CNS September 14, 2020
God gave Moses the Ten Commandments He engraved on two stone tablets, setting forth the basic principles governing the lives of the Israelites. We cannot repent of our sins unless we know when and how we violate God’s law. We cannot begin to transform the culture without the moral clarity of the Commandments.
Good Christians know the Ten Commandments by heart: There is one God, do not abuse His name, go to church on Sunday, obey your parents, and don’t murder, commit adultery, steal, lie, lust, or covet. It is quite surprising how many of us cannot identify the Commandments with precision. So our views on morality quickly become “private opinions,” swept up in what Pope Benedict XVI calls “the dictatorship of relativism.”
Children, at a very early age, have a budding sense of right and wrong. As they prepare for First Confession, they know that disobedience, violence, evil thoughts, lying, and stealing are wrong even before they learn the Ten Commandments. Young criminals – usually, but not always, from seriously dysfunctional families -- still run away from the police. God inscribed the Ten Commandments on our hearts before He inscribed them on those two tablets. So why do catechists bother to teach anyone the Ten Commandments? As one precocious child responded, “to remind us.” Bingo.
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