351 THE 10 COMMANDMENTS ARE GRAVE OBLIGATIONS

YOUCAT Lesson 351

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

351 Aren’t the Ten Commandments outmoded?

No, the Ten Commandments are by no means the product of a particular time.  They express man’s fundamental obligations toward God and neighbor, which are always and everywhere valid.  [2070-2072]

At the end of her life Jeralean Talley  of Inkster, Michigan was America’s oldest living person. Jeralean affirmed that “Everything comes from God .”  Here Jeralean is assisted by a deacon of the New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church.  Jeralean was born May 23, 1899 and died June 17, 2015. …..351

The Ten Commandments are commandments of reason just as they are also part of the binding revelation of God.  They are so fundamentally binding that no one can be dispensed from keeping these commandments.

 “We love because he first loved us.”  1 John 4:19

“Where is God?  How can we love him?  It is not enough to say, ‘My God, I love you!’  We love God in this world by giving something up, by giving something away.  Of course I can eat the sugar myself, but I can also give it away.”  Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)

 “The Ten Commandments teach us the true humanity of man.”--Catechism of the Catholic Church {2070]

 “ What God commands he makes possible by his grace.”--Catechism of the Catholic Church [2082]

[2070-2072]

The Decalogue and the natural law 

2070 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 contains a privileged expression of the natural law: --CCC

From the beginning, God had implanted in the heart of man the precepts of the natural law. Then he was content to remind him of them. This was the Decalogue.( St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 4,15,1:Patrologia Graeca 7/l,1012.)³¹ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

2071 The commandments of the Decalogue, although accessible 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: --CCC

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.( St. Bonaventure, Comm. sent. 4,37,1,3.)^{32 --CCC}

We know God's commandments through the divine revelation proposed to us in the Church, and through the voice of moral conscience. --CCC

The obligation of the Decalogue

2072 Since they express man's fundamental duties towards God and towards his neighbor, the Ten Commandments reveal, in their primordial content, grave obligations. They are fundamentally immutable, and they oblige always and everywhere. No one can dispense from them. The Ten Commandments are engraved by God in the human heart. --CCC