Ten Commandments (1).pdf

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AND THE NEW TESTAMENT  ACTIVITY GUESS THE RIGHT COMMANDMENT FOR EACH IMAGE. Are you ready? ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY What are your most hated rules? What do you think is the essence or importance of the r...

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AND THE NEW TESTAMENT  ACTIVITY GUESS THE RIGHT COMMANDMENT FOR EACH IMAGE. Are you ready? ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY What are your most hated rules? What do you think is the essence or importance of the rules?  THE TEN COMMANDMENTS  Story of the Ten Commandments The enslaved people were always told how to live. When to wake up, when to go to sleep, what work to do, and what they could eat, there are a lot of rules. But now, they are free with no rules to guide them! For them, it is sometimes hard to know what to do or even what’s right and wrong.  Understanding Commandments A proper understanding of the Ten Commandments is often difficult for Filipino Catholics because of the manner in which they have often been taught and memorized in catechism. Presented as characteristic of the Old Testament, the Ten Commandments were viewed as the law imposed by a divine Judge who watches over everyone with an all-seeing EYE.  Understanding Commandments First, the Ten Commandments constitute the basic imperatives needed for life in the community. They sketch for us the limits or parameters within which we, the People of God, must live our lives of faith, hope, and love in our redeeming Lord and among ourselves.  Understanding Commandments The commandments actually point in two directions: They call for reverence for God and respect for our fellow human beings.  Understanding Commandments Secondly, the lasting exceptional value of the Ten Commandments can be grounded in their historical origin, their covenantal character, and their liberating power. The Commandments originated not from some particular process of philosophical reasoning nor from mystical contemplation but from the concrete historical events of Exodus and Mt. Sinai  Understanding Commandments Therefore, to interpret them legalistically as abstract generalization is to wench them from their living origin in God’s creative, saving will in salvation history.  Understanding Commandments Moreover, the Commandments are terms of Covenant, “Ten Words” revealing the pattern of life which is righteous in God’s sight, the way of life which leads to happiness.  Understanding Commandments Finally, the Decalogue, set in the context of Exodus, is the great liberating act of God which stands at the center of salvation history. Though the Commandments have the form of prohibitions, they are also a deliverance from the slavery of sin.  Understanding Commandments They free men to travel towards God, a journey of faithful service, and so to discover their true selves and achieve their true destiny. The Commandments provide the signposts to authentic responsible freedom.  Understanding Commandments God pronounces the “ten words” (Decalogue) in the midst of a theophany. ( The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain out of the midst of the fire.) They belong to God’s revelation of Himself and His glory.  Understanding Commandments 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  Understanding Commandments Since they express man’s fundamental duties towards God and his neighbor, the Ten Commandments reveal grave obligations in their primordial content. They are fundamentally immutable,and they oblige always and everywhere.  Understanding Commandments No one can dispense from them. The Ten Commandments are engraved by God in the human heart.  The Unity of the Decalogue The Decalogue forms a coherent whole. Each “word” refers to each of the others and to all of them; they reciprocally condition to one another. The two tables shed light on one another; they form an organic unity.  The Unity of the Decalogue To transgress one commandment is to infringe all the others. 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 in unity.  The Decalogue and the Natural Law 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 and the Natural Law 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 of them. This was the Decalogue.”  The Decalogue and the Natural Law The commandments of the Decalogue, although accesible 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.  The Decalogue and the Natural Law “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.”  The Decalogue and the Natural Law We know God’s commandments through the divine revelation proposed to us in the Church, and through the voice of moral conscience.  The Decalogue and the Natural Law The commandments of the Decalogue, although accesible 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.