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The Ten Commandments, source of life and happiness
For some years, the Knights of Columbus have been involved in “Project Moses,” which consists of erecting a monument to the Ten Commandments, ideally in every city in the country. The idea of this and other similar projects is to acknowledge that the Ten Commandments are much more than history; they are a message of life placed before us.
In the book of Deuteronomy, in the Old Testament, we can read the reason why God decided to give the Ten Commandments to the people of Israel, and through the chosen people, to us: “I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land which the Lord swore he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” (Dt 30:19-20)
So the Lord gives us the Ten Commandments as a means to ensure that we will be happy, that is, that we will have life. And that is why, although Jesus cancelled many rules, rituals and laws of the old covenant, he brought to completion and upheld the total validity of the decalogue.
For this reason the church teaches us that the 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.” (Compendium 436)
That is the purpose of the Ten Commandments: to lead us to the full freedom of the children of God.
This is very important to stress, because some say that the commandments are “too negative” for today’s world. In fact, seven of the Ten Commandments begin with “thou shall not,” that is, prohibiting something.
Nevertheless, Servant of God John Paul II explained that “the several ‘nots’ of the law of God to some things are in fact a big ‘yes’ to life, love and happiness.”
The commandments are then a source of life, not a set of external rules that seek to control man’s freedom.
In most cases, the Ten Commandments are represented on two tablets, one containing the commandments referring to God, and the other those referring to one’s neighbor.
Some academic environments have proposed the so-called “Second Tablet Project,” whereby Americans should forget the first tablet, referring to God, because it is too “controversial” and not everyone believes in God; and that we should seek a consensus around the commandments that refer to human beings.
In theory, the proposal may seem intelligent and capable of building a broader consensus. But in practice, separating one tablet from the other would simply ruin all the commandments.
The Compendium of the Catechism explains that “The Ten Commandments form an organic and indivisible whole because each commandment refers to the other commandments and to the entire decalogue. To break one commandment, therefore, is to violate the entire law.” (Compendium 439)
The reasons for the unity of the Ten Commandments is based on a common sense principle that was pointed out by the great English Catholic intellectual, G.K. Chesterton: “if God does not exist, everything is allowed.”
The Ten Commandments are simple, they are demanding, and they are carved in the rock of history. Today we also experience what the people of Israel experienced: when we live the decalogue, we are close to God, and peace and public order reign. Far from him, there is only social decay, crisis and conflict.
Living according to the decalogue is not easy. But it is possible to obey it, because Christ, without whom we can do nothing, makes us able to do it with the gift of the Holy Spirit and of grace.
May Our Lady of Guadalupe help us renew our commitment of living the faith consistently in our daily lives, following the inspiration of the decalogue.
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