04-03-2022 - THE TEN COMMANDMENTS - A GIFT FROM GOD

 04-03-2022

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS – A GIFT FROM GOD

436. What does "Decalogue" mean?

CCC 2056-2057

Decalogue means “ten words” (Exodus 34:28).

These words sum up the Law given by God to the people of Israel in the context of the Covenant mediated by Moses.

This Decalogue, in presenting the commandments of the love of God (the first three) and of one's neighbor (the other seven), traces for the chosen people and for every person in particular the path to a life freed from the slavery of sin.

The fulfillment of the commandments is the way to be saved. He who fulfills them is saved; he who does not, is condemned.

God revealed the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai: they were engraved on two stone tablets so that his people would never forget them.

Jesus Christ perfected the law and commissioned the Church to keep it and teach all men. Following Jesus Christ implies keeping the commandments.

The Gospel tells us that a young man approached Jesus and asked him: "Teacher, what good must I do to attain eternal life?" The Lord replied: "If you want to enter Life, keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:17). In this very clear way, he indicated to him -and points out to everyone- which is the way to go to heaven.

Indeed, the fulfillment of the commandments is the way to be saved. He who fulfills them is saved; he who does not, is condemned.

God revealed the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, recording them on two stone tablets so that his people would never forget them.

Jesus Christ perfected the law and commissioned the Church to keep it and teach them to all men. Following Jesus Christ implies keeping the commandments

The ultimate goal of man is to give glory to God, loving and obeying him on earth, to later be happy with him in heaven.

How will we give glory to God? Fulfilling his will at all times. As we are free beings, we must assume it with the will to love and obey our Creator and Lord.

The divine will is fundamentally expressed in the commandments of God's law.

Contemplating created things, we observe that they follow natural laws.

God has ordered all things so that each fulfills its purpose: minerals, plants, animals and man.

As this order is thought and projected by God from all eternity, we call it eternal law.

Man, as a free being, orients himself to his goal freely after knowing with intelligence the law that God has given him and that he discovers within himself.

We call that law engraved by God in our hearts natural law; and as it is written in human nature, it binds all men of all times.

Being a participant in the eternal law, man cannot change it, being, therefore, universal and immutable.

Men have the natural law engraved in their hearts. Yet original sin and subsequent personal sins obscure their knowledge.

So that with firm certainty and without any error, men would know what they should do to please him, God revealed the ten commandments.

These ten commandments highlight the essential duties and, therefore, indirectly, the fundamental rights inherent in the nature of the human person.

On Mount Sinai, when the chosen people had left Egypt, God announced the Ten Commandments or Decalogue to Moses, giving them to him carved on two stone tablets so that he would never forget to fulfill them.

The commandments point out in a certain and sure way how we must act. God shows man what is good and what is bad, what is true and what is false, what he likes and what he dislikes.

The law that God gave to Moses on Sinai was brought to perfection by Jesus Christ, who puts himself as a model: "I am the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6).

After loving God with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our minds, with all our strength, he commands us to love one another as he has loved us.

The Decalogue must be interpreted in the light of this double and unique commandment of charity, fullness of the law.

Man is free. If he does not observe divine law, he commits sin, offends God, and harms himself and others.

On the other hand, when he keeps the commandments, man has the security of being on the right path.

We should not feel constrained by the commandments, but have the great vision that God wants the good of man, whose freedom he defends and guards with the rules.

From the awareness that the commandments are the way - like a well-signposted highway, which shows the right way to act and warns of dangers - we have to say that the ten commandments of God's law are proof of love and the mercy of God, of God who loved us first.

That is why you must fulfill them out of love. It is the response that God expects from us.

Learn the ten commandments of God's law.

Take the firm determination to always fulfill the commandments of God's law, supported by supernatural grace.