If you look at the commandments four through ten, you will see a revelation of God's nature that is important for us as Christians. Too often, people disregard the Ten Commandments as either outdated for today or the erroneous view that since Jesus Christ came to fulfill the law, the Decalogue has no more use. This is entirely untrue.
The moral law can be summed up as follows: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Look at the commands as a revelation of the Love of God for us and the practical ways the love of God in our hearts is to be reflected back to God and to others.
1. No other Gods. God is the only God, and as God, he gives of himself entirely to us in covenant. We respond accordingly, in love, and embrace him as our one and only God.
2. Treat his name with infinite care. God's name represents himself. He reveals himself to us in the utmost intimacy. To know His name is to know him. Knowledge in this case, is the most intimate means of knowledge. We cannot, must not treat his name with casual disregard. How we treat his name is how we treat him.
3. Keep the Sabbath holy. Our time is the outworking of our covenant commitment to God. What we do and how we order our lives matters. Do we take this sublime calling to be God's own in this glorious covenant seriously? If we do, we will order our lives accordingly, and that being around the premier covenantal event of our lives: the sacred sacrifice of the Mass and the day it falls on.
4. Honor your Parents. Imagine...we as eternal beings, got our life from our parents, who good or bad, made it possible to experience the life of the Holy Trinity. If you've had bad parents or not. Get past this. You are completely free to embrace our Lord because of your parents. This is why we honor them. We couldn't have an eternity of bliss without them. Simply awesome!
5. Do not murder. God loves and looks out for the innocent. He is entirely just. He is a champion of the weak and dispossessed. He is the life giver. Only He can take life, and does so justly. We cannot take the place of God and take the lives of the innocent. Included in this is the issues of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, embryonic stem-cell research.
6. Do not commit adultery. God is entirely faithful. He never fails on his commitments. When he gives of himself to us, he never holds back or sneaks around to undermine his commitment elsewhere. He gives completely and unreservedly. Neither should we. Marital faithfulness is hard work, chastity doesn't come passively, but the blessings of chastity are heavenly!
7. Do not steal. The integrity and justice of God is found in His creation. When he gives something, he doesn't take it back willy-nilly. It is true gift. The things we have have been given to us by the Lord. As he honors what he gives us, we honor this in others as well. This forms the foundation for private property rights of all civilized societies where private property is held in esteem. In fact, ALL rights are founded upon the existence of a Creator and the life he gives to us. When a culture allows theft, you have a culture that is chaotic and has lost it's faith in the existence of God.
8. Do not bear false witness. What would happen to a society where everything you hear and read is untrue? This isn't so hard to imagine, isn't it? Perhaps it's because we experience this in media and advertising; we have been made vulnerable by the lies of others. We have to be skeptical in order to protect ourselves. This is because lying undermines life in any and all relationships. How can you know someone if you cannot trust them? How can you know them if what they are saying about themselves is possibly untrue? How can you believe? This is the crux of why the God has given the Catholic Church the gift of infallibility. Infallibility allows us to have the utmost trust in the Catholic Gospel. We are at the complete mercy of God since we have absolutely NO WAY to check to see what has been revealed is true. How do you verify the truthfulness of a revelation? It's impossible for us humans to do this. Seeing our vulnerability, God stands completely behind His revelation and protects it by the Holy Spirit. People of the Covenant of Christ are to have the same level of integrity in our relations with others.
9 & 10. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, husband, and belongings. Purity in the heart is requisite in our relationship with God. To desire that which is utterly opposed what God desires it completely contrary to the covenant. It to this that Christ levels his warning: to desire another besides your own spouse is to commit the act of adultery. Our thought life and desires is an act just like any outward action. God desires for us are completely pure. There is no darkness in thought or deed in him. We are to be a reflection of him in our thought lives as well.
As Christians, participators in the New Covenant of Christ, we have the graces to accomplish God's will for us: to become Jesus Christ...to actually become divinized by participating in the life of the Trinity. Let's not shirk our responsibilities as New Covenant people, but use the Decalogue as a guide it was meant to be. God bless you in your journey!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment