Lesson 10 Recap: The 10 Commandments and Moral Law

Greetings again, dear hearts!

Well, as our series "The Four Pillars of Faith" winds down, it seems the class times become more special to me. As I get to know you all as time goes, you are becoming more dear to me. I am honored to have met you all and know you as my friends. I'm sure our friendships will continue into the future. I look forward to see how God uses us in advancing the Kingdom of Christ.

The First Three Commandments:

1. I am the Lord your God...you shall not have other gods before me.

2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

3. You shall keep the Sabbath Day holy.


These first three commands deal specifically with the relationship we have with God, and from these, the rest of the commandments flow. From our previous class, we are justified by faith in the sacrament of baptism, the gateway sacrament to all the sacraments. Justification means we are adopted as sons and daughters of God in Christ Jesus. Jesus becomes our elder Brother! And what a Brother he is, eh? God pronounces us righteous through the merits of Christ's sacrifice and infuses justice into our souls. Grace and the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity are imparted to us. YET, our wills are liberated to do God's will. This is NOT a permanent condition; we can always reject this life that God gives us. It is an ever present danger that we can walk away, should we allow concupiscence to reign in our hearts instead of Christ. The reality of the existence of Hell should be a constant reminder: we could still end up there, for it is made for those who reject God, whether people are unbaptised or baptised. God will grant the ungodly what they choose... an eternity without Him.

Freedom, in Catholic teaching, is the ability to do God's will and accomplish the end that he has set for us: participate in the life of the Holy Trinity and unity in the Trinity in Christ at the consummation of the ages, heavenly bliss.

We can begin to enjoy that bliss now as we continue to avail ourselves to God's grace. The moral life is NOT a treadmill of works designed to get God's grace, as some detractors of the Catholic faith would say. God is the initiator of this wonderful grace life, from the prevenient graces given to unbelievers, prompting them to move toward God; the actual graces God gives us for special situations where we need to be supercharged; sanctifying grace that comes through baptism and sustained by the sacraments, our prayers, our good works--all of which are empowered by God's grace in cooperation with our wills. A perfect scripture to illustrate this is St. Paul's statement in Philippians 2: 13; "Work out your salvation in fear and in trembling, for God is at work within you do will and do of his good pleasure." In essence, we must work out what God is working in. And we must do so in fear and trembling, without presumption. If we don't, we are in a heap of trouble.

So the commandments, in light of the Gospel of Grace, are a moral guide for us to accomplish the building of virtue with the grace God gives us. We never work outside the realm of grace. This is foreign to our thinking. However, outside the Catholic faith, those who see justification as merely a pronouncement of righteousness only, will often separate works from faith. WE DO NOT AND CANNOT MAKE THIS SEPARATION. Listen again the St. Paul in the Book of Romans:

God...will repay everyone according to his works: eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality through perseverance in good works, but wrath and fury to those who selfishly disobey the truth and obey wickedness. Yes, affliction and distress will come upon every human being who does evil, Jew first and then Greek. But there will be glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good, Jew first and then Greek. There is no partiality with God. Romans 2:6-11

Some key points covered were:

1. Sins against the First Commandment are sins against Faith, Hope and Charity. Sins against Faith are heresy, which can be either the belief in something that is contrary to Catholic teaching or, unbelief in stated doctrines; apostasy, where someone rejects faith in Christ altogether; and schism, a refusal to submit to the teaching authority of the Church and as a result, create a party in conflict with the Church. The Society of Piux X is an example of a schism.

Sins against hope is despair, since hope, the forgotten virtue, is God's ability and intent to fill what is lacking in us to accomplish the goal He has for us. He's confident that His grace will sustain you through difficulty. Despair rejects the possibility of God's help and sustaining grace and yields to a personal judgment of God that is contrary to God's character and faithfulness. Do YOU have confidence in His grace? You have EVERY reason to! And finally, Charity, where indifference, ingratitude, lukewarmness and lack of spiritual fervor due to slothfulness can easily mar and destroy the principle of love in our souls.

2. The issue of idolatry is very close to us. With the Money, Sex and Power schemes in our culture, in our businesses, sometime in our homes and Churches, we are always confronted with threats to our faith. Just as important, though, is the effect of our imagination on our faith life. We can inadvertently build images of God that areagainst the teaching of the Church, which often hold more power and sway over our moral choices and faith life than the teachings of the Church. You must reduce the influence of your imagination and subject it to the authority of Christ in the Magesterial teachings of the Church. For instance, say someone imagines God to be an anal-retentive, moral prude that bops us on the head when we sin, without lifting a finger to help us. I t is reasonable to see why these people have NO passion, love or interest in faith and religion. However, the solution is not running away from the Church. WE MUST BE COMMITTED TO PROPER ADULT FAITH FORMATION. The problem in this instance and most irreligious behavior is this: OUR GOD IS TOO SMALL. Below is a list of few common idols in our mind that distort and destroy our faith and devotion to God:

1. Milquetoast Savior: A feminized Jesus who is nice, mild, and a bit smarmy; he wants everyone to just get along. Cold and limp is his handshake. Ew.
2. Divine Policeman: He simply finds fault and condemns others. He strictly enforces the law, ma'am; there's no help in reconciliation.
3. Absentminded Grandfather: He's got so many people in his Kingdom, he can't keep track of them all to even remember their names. Because there are so many, he gives minimal attention to all . The loving look you get from him is vacant; he's already forgotten your name.
4. The Pure and Ice-Cold Prude: God is holy, just and waaaaaay far away. He doesn't want to get his hands dirty with the likes of you.
5. Party Hardy Deity: It doesn't matter what you believe, just believe and enjoy life. "No pain...No pain" is his motto. Rock on, dude!
6. Absentee Father: God made us in the world and is gone to do his own thing. The throne is empty. He has no care to help; We are on our own, baby!
7. The Overbearing Deity: He constantly in your face, verbally abusing, correcting, cajoling, and intimidating us into submission; there is no encouragement from this ogre.
8. The Co-dependant Deity: God somehow needs you to love him; like a puppy he will do or be whatever you want him to do or be. You're in charge--you get to choose, he'll meet your every desire so long as you love Him. Yech.
9. The Manager: God is a cold-blooded control freek, whose more interested in order, schedules, and avoiding inconvenience. Interrupting schedules are a huge irritation to this false god. Don't interrupt him with your prayers. To him, showing Love is an inconvenience.
10. The Sadistic Deity: God gets great pleasure condemning people to Hell. We are his property and he gets to do whatever he wants, send calamities, allow crime, murder and rape. Sorrow in life and the presence of evil gives him pleasure.
11. The Helpless Hands-are-tied Deity: God cares about us, he just can't help us. Somehow his hands are tied and he cannot help. Wuss.

These are just a few of the potentially unlimited amount of false gods that can drift in and make themselves at home in our minds. Evict them. Grab them by the scruff of the neck and pants and give them the mighty heave ho! SEND THESE HELLISH IMPOSTOR TO HELL WHERE THEY CAME FROM! Also, give your concupiscence notice, 'No Deity but the Deity as taught by the Catholic Church resides in your heart." Formation of your conscience IS YOUR DUTY. Don't be passive here!

If you find yourself lethargic in faith, passionless, tending toward spiritual sloth, the very first question you need to ask is: "Is my God too small? Is my belief about God infinitely beneath Him, affecting my mind, will and emotions?" You need to examine this. You may have to take some time to look back at the source of these beliefs, if in fact they do exist. You must challenge any conclusions you or others have given you that are contrary to the teachings of the Church about God. Once you find these false beliefs, DESTROY THEM AS THE PUTRID IDOLS THAT THEY ARE!!!!! And then, REPLACE them with proper catechesis, building your thoughts and emotions on that which is TRUE about God. DON'T LET THE IDOLS IN YOUR IMAGINATION DOMINATE AND DESTROY YOUR FAITH!!!!

3. We spoke of God's name, how holy it is. The modern Jew never speaks of the Tetragrammaton in Ex. 3:14. They call Him Heshem, meaning "the name" or Adonai, meaning "Lord." Elizabeth, when Mary came to her, cried out:

"Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord (Adonai) should come to me?" (Luke 1:42-43)

We do well to learn from our Jewish brothers and sisters here and speak always with complete respect for the name of our Lord. Remember, in Hebrew thinking, the name of someone represents that person.

4. Finally, we spoke of the Sabbath in terms of covenant, where the Hebrew work "shebah" is both the number "seven" and also a word meaning "cutting", as in cutting a covenant. This is illustrated vividly when God "sevened" a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, and also in Genesis 21, where Abraham and Lamech "sevened" a covenant regarding a well that was previously fought over by by both parties. The covenant cut essentially formed a family bond between Abraham and Lamech to cease hostilities, forming a family bond that is tighter than than a blood bond. The name of the place is called Beersheba, "Well of the Covenant." The sacrifice victim is symbolic of what will happen to any in the covenant that breaks the covenant: what happens to the victim will happen to those who break this covenant. The covenantal oath is serious business. And when God "sevens" himself in covenant, you know He'll keep it.

So, God's seventh day, called "Shebah" or Sabbath, is God's covenant with His creation, where He gives of himself entirely for the sake of creation. Our life in the New Covenant in Christ, binds our entire lives, our selves in our time, life purpose, goals, daily and even seemingly mundane decision to the Covenant God makes with us. Our time is precious to God; it's how we live out our covenant committment to God. Our covenantal response to God always will involve our time committment.

Sundays, which commemorate the Resurrection of Christ, is also called the "Eighth Day," symbolic of eternity. God, through Jesus Christ and our assisting in the Mass, participate in the eternity that is God's nature and life. Our Sundays matter to God. It is our way to develop the intimacy that God longs for with us and meets our deepest core needs as human beings. "Our hearts are restless until we find ourselves in Thee, O God."

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