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The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes
LIFE
IN C
HR
IST
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To be human is to be faced with moral choices: “to do what is good and avoid evil”.
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"TEACHER,
WHAT
GOOD
MUST I
DO...?"
(Mt.19:16)
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Jesus and the rich young man
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Then someone came to him and said, 'Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?'
And he said to him, 'Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.'
He said to him, 'Which ones?'
And Jesus said, 'You shall not murder;
You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal;
You shall not bear false witness;
Honour your father and mother; also,
You shall love your neighbour as yourself.'
The young man said to him, 'I have kept all these; what do I still lack?' Jesus said to him, 'If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you
will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me' “
(Mt 19:16-21)
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"TEACHER,
WHAT
GOOD
MUST
I DO...?" (Mt.19:16)
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An essential and unavoidable
question for the life of
every man.
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People today
need to turn
to Christ
once again
in order
to receive from him the answer
to their questions about
what is good
and
what is evil.
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"There is only one who is good" (Mt 19:17)
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"No one is good but God alone"
(Mk 10:18; cf. Lk 18:19).
Only God can answer the question about what is good, because he is the Good itself.
To ask about the good, in fact, ultimately means to turn
towards God, the fullness of goodness.
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Acknowledging the Lord as God is the very core,
the heart of
the Law.
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"If you wish
to enter
into life,
keep the
commandments"(Mt 19:17) em
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A close connection is
made between
eternal life and obedience to
God's commandments:
God's commandments
show man the path of life and they lead to it.
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Which ones? the young man asked Jesus.
And Jesus said,
'You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery;
You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness;
Honour your father and mother; also,
You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’(Mt 19:18-19).
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In striving to live the Ten Commandments we respond to
our human desire for happiness
that God has placed in our hearts as we are confronted with decisive choices.
The Ten Commandments teach us to love God above all things and
to loving service of neighbor.
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The young man,
having observed all the commandments,
shows that he is incapable of taking the
next step by himself alone.
"I have kept all these; what do
I still lack? " (Mt .19:20)
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1. He did not recognize Jesus as Lord.
2. He was unaware of his own faults.
3. He misunderstood the plan of grace.
4. He went away.
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"If you wish to be perfect,
go, sell your possessions and
give the money to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven;
then come, follow me" (Mt. 19:21).
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The Commandments are not impositions on our freedom nor are they a list of do's and don'ts. Rather
the Ten Commandments are the divine invitation to grow in authentic freedom and shape our lives in
accordance with God's plan for humanity.
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In this sense it can be said that the Beatitudes
are also relevant to
the answer given by Jesus to the young man's
question: "What
good must I do to have eternal life?".
Indeed, each of the
Beatitudes promises, from a particular
viewpoint, that very
"good" which opens man up to eternal life,
and indeed is
eternal life
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✓ The foundations upon which our consciences need to be properly formed
✓ The perfection of the moral life
✓ The sure guides to being able "to do the Truth" ++++++++++++++++++++
“The Beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence, the ultimate end of human acts: God calls us to his own beatitude.” (CCC, n.
1718)
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Both the Decalogue (Ten Commandments) and the Beatitudes are divine revelations of what God wants.
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Both the commandments and the Beatitudes
synthesize the essential expectations
by God of the two chosen people
(Jewish People and the Apostles.)
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And finally both the commandments and the beatitudes are imperatives.
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They are not ten suggestions or even ten options. They are Ten Commandments.
No doubt we speak of the Decalogue as theTen Commandments and call the
Eight promises of happiness the Beatitudes.
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The Beatitudes are not specifically concerned
with certain particular rules of behaviour.
Rather, they speak of basic
attitudes and dispositions in life.
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The Sermon on the Mount begins with the proclamation of the
Beatitudes, but also refers to the commandments (cf. Mt 5:20-48).
At the same time, the Sermon on the Mount demonstrates
the openness of the commandments and their orientation towards the horizon of the perfection proper to the Beatitudes.
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The Beatitudes (Matthew 5: 3-12)
are at the heart of Jesus' preaching.
They respond to our natural human desire for happiness. God has placed this desire in each human heart in order to
draw us to God who alone can perfectly fulfill it. (CCC 1716-1728)
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Decalogue 10 CommandmentsCatholic Catechism for Adults
1. Believe in the True God2. Reverence God’s Name3. Love and observe the
Lord’s Day4. Strengthen Your Family5. Promote the Culture of
Life6. Marital Fidelity7. Do Not Steal – Act Justly8. Tell the Truth9. Practice Purity of Heart10. Embrace Poverty of
Spirit
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Law and Love
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The laws of God are so many manifestations of His love.
The beatitudes on the other hand are so many divine assurances of happiness
from a loving God.
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The joy promised
us by the world
is the happiness
that comes
from doing
your own will.
The happiness promised us
by Christ in the beatitudes
is the joy of doing
the will of God.
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True joy taught by Christ and enshrined in the beatitudes comes only and in the measure
that we are doing the will of God.
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To live a good Christian life
all we need to do are three things:
Love God, Clean the House and Help Others.
- Brother Duane F. Reinert, OFM.Cap
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Suggestions For Further Reading:
Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Part Three, Section One, Life in Christ: 1691-2051.Ten Commandments: 2052-2557
Documents of Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, Articles 1-15
Pope John Paul II, The Splendor of Truth, Veritatis Splendor, 1993
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