Transcript Life in Christ – Section II The Ten Commandments
Life in Christ – Section II The Ten Commandments: Commandments 1 - 4
Catechism of the Catholic Church Articles 2083 - 2257 Stephen M. Matuszak, STL © All rights reserved.
The Decalogue in Sacred Scripture
Decalogue literally means “ten words” They were written with the finger of God and therefore are preeminently the words of God.
In Jesus Christ their full meaning is revealed.
The Decalogue is the liberating path of life.
They are the gift of God and of His holy will.
They express God’s covenant with us.
The moral life is a response to the Lord’s loving initiative.
In the Church’s Tradition
The Church has always acknowledged the primordial importance of the Decalogue (10 Commandments).
They have occupied a prominent place in the catechesis of baptismal candidates & the faithful.
Catechisms have often expounded morality by following the order of the 10 Commandments.
The division and numbering of the Commandments has varied. The CCC follows that of Saint Augustine which has become traditional in the Catholic Church.
The Decalogue forms a coherent whole; the two tablets shed light on one another.
The Decalogue & Natural Law
They are a revelation from God, but teach the true humanity of man.
They bring to light essential duties and rights inherent in the nature of the human person.
They contain a privileged expression of the natural law.
Although accessible to reason alone, God revealed them because of our weakness due to original sin.
We know them both through the Church as well as through moral conscience.
Gravity of Obligation
Since the Commandments express fundamental duties towards God and towards neighbor, they reveal
grave obligations
binding upon all people.
They are fundamentally immutable and oblige us always and everywhere.
They are “engraved by God” on the human heart.
They also illumine “lighter obligations” which are associated with each commandment (see below).
Jesus commands us to fulfill them through love the law of love; “This is my commandment, that you
love one another as I have loved you
.” (John 15:12)
First Commandment
“
You shall worship the Lord your God and Him alone shall you serve
.” This commandment embraces faith, hope and charity in & for the one, true God. God himself gives us these virtues as gifts!
Our moral life has its source in faith in God who reveals his love for us. St. Paul calls this the “
obedience of faith
” (Rom. 1:5) The “
ignorance of God
” is the principle and source of all moral deviations.
This commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, rejecting everything opposed to it.
Voluntary doubt
God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief is a
serious matter
which disregards or refuses to believe what .
Involuntary doubt
is a hesitation in believing or temporary difficulty in overcoming objections connected with faith. One should seek counsel to overcome these doubts.
The Necessity of Hope
Man cannot respond to divine love by his own powers. He must hope that God will give him the capacity to love Him in return and to act in conformity to His commandment of charity.
Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing and attainment of the beatific vision of God in eternal life.
It is also the fear of offending God and incurring punishment.
This commandment also concerns sins against hope such as despair and presumption.
Despair is contrary to God’s goodness, justice and mercy.
Presumption involves depending upon our own limited capacity instead of on God; OR it presumes upon God’s almighty power or his mercy part.
– hoping to obtain his forgiveness without a real or sufficient conversion, and His glory without any merit on our
Charity and sins against charity
Faith in God’s love encompasses the call and obligation to respond with sincere love to divine charity; to love God above all things!
One sins against God’s love through:
Indifference
which neglects or refuses to reflect on divine charity & denies its power
Ingratitude
which fails or refuses to acknowledge divine charity and to return love for love
Lukewarmness
– hesitation or negligence in responding to divine love;
Acedia
– spiritual sloth which refuses the joy which comes from God and is repelled by divine goodness.
Hatred of God
- comes from pride. Denies goodness of love of God; presumes to curse God as the One who forbids sin and inflicts punishments.
“Him only shall you serve”
The theological virtues inform and give life to the moral virtues. Charity leads us to give to God what we as creatures owe him in justice.
The
virtue of religion
disposes us to have this attitude. True religion gives to God what belongs to God!
Adoration is the first act of true religion. To adore God is to acknowledge him as God, the Lord and Master of all; the true and only Source of infinite and merciful love.
To adore God is to acknowledge, in respect and absolute submission, the “nothingness of the creature” who would not exist except for God.
To adore God is to humble oneself, confessing with gratitude all that He has done and recognizing our debt to Him. This sets us free from the slavery of sin and the idolatry of this world.
Prayer & Sacrifice
Faith, Hope and Love should be accompanied by a commitment to prayer in our relationship with God.
Prayer is an indispensable condition for being able to obey God’s commandments.
It is right to offer sacrifice to God as a sign of adoration, gratitude, supplication and communion.
Outward sacrifice must be the expression of spiritual sacrifice, evidence of a “humble, contrite heart.” The only perfect sacrifice is the one that Christ offered on the cross as a total offering to the Father’s love and for our salvation. By uniting ourselves to Christ, we make our lives a sacrifice pleasing to God.
Promises & Vows
Promises
and
vows
to God are made at Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony & Holy Orders Fidelity to these and other promises is a sign of love and respect owed to the divine majesty.
A
vow
is also a deliberate and free promise made to God concerning a possible and better good which must be fulfilled.
The Church recognizes exemplary value in the vows to practice the evangelical counsels.
In certain cases and for proportionate reasons, the Church can dispense from vows and promises.
Social Duty of Religion & Religious Freedom
“All men are bound to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God & His Church, and to embrace it.” (Vatican II,
Dignitatis Humanae
#1) The duty of offering God genuine worship concerns all men both individually and communally.
This is the moral duty of
true religion
.
Through evangelization, the Church seeks to infuse the Christian spirit into the mentality, mores, law and structures of human society. This is not an imposition of our religion on others, but rather the establishment of a true human culture.
Nobody should ever be forced against his convictions nor restrained from acting in accord with conscience within reason.
The right to religious liberty is not a moral license to adhere to error, but a natural right to civil liberty. It must respect others as well as the laws that maintain order and harmony in society.
“You shall have no other gods before me”
This commandment forbids honoring gods other than the one Lord who has revealed himself to His people.
It proscribes superstition and irreligion, the vice contrary to true religion by way of defect.
It condemns
polytheism
, that men neither believe in nor venerate ‘divinities’ other than God.
Idolatry, a constant temptation to faith, is ‘divinizing’ what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God.
Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God and is incompatible with belief in and communion with God.
Divination & Magic
God can reveal the future to his prophets and saints; we should always trust in divine Providence to guide us in the face of difficulties and obstacles.
All forms of divination, conjuring up the dead or recourse to Satan, are to be rejected!
Practices of
magic
and
sorcery
by which one attempts to tame occult powers in order to have power over others is strongly condemned!
Wearing charms is reprehensible,
spiritism
such as divinization or spells also found in “traditional cures” is always wrong and contrary to true religion.
Irreligion
This commandment condemns the sins of irreligion: tempting God in words or deeds, sacrilege & simony.
Tempting God
consists in putting his goodness or almighty power to the test by word or deed. It wounds the respect and trust that we owe to our heavenly Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Sacrilege
consists in profaning or treating unworthily the sacraments, liturgical actions, persons, things or places consecrated to God.
Simony
is defined as the buying and selling of spiritual things. “It is impossible to appropriate to oneself spiritual goods and to behave toward them as their owner or master.”
Atheism & Agnosticism
“Atheism is one of the most serious problems of our time.” (Vatican II,
Gaudium et Spes
#19) There are many forms of atheism. One common form is “practi cal materialism” while another is “atheistic humanism” that con siders man to be the measure of all things, an end in himself.
Another looks for the liberation of man through economic and social liberation, based on Marxist social analysis.
Atheism is a sin against the virtue of religion and often arises from a false notion of human autonomy.
Agnosticism generally expresses religious indifferentism & flight from the ultimate questions of human existence, as well as a sluggish moral conscience. It is often equivalent with practical atheism which professes belief in God but acts as though there is not God.
“You shall not make graven images”
The absolutely transcendent God revealed himself to Israel.
God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward salvation by the Incarnate Word such as the bronze serpent & ark of the covenant.
The 7 veneration of icons of Christ, the Virgin Mary, angels and all the saints.
th Ecumenical Council (Nicea II in 787) justified the By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new ‘economy’ of images and so the veneration of images is not contrary to this commandment.
The honor paid to sacred images passes to the prototype. It is a “respectful veneration” that is give, but not worship!
Second Commandment
“
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain
.” This commandment proscribes respect for the Lord’s name and governs the use of our speech in sacred matters.
The Lord’s name is holy, so man must keep it in mind in silent, loving adoration.
Respect for his name is an expression of the respect owed to the mystery of God himself.
The faithful bear witness to the Lord’s name by confessing the faith without giving way to fear.
Forbidden by this commandment are:
The
abuse of God’s name
as well as that of our Lord Jesus Christ or the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Blasphemy,
uttering against God inwardly or outwardly, words of hatred, reproach, or defiance; speaking ill of God or failing to respect him in speech. It is a grave sin.
Oaths
which misuse God’s name, though without the intention of blasphemy, show lack of respect for the Lord. Magical use of the divine name is also forbidden.
More recently the Church has asked that out of respect for Judaism, we refrain from referring to God by speaking the sacred name which was revealed to Moses in the burning bush: YHWH.
Taking the Lord’s name in vain.
Swearing to take God as a witness to what one says, invokes divine truthfulness as a pledge of one’s own truthfulness. This is not contrary to the commandment.
Rejection of false oaths is a duty owed toward God.
God is the norm of all truth; human speech is either in accord with or in opposition to God who is Truth itself.
A false oath calls on God to be witness to a lie.
Perjury is making false promises under oath or telling lies under oath. It is a grave lack of respect for God.
The Church does not exclude proper oaths made for grave and right reasons, as for example in a court of law or the swearing in of an elected official to serve worthily in public office and protect the common good.
The Christian Name
The sacrament of Baptism is conferred in the “name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The Lord’s name sanctifies man and the Christian receives his own name in the Church – the Christian name that is an expression of the Christian faith.
“Parents, sponsors and pastors are to see that a name is not given which is foreign to Christian sentiment,” but one which reflects the Christian tradition and communion of saints.
God calls each one of us by name who bears it.
– the name is an icon of the person and demands respect as a sign of the dignity of the one The name one receives at baptism is a name for eternity; in the kingdom the unique character of each person marked with God’s name will shine forth in splendor.
The Third Commandment
“
Keep holy the Sabbath
.” God entrusted the Sabbath to Israel as a sign of His irrevocable covenant with them. The Sabbath is for the Lord; it is holy and set apart for the praise and worship of God.
God’s action is the model for human action; since God rested on the Sabbath, man too ought to rest from his labor and be refreshed in contemplation.
The Sabbath brings everyday work to a halt.
The Sabbath is a kind of ‘protest’ or limit against the servitude of work and the worship of money.
The Lord’s Day
Jesus rose from the dead “on the first day of the week”; it recalls the first creation and is the
8 th day
after the Sabbath, symbolizing the
new creation
ushered in by Christ’s resurrection.
For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the “Lord’s Day!” For Christians its ceremonial observance replaces the Sabbath because it fulfills its spiritual truth and announces man’s eternal rest in God through Christ.
The celebration of Sunday observes the command ment to render to God an outward, visible, public and regular worship as a sign of His goodness.
The Sunday Eucharist & Obligation
The Sunday celebration of the Lord’s Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church’s life. It is the day on which the paschal mystery is celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is a holy day of obligation in the Church.
The parish is the place where all gather regularly for this communal worship.
“On Sundays & other holy days the faithful are bound to participate in the holy sacrifice of the Mass.” Participation in the communal celebration of the Sunday Eucharist is a testimony of belonging and of being faithful to Christ and to his Church.
Day of Grace & rest from work
The Lord’s day helps us enjoy adequate rest & leisure to cultivate familial, cultural, social & spiritual lives.
On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s Day, the performance of works of mercy and appropriate relaxation of mind and body.
Family needs or social service can excuse one from the obligation of Sunday rest.
Legitimate excuses should not lead to habits that are prejudicial to religion, family life and health.
Christians should seek recognition of Sundays & the Church’s holy days as legal holidays.
Fourth Commandment
“Honor your Father & your mother.”
This commandment opens the 2 nd table of the Decalogue and shows the order of charity to our parents in the place after God.
After honoring God we should honor our parents to whom we owe life and who have given us the knowledge of God.
We are also obliged to honor and respect all whom God has vested with His authority such as teachers and rulers.
This commandment introduces subsequent commandments which are concerned with respect for life, marriage, earthly goods and speech. It constitutes one of the foundations for the social doctrine of the Church.
It presupposes the duties of parents, instructors, teachers, leaders, magistrates, those who govern and all who exercise authority over others or over a community of persons.
The Family in God’s Plan: The Nature of the Human Family
Marriage, established upon consent of the spouses, and family is ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and the education of children.
The love of spouses and begetting of children create among members of the family special (primordial) relations and responsibilities.
A man and woman united in marriage, together with their children, form the human family.
This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority, which has an obligation to recognize it.
It should be considered the
normal reference point
by which the different forms of family relationship are to be evaluated.
God instituted the family
and endowed it with its fundamental constitution. Its members are persons equal in dignity.
The Christian Family
It is a community of faith, hope and charity and assumes singular importance in the Church and should be called a “
domestic church
”.
The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit - a communion of life and of love!
It is called to partake of prayer and the sacrifice of Christ. Daily prayer and the reading of the word of God strengthen it in charity and Christian life.
The
Christian family has an evangelizing task!
The family is a “privileged community” called to achieve a deep communion of life and love as the fundamental basis of human society.
The Family & Society
The family is the original cell of social life.
It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life.
Authority, stability and close relationships within family constitute the foundations for freedom, security & fraternity in society.
It is the proper setting in which from childhood one can learn moral values, to honor God and to make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in the larger society.
The family must be helped and defended by appropriate social measures. This is an instance of the principle of subsidiarity.
Society has a particular responsibility to support, protect and strengthen marriage and the family. If not, society cannot survive for very long.
Civil society should consider it a grave duty to acknowledge the
nature of marriage and the family
, to protect and foster them, to safeguard public morality, and to promote domestic prosperity.
true
Duties of family members: children
Divine fatherhood is the source of all human fatherhood; this is the foundation of honor owed toward parents
(cf.
Eph. 3:14-19)
.
Respect for parents derives from gratitude toward those who by the gift of life, love and work, have brought children into this world and enabled them to grow in wisdom, stature and grace.
Filial respect is shown by true docility and obedience This commandment reminds grown children of their
responsibilities toward their parents.
illness, loneliness & distress.
As much as possible, they must give material and moral support in old age and times of Special gratitude is also shown to those from whom we have received the gift of faith, Baptism and life in the Church.
Duties of parents
Parents have a grave duty for the moral and spiritual formation of their children.
“The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute” (Vatican II, Decree on Education, #3) Parents must regard their children as
children of God
and respect them always as free
human persons.
Parents bear responsibility for their children’s education by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well suited for education in the virtues.
Role of parents, cont.
The home is the natural environment for initiating a human being into solidarity and the communal responsibilities that are so much a part of family life.
Through the grace of holy matrimony, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of
evangelizing their children in the Christian faith from an early age
.
Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the faith of which they are the “first heralds.” They do this first through their love.
Children contribute to the growth in holiness of their parents as well. All are called to make the home a place of love and tireless forgiveness – the justice of Christ demands it!
The Family & the Kingdom
Family ties are very important but not always absolute in the Kingdom of God.
As a child grows to maturity his unique vocation which comes from God asserts itself more clearly and forcefully.
Parents must respect this call and encourage their children to follow it – to follow Christ.
Being a disciple of Christ means to accept the invitation to belong to
God’s family
, the Church.
Parents should welcome and respect with joy and thanksgiving the Lord’s invitation to one of their children to come and follow him in Religious life or as a priest.
Authorities in Civil Society
This commandment also enjoins us to honor all who have authority from God in civil society.
Those who exercise authority should do so as a service to humanity and to the common good.
No one can command or establish what is contrary to the dignity of persons and the natural law.
The exercise of authority is meant to give outward expression to a just hierarchy of values.
Those in authority should practice distributive justice wisely with a view toward harmony and peace.
Political authorities must respect fundamental rights of the human person for the common good.
Duties of Citizens
Citizens should regard those in authority as representatives of God who makes us stewards of His gifts.
It is the duty of citizens to contribute to the good of society in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity and freedom.
The love and service of one’s country follow from the duty of gratitude and the order of charity.
Paying taxes, voting and defending one’s country are a result of co-responsibility for the Common Good.
Duties of Citizens, cont.
More prosperous nations are obliged to
welcome the foreigner
who is in search of security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his own country of origin.
Citizens are obliged in conscience not to follow directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or the teaching of the Gospel.
“Render to God the things that are God’s; give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.”
Armed Resistance
Armed resistance to oppression by political authority is not legitimate unless
all of these conditions
are first met: There is certain, grave and prolonged violation of fundamental rights; All other means of redress have been tried; Such resistance will not provoke worse disorders; There is a well-founded hope of success; It is impossible reasonably to foresee any better solution.
Political Community & the Church
Every institution is inspired by a view of man and his destiny. This is true of civil society and culture.
From this truth it derives the point of reference for its judgments, hierarchy of values and line of conduct.
Most societies respect man’s preeminence over things, which is important, but not enough in itself.
Only divinely revealed religion
man’s origin and destiny as God, our Creator and Redeemer.
has clearly recognized The Church invites political authorities to measure their judgments and decisions against
this inspired truth about God and man
.
Moral judgment
The Church is not to be confused in any way with the political community. She is both the sign and safeguard of the transcendent character of the human person. The Church passes moral judgments in matters related to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it.
The only means that the Church uses are those in accord with the Gospel.