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• Decalogue


  The Ten Commandments
• Decalogue


  • It must first be understood in the context of the Exodus, God's great liberating event at the center of the Old Covenant
  • It should be presented as a "path of life"
  • It is never handed on without first recalling the covenant
• Covenant


  An instrument used to maintain peace between neighbors and rivals, where the responsibilities of two parties are clearly identified
• Ten Commandments


  • They constitute the basic imperatives needed for a life in community
  • They call for reverence for God and respect for our fellow human persons
  • They are not a code of rigid rules and don'ts, but allow for flexibility in interpreting their "spirit" as well as the "letter"
• The moral life has to be embodied and lived out in community
• The Ten Commandments are not a series of rules, but a guide towards authentic Christian life
• Keeping the Ten Commandments can lead a person towards a commitment and a habit to love God and to love others
• First Commandment


  "I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me."
• First Commandment


  • It calls us to attention: to wake up to the history of God's initiative saving actions in our own lives
  • It commands us to consider God's mercy in our own specific, ordinary lives and then to recognize the Lordship of the One whose tender mercies touch us so concretely
  • It points to the benevolent balance of power and love in which we worship from love or hate from fear
• Second Commandment


  "You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God in vain. For the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain."
• Second Commandment


  • It protects true worship
  • It reveals the sacred nature of our relationship with God and our respective responsibilities to one another in God's name
  • It tells us that God should not be used as a tool for serving human or earthly desires
• Third Commandment


  "Remember to keep holy the Sabbath Day."
• Third Commandment


  • It reminds us that we are at home with the divine, a dimension in which humans aspire to the likeness and the presence of the divine
  • It teaches us to recognize our limits and to enjoy them as God-given
  • It calls us to celebrate the Eucharist, which is an act of memorial and an act of anticipation
• Fourth Commandment


  "Honor your father and your mother, that you may have a long life in the land which the Lord, your god is giving you."
• Fourth Commandment


  • It speaks of respect, reverence, and care that the Israelites need to show to the elders
  • It guides the entire community towards maturity as people
  • It calls us to respect, promote, and protect the integrity of the family as society's basic unit
• Aurelio: 'For the Israelites, "wisdom was considered the gift of old age, and upholding tradition and continuity with the past was the indispensable responsibility of the aged"'
• Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: 'This basic and enduring respect for the human being is the most important aspect of the commandment'
• The commandment calls us to move beyond reconciliation and beyond the narratives that we have analyzed, accepted, and shared


  It urges us to respect, promote, and protect the integrity of the family as society's basic unit
• We are called to let those before us obedience


  Now to speak again, not as parents commanding obedience, but as adults sharing with us their formative years and their experiences that occurred before we were born
• We are called to become familiar with their memories

  So as to honor them
• We are invited to know them as they knew us

  As children, teenagers, young adults
• We are summoned to walk with them

  As they talk and as they move eventually toward a new childhood of their own
• Our relationship with our parents is the foundation for our future relationships and choices
• Paul: 'Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 'Honor your father and mother'—which is the first commandment with a promise— 'so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth''
• Through the command of honoring parents, we can save our families and help retain respect back into our society which is in dire need of it
• Schlessinger: 'The hearts of the parents will be returned to their children, and the hearts of the children returned to their parents'
• Human life is not only a gift from God but more importantly our very existence is tied with God
• Humans are endowed with the radiance of the divine
• The fifth commandment is about not violating God's property and sovereignty
• John Paul II: 'God alone is Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can in any circumstance, claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being'
• The gift of life is endowed with a purpose, that is, the challenge to find meaning in our lives
• We are our brother's keeper
• Marriage is a sacred covenant, much like the relationship between God and people
• Adultery

  The sin of a married man having sexual relations with anyone other than his wife or a married woman having sexual relations with anyone other than her husband
• Adultery violates the promises in marriage
• The sixth commandment is not only talking about sexual relations, but also about every corporeal expression
• Violating marriage vows is an act of betrayal
• God commanded his people to be faithful in marriage and to respect other people's vows as a model of faithfulness in relationship with God
• Adultery devalues the commitment made between a husband and wife and to God
• God considers the possession of things important including respecting ownership of things