There are few people who can sincerely claim ignorance of the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments. The truth found within the "Ten Words" of God are somehow relevant to everyone, even those who profess little or no faith. They are part of us as God-created beings.
Sure, it’s easier today than ever before to rationalize why we accept some behaviors as part of living in our modern world, as opposed to continuing with the traditional mores of former generations.
However, in 19 years of preparing engaged couples for marriage, I’ve never come across a Christian couple who could conclude that a life lived contrary to the Ten Commandments is the will of God for them as a couple or individually. Whether the pastoral concern is cohabitation or the legitimacy of the sacrament of reconciliation, most people know that there is a primal obligation attached to the traditional morals of the Ten Commandments. It isn’t uncommon for a couple to explain to their pastor that they have fallen away from the faith and the Commandments, but feel on some level they want their marriage to be "in" the Church with God’s blessing.
Of course, such pastoral cases call for lucid and prudent care, respecting the consciences of the people involved and still calling them to the true Christian love found only in the Lord. While leading the Christian to an authentic experience of the Gospel’s love, the priest or minister must affirm the primary importance of the Ten Commandments: "No one can dispense from them" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2072).
Jesus is very clear with his disciples: "If you love me, you will keep my Commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always" (Jn 14:15). For Jesus, the moral standard of the Commandments is one with authentic love. To love him is "to keep" his word. In turn, the faithful person subject to the Ten Commandments will know the grace of the Holy Spirit’s counsel, grow in holiness and deepen his or her understanding of the ways of God and the meaning of life. Thus, the created human being discovers a deeper understanding of the call to love and be loved in the "Ten Words" of God.
As with any part of divine revelation, the Ten Commandments reveal the truth of God and humankind in such a way that they are interrelated to other dimensions of the faith. They are an essential component of an integrated "Catholic" faith. "The Decalogue forms a coherent whole. Each ‘Word’ refers to each of the others and to all of them; they reciprocally condition one another … To transgress one Commandment is to infringe all the others" (CCC, 2069). With this reciprocal nature, the Ten Commandments integrate the faithful person’s religious and social life into a harmonious and peaceful unity. In other words, the Commandments integrate our behavior and our beliefs.
This realization of the integrating nature of the Commandments isn’t a surprise. The divine motive behind the Commandments has always been understood as the good welfare of God’s beloved children.
This view of the primal and essential nature of the Commandments is within the teaching of the great saints and Doctors of the Church. By the time of Saint Augustine, the Ten Commandments were understood as being basic and integral to the education and formation of catechumens. Through the centuries, the catechisms of the Church have often been organized to follow the order of the Ten Commandments. This important role of the Commandments in catecheses and spiritual growth was appreciated especially in the Church’s response to the moral errors of the Manicheans, who rejected the Decalogue as the work of evil.
The relationship of the Commandments to the human conscience was understood by Tertullian. He observed that the "Ten Words" were engraved on the hearts of men even before being written on the stone tablets. Tertullian’s insight dovetails with Vatican II’s teaching of the natural moral law: "Deep within his conscience, man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey ... For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. His dignity lies in observing this law" (Gaudium et Spes, 16). Or again, "The Ten Commandments are engraved by God in the human heart" (CCC, 2072).
Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Bonaventure provide important treatments of the primacy of the Ten Commandments as a means for mankind to live faithfully and follow the divine law. For Saint Thomas, the Ten Commandments, as precepts of the natural moral law, guide the human person in being faithful to his or her own constitution and end. Thus, the Christian tradition finds that a person is made more fully human by subscribing to and obeying the Ten Commandments. Put another way, the Commandments are essential for us to be the people we were created to be.
It should be evident that authentic love, the love that leads to integral human fulfillment, is only found through and in keeping the "Ten Words" of God. While our modern world may dismiss traditional Catholic moral teaching as old-fashioned and irrelevant, the Ten Commandments strive to lead the individual believer to great and true freedom and personal fulfillment in and through love.
This is the second article in a series about the Ten Commandments by Father Hinkley. He is the Pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church and School and St. Anne Church, both in Waterbury.
