" 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 (Mt 19:16-19. )
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 ( Mt 19:21.) This reply does not do away with the first:
following Jesus Christ involves keeping the Commandments. the Law has not been
abolished,3 ( Cf. ⇒ Mt 5:17.) 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 ( Cf. ⇒ Mt 19:6-12, ⇒ 21, ⇒ 23-29.) 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 ( Mt 5:20.) 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 everyone 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 ( Mt 22:36.) 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 ( Mt 22:37-40; cf. ⇒ Deut 6:5; ⇒ Lev 19:18.) 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 (Rom 13:9-10. )
The
Decalogue in Sacred Scripture
2056
The word "Decalogue" means literally "ten words."11 (Rom Ex 34:28; ⇒ Deut 4:13; ⇒ 10:4. ) God
revealed these "ten words" to his people on the holy mountain. They
were written "with the finger of God,"12 ( Ex 31:18; ⇒ Deut 5:22.) unlike the other commandments
written by Moses.13 ( Cf. ⇒ Deut 31:9. 24.) They are pre-eminently the words of God. They are handed on
to us in the books of Exodus 14 ( Cf. ⇒ Ex 20:1-17.) and Deuteronomy.15 ( Cf. ⇒ Deut 5:6-22.) Beginning with the Old
Testament, the sacred books refer to the "ten words,"16 (Cf. for example ⇒ Hos 4:2; ⇒ Jer 7:9; ⇒ Ezek 18:5-9. ) 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 andmultiply.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 (Deut 5:22. ) 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) (Deut 5:4. ). 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 covenant 22 (Cf. ⇒ Ex 19. ) and its conclusion - after the people
had committed themselves to "do" all that the Lord had said, and to
"obey" it.23 (Cf. ⇒ Ex 24:7. ) 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 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
acknowledgment 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 the 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 ( St. Augustine, Sermo 33, 2, 2: PL 38, 208.)
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 ( Cf. DS 1569-1570.) 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 (Cf. ⇒ Jas 2:10-11. ) 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 ant 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 ( Jn 15:5.) 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 ( Jn 15:12.)
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
Thegift 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.
GO TO:
PART THREE LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION TWO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
SECTION TWO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
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