Chapter 8 The Decalogue Taking Care of Our Relationship with God Mr. Salter Morality

The Ten Commandments p 142 Know the 10 Commandments in order for the next test The Ten Commandments are listed on page 144

The Ten Commandments and the Kingdom of God p 142--145 The context in which the 10 Commandments were given: These Jewish slaves had two things in common: they had been enslaved, and had a special covenant relationship with God, which they learned about through stories passed down in captivity from their ancestors They had no law, no common culture, and no guidelines to help them live out their covenant relationship with God.

The Ten Commandments and the Kingdom of God p 142--145 The Commandments summed up all the (613) laws of Moses found in the O.T. Called Mosaic Law (The Law of Moses) Jesus summed up the Ten Commandments with the two greatest commandments “You shall love your God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul” Dt. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Lv. 19:18; Mt 22: 36-40 Thus Jesus tells us that “love is the way to live the commandments.”

The Ten Commandments and the Kingdom of God p 142--145 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind and your soul.” Dt.6:4 For Jews, this is Shema Placed in the scroll in the doorpost

The Ten Commandments and the Kingdom of God p 142--145 The Ten Commandments are not imposed on us by a distant God, rather they are an expression of the natural law Being ‘of’ God We take on God’s own mind and begin to think and understand as God does, and to act as God would act if He were human.

The First Commandment p146-153 The 1st Commandment - I am the Lord your God have no gods before me - is a call “to believe in God, to hope in him, and to love him above all else” (CCC 2134; p146). Accomplished primarily through prayer and worship of God Prayer cultivates our relationship with God We become like that which we worship

The First Commandment p146-153 To the Hebrew slaves, God reveals himself as All-Powerful, Loving and Liberating (p146) All-Powerful: God single-handedly and freely created the universe from nothing and holds it in existence. He is powerful enough to bring good out of evil (e.g., Jesus’ death). Thus, we can place our hope in him. All things will work out for our ultimate good, if we place our trust in him

The First Commandment p146-153 Loving: All loving and all-powerful can appear contradictory because he does not force his love on us (we can say no to God). He does not make us love him. He demonstrates an apparent powerlessness as he awaits our response – because love is not love if it is forced. He gives us a free will, so that we can freely say yes or no to his reign and rule in our life. Rm 5:8: God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us

The First Commandment p146-153 Liberating: God created us to be free from all forms of slavery. License (like any addiction) is a type of slavery because it inhibits us from becoming who we want to be. Like sin it leads to chaotic, unhappy and unfulfilled lives. It is the truth that sets us free (See Jn 8:31-33), knowing it and responsibly living it.

How can we stray from the 1st Commandment? p.149 Indifference = neglect and ignore God, refusing to spend time in prayer, denying his ability to love and act through you Ingratitude = we refuse to thank God for the many gifts we enjoy by not thanking him in prayer and by demonstrating a lack of generosity to others Hatred of God = we blame him for our problems or for the state of the world. We harden our hearts against him

How can we stray from the 1st Commandment? p.149 Apathy toward God = acedia, that is, not caring, being listless, lazy and bored in our relationship with God. Evidence of acedia can be the lack of “the joy that comes from God” (CCC 2094; p149).

Distortion of Religious Practice p 151 Religious practices/rituals express our belief in God, give us grace, and bring us closer to him We pervert these practices/rituals when we attribute God-like power to these external actions rather than to God; Thus we try to manipulate or control God through the use of them. e.g., lighting a vigil candle, wearing scapular/ miraculous medal.

Atheism and False Gods p. 152 Atheism rejects or denies God’s existence In pagan times all believed in gods Practical materialism = that the material world is all that exists Atheistic humanism = man is an end in himself, the sole maker and supreme control of his own history (See CCC 2124; p152) Social atheism = religion by its very nature deceives people, gives them false hope and discourages them from working for a better life. Whereas in fact, religion encourages and spurs one to work for the good of society

Other offences against 1st Commandment p 152 Tempting God - we demand God prove His power and love as a condition for our believing him God often writes with crooked lines – he works in roundabout ways that we often can perceive only through faith Sacrilege - treating profanely, or with disrespect, “the sacraments and other liturgical actions, as well as persons, things, or places consecrated to God. Sacrilege is a grave sin esp. when committed against the Eucharist. Simony - the buying and selling of spiritual things – such as God’s forgiveness.

The 2nd Commandment p. 154 The 2nd Commandment: Keep holy the Lord’s name A major violation: blasphemy = the use of the name of God, Jesus, the BV Mary, and the saints in an offensive way (CCC 2162; p154) e.g., directing toward God words or gestures of malice, hostility or dishonor Ideally, we should only speak God’s name to bless, honor and praise him. Differs from sacrilege = primarily “treating” disrespectfully things, persons and places associated with sacred worship

The 2nd Commandment p. 154 The sacred has a sense of how God created or designed things to be, thus how we should rightly treat or use things, e.g.: Abortion is wrong because all life comes from God Being disrespectful is wrong because we are all created in God’s image Lying is wrong because we are made with intellects to know the truth about things Adultery is wrong because we are designed by God in such a way as to form stable communities, committed relationships to have and raise children in The sin of lying and adultery interferes with the way God designed things to be/operate.

The 3rd Commandment p.156 The 3rd Commandment - Remember Keep Holy the Lord’s Day The 3rd Commandment enjoins us to be attentive to our a) worship and b) leisure We keep holy the Lord’s Day by participating at Mass on Sunday and by abstaining from activities or work that hinder us from the spiritual observance of the Lord’s Day Resting on Sunday is an important component of keeping the Lord’s Day Leisure gives us chance for recreation = re-creation