments." And he cites for his questioner the precepts that concern love of neighbor:
"You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness,
Honor your father and mother." Finally Jesus sums up these commandments positively: "You shall love
your neighbor as yourself."1
2053 To this first reply Jesus adds a second: "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and
give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."2 This reply does not do
away with the first: following Jesus Christ involves keeping the Commandments. The Law has not been
abolished,3 but rather man is invited to rediscover it in the person of his Master who is its perfect
fulfillment. In the three synoptic Gospels, Jesus' call to the rich young man to follow him, in the
obedience of a disciple and in the observance of the Commandments, is joined to the call to poverty
and chastity.4 The evangelical counsels are inseparable from the Commandments.
2054 Jesus acknowledged the Ten Commandments, but he also showed the power of the Spirit at work
in their letter. He preached a "righteousness [which] exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees"5 as well
as that of the Gentiles.6 He unfolded all the demands of the Commandments. "You have heard that it
was said to the men of old, 'You shall not kill.' . . . But I say to you that every one who is angry with his
brother shall be liable to judgment."7
2055 When someone asks him, "Which commandment in the Law is the greatest?"8 Jesus replies: "You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is
the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets."9 The Decalogue must be
interpreted in light of this twofold yet single commandment of love, the fullness of the Law:
The commandments: "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You
shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence: "You shall love
your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of
the law.10
The Decalogue in Sacred Scripture
2056 The word "Decalogue" means literally "ten words."11 God revealed these "ten words" to his
people on the holy mountain. They were written "with the finger of God,"12 unlike the other
commandments written by Moses.13 They are pre-eminently the words of God. They are handed on to
us in the books of Exodus14 and Deuteronomy.15 Beginning with the Old Testament, the sacred books
refer to the "ten words,"16 but it is in the New Covenant in Jesus Christ that their full meaning will be
revealed.
2057 The Decalogue must first be understood in the context of the Exodus, God's great liberating event
at the center of the Old Covenant. Whether formulated as negative commandments, prohibitions, or
as positive precepts such as: "Honor your father and mother," the "ten words" point out the conditions
of a life freed from the slavery of sin. The Decalogue is a path of life:
If you love the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and
his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multiply.17
This liberating power of the Decalogue appears, for example, in the commandment about the sabbath
rest, directed also to foreigners and slaves:
You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God
brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.18
2058 The "ten words" sum up and proclaim God's law: "These words the Lord spoke to all your
assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud
voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them upon two tables of stone, and gave them to me."19
For this reason these two tables are called "the Testimony." In fact, they contain the terms of the
covenant concluded between God and his people. These "tables of the Testimony" were to be
deposited in "the ark."20
2059 The "ten words" are pronounced by God in the midst of a theophany ("The LORD spoke with you
face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire."21). They belong to God's revelation of
himself and his glory. The gift of the Commandments is the gift of God himself and his holy will. In
making his will known, God reveals himself to his people.
2060 The gift of the commandments and of the Law is part of the covenant God sealed with his own. In
Exodus, the revelation of the "ten words" is granted between the proposal of the covenant22 and its
conclusion - after the people had committed themselves to "do" all that the Lord had said, and to
"obey" it.23 The Decalogue is never handed on without first recalling the covenant ("The LORD our God
made a covenant with us in Horeb.").24
2061 The Commandments take on their full meaning within the covenant. According to Scripture,
man's moral life has all its meaning in and through the covenant. The first of the "ten words" recalls
that God loved his people first:
Since there was a passing from the paradise of freedom to the slavery of this world, in
punishment for sin, the first phrase of the Decalogue, the first word of God's commandments,
bears on freedom "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of slavery."25
2062 The Commandments properly so-called come in the second place: they express the implications
of belonging to God through the establishment of the covenant. Moral existence is a response to the
Lord's loving initiative. It is the acknowledgement and homage given to God and a worship of
thanksgiving. It is cooperation with the plan God pursues in history.
2063 The covenant and dialogue between God and man are also attested to by the fact that all the
obligations are stated in the first person ("I am the Lord.") and addressed by God to another personal
subject ("you"). In all God's commandments, the singular personal pronoun designates the recipient.
God makes his will known to each person in particular, at the same time as he makes it known to the
whole people:
The Lord prescribed love towards God and taught justice towards neighbor, so that man would
be neither unjust, nor unworthy of God. Thus, through the Decalogue, God prepared man to
become his friend and to live in harmony with his neighbor. . . . The words of the Decalogue
remain likewise for us Christians. Far from being abolished, they have received amplification
and development from the fact of the coming of the Lord in the flesh.26
The Decalogue in the Church's Tradition
2064 In fidelity to Scripture and in conformity with the example of Jesus, the tradition of the Church
has acknowledged the primordial importance and significance of the Decalogue.
2065 Ever since St. Augustine, the Ten Commandments have occupied a predominant place in the
catechesis of baptismal candidates and the faithful. In the fifteenth century, the custom arose of
expressing the commandments of the Decalogue in rhymed formulae, easy to memorize and in
positive form. They are still in use today. The catechisms of the Church have often expounded Christian
morality by following the order of the Ten Commandments.
2066 The division and numbering of the Commandments have varied in the course of history. The
present catechism follows the division of the Commandments established by St. Augustine, which has
become traditional in the Catholic Church. It is also that of the Lutheran confessions. The Greek Fathers
worked out a slightly different division, which is found in the Orthodox Churches and Reformed
communities.
2067 The Ten Commandments state what is required in the love of God and love of neighbor. The first
three concern love of God, and the other seven love of neighbor.
As charity comprises the two commandments to which the Lord related the whole Law and the
prophets . . . so the Ten Commandments were themselves given on two tablets. Three were
written on one tablet and seven on the other.27
2068 The Council of Trent teaches that the Ten Commandments are obligatory for Christians and that
the justified man is still bound to keep them;28 the Second Vatican Council confirms: "The bishops,
successors of the apostles, receive from the Lord . . . the mission of teaching all peoples, and of
preaching the Gospel to every creature, so that all men may attain salvation through faith, Baptism and
the observance of the Commandments."29
The unity of the Decalogue
2069 The Decalogue forms a coherent whole. Each "word" refers to each of the others and to all of
them; they reciprocally condition one another. The two tables shed light on one another; they form an
organic unity. To transgress one commandment is to infringe all the others.30 One cannot honor
another person without blessing God his Creator. One cannot adore God without loving all men, his
creatures. The Decalogue brings man's religious and social life into unity.
The Decalogue and the natural law
2070 The Ten Commandments belong to God's revelation. At the same time they teach us the true
humanity of man. They bring to light the essential duties, and therefore, indirectly, the fundamental
rights inherent in the nature of the human person. The Decalogue contains a privileged expression of
the natural law:
From the beginning, God had implanted in the heart of man the precepts of the natural law.
Then he was content to remind him of them. This was the Decalogue.31
2071 The commandments of the Decalogue, although accessible to reason alone, have been revealed.
To attain a complete and certain understanding of the requirements of the natural law, sinful humanity
needed this revelation:
A full explanation of the commandments of the Decalogue became necessary in the state of sin
because the light of reason was obscured and the will had gone astray.32
We know God's commandments through the divine revelation proposed to us in the Church, and
through the voice of moral conscience.
The obligation of the Decalogue
2072 Since they express man's fundamental duties towards God and towards his neighbor, the Ten
Commandments reveal, in their primordial content, grave obligations. They are fundamentally
immutable, and they oblige always and everywhere. No one can dispense from them. The Ten
Commandments are engraved by God in the human heart.
2073 Obedience to the Commandments also implies obligations in matter which is, in itself, light. Thus
abusive language is forbidden by the fifth commandment, but would be a grave offense only as a result
of circumstances or the offender's intention.
"Apart from me you can do nothing"
2074 Jesus says: "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that
bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."33 The fruit referred to in this saying is the
holiness of a life made fruitful by union with Christ. When we believe in Jesus Christ, partake of his
mysteries, and keep his commandments, the Savior himself comes to love, in us, his Father and his
brethren, our Father and our brethren. His person becomes, through the Spirit, the living and interior
rule of our activity. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."34
IN BRIEF
2075 "What good deed must I do, to have eternal life?" - "If you would enter into life, keep the
commandments" (Mt 19:16-17).
2076 By his life and by his preaching Jesus attested to the permanent validity of the Decalogue.
2077 The gift of the Decalogue is bestowed from within the covenant concluded by God with his
people. God's commandments take on their true meaning in and through this covenant.
2078 In fidelity to Scripture and in conformity with Jesus' example, the tradition of the Church has
always acknowledged the primordial importance and significance of the Decalogue.
2079 The Decalogue forms an organic unity in which each "word" or "commandment" refers to all the
others taken together. To transgress one commandment is to infringe the whole Law (cf. Jas 2:10-11).
2080 The Decalogue contains a privileged expression of the natural law. It is made known to us by
divine revelation and by human reason.
2081 The Ten Commandments, in their fundamental content, state grave obligations. However,
obedience to these precepts also implies obligations in matter which is, in itself, light.
2082 What God commands he makes possible by his grace.
1 Mt 19:16-19.
2 Mt 19:21.
3 Cf. Mt 5:17.
4 Cf. Mt 19:6-12,21,23-29.
5 Mt 5:20.
6 Cf. Mt 5:46-47.
7 Mt 5:21-22.
8 Mt 22:36.
9 Mt 22:37-40; cf. Deut 6:5; Lev 19:18.
10 Rom 13:9-10.
11 Ex 34:28; Deut 4:13; 10:4.
12 Ex 31:18; Deut 5:22.
13 Cf. Deut 31:9-24.
14 Cf. 20:1-17.
15 Cf. Deut 5:6-22.
16 Cf. for example Hos 4:2; Jer 7:9; Ezek 18:5-9.
17 Deut 30:16.
18 Deut 5:15.
19 Deut 5:22.
20 Ex 25:16; 31:18; 32:15; 34:29; 40:1-2.
21 Deut 5:4.
22 Cf. Ex 19.
23 Cf. Ex 24:7.
24 Deut 5:2.
25 Origen, Hom. in Ex. 8,1:PG 12,350; cf. Ex 20:2; Deut 5:6.
26 St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres., 4,16, 3-4:PG 7/1,1017-1018.
27 St. Augustine, Sermo 33,2,2:PL 38,208.
28 Cf. DS 1569-1570.
29 LG 24.
30 Cf. Jas 2:10-11.
31 St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 4,15,1:PG 7/l,1012.
32 St. Bonaventure, Comm. sent. 4,37,1,3.
33 Jn 15:5.
34 Jn 15:12.

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