St. Augustine in his writings remarks that the Decalogue is the summary
and epitome of all laws: 1 Although the Lord had
spoken many things, He gave to Moses only two stone tablets, called
"tables of testimony," to be placed in the Ark. For if carefully
examined and well understood, whatever else is commanded by God will be found
to depend on the Ten Commandments which were engraved on those two tables, just
as these Ten Commandments, in turn, are reducible to two, the love of God and
of our neighbour, on which "depend the whole law and the prophets."
2
Since, then, the Decalogue is a summary of the whole Law, the pastor
should give his days and nights to its consideration, that he may be able not
only to regulate his own life by its precepts, but also to instruct in the law
of God the people committed to his care. The lips of the priest shall keep
knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth, because he is the angel of
the Lord of hosts. 3 To the priests of the New Law
this injunction applies in a special manner; they are nearer to God, and should
be transformed from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. 4 Since Christ our Lord has called them light, 5 it is their special duty to be a light to them that are in
darkness, the instructors of the foolish, the teachers of infants; 6 and if a man be overtaken in any fault, they who are spiritual
should instruct such a one. 7
In the tribunal of penance the priest holds the place of a judge, and
pronounces sentence according to the nature and gravity of the offence. Unless,
therefore, he is desirous that his ignorance should prove an injury to himself
and to others, he must bring with him to the discharge of this duty the
greatest vigilance and the most practiced acquaintance with the interpretation
of the law, in order to be able to pronounce, according to this divine rule, on
every act and omission; and, as the Apostle says, to teach sound doctrine, 8 free from error, and heal the diseases of the soul, which are
sins, in order that the people may be acceptable to God, pursuers of good
works. 9 {a}
In these instructions the pastor should propose to himself and to
others motives for keeping the Commandments
Now among all the motives which induce men to obey this law the
strongest is that God is its author. True, it is said to have been delivered by
angels, 10 but no one can doubt that its author is God.
This is most clear not only from the words of the Legislator Himself, which we
shall shortly explain, but also from innumerable other passages of Scripture
that will readily occur to pastors.
Who is not conscious that a law is inscribed on his heart by God,
teaching him to distinguish good from evil, vice from virtue, justice from
injustice? The force and import of this unwritten law do not conflict with that
which is written. Who is there, then, who will dare to deny that God is the
author of the written, as He is of the unwritten law ?
But, lest the people, aware of the abrogation of the Mosaic Law, may
imagine that the precepts of the Decalogue are no longer obligatory, it should
be taught that when God gave the Law to Moses, He did not so much establish a
new code, as render more luminous that divine light {b} which the depraved morals
and long continued perversity of man had at that time almost obscured. It is
most certain that we are not bound to obey the Commandments because they were
delivered by Moses, but because they are implanted in the hearts of all, and
have been explained and confirmed by Christ our Lord.
The reflection that God is the author of the law is highly useful, and
exercises great influence in persuading (to its observance); for we cannot
doubt His wisdom and justice, nor can we escape His infinite power and might.
Hence, when by His Prophets He commands the law to be observed, He proclaims
that He is the Lord God; and the Decalogue itself opens: I am the
Lord thy God; 11 and elsewhere (we read): If I am a
master, where is my fear? 12
That God has deigned to make clear to us His holy will on which depends
our eternal salvation (is a consideration) which, besides animating the faithful
to the observance of His Commandments, must call forth their gratitude Hence
Scripture, in more passages than one, recalling this great blessing, admonishes
the people to recognize their own dignity and the bounty of the Lord. Thus in
Deuteronomy it is said: This is your wisdom and understanding in the sight
of nations, that hearing all these precepts they may say: Behold a wise and
understanding people, a great nation; 13 again, in
the Psalm (we read): He hath not done in like manner to every nation, and
his judgments he hath not made manifest to them. 14
If the pastor explain the circumstances which accompanied the
promulgation of the Law, as recorded in Scripture, the faithful will easily
understand with what piety and humility they should receive and reverence the
Law received from God.
All were commanded by God that for three days before the promulgation
of the Law they should wash their garments and abstain from conjugal
intercourse, in order that they might be more holy and better prepared to
receive the Law, and that on the third day they should be in readiness When
they had reached the mountain from which the Lord was to deliver the Law by
Moses, Moses alone was commanded to ascend the mountain. Thither came God with
great majesty, filling the place with thunder and lightning, with fire and
dense clouds, and began to speak to Moses, and delivered to him the
Commandments. 15
In this the divine wisdom had solely for object to admonish us that the
law of the Lord should be received with pure and humble minds, and that over
the neglect of His commands impend the heaviest chastisements of the divine
justice.
The pastor should also teach that the Commandments of God are not
difficult, as these words of St Augustine are alone sufficient to show: How,
I ask, is it said to be impossible for man to love to love, I say, a
beneficent Creator, a most loving Father, and also, in the persons of his , brethren
to love his own flesh? Yet, 16 "he who loveth has fulfilled the law." 17 Hence the Apostle St. John expressly says
that the commandments of God are not heavy; 18 for as St. Bernard observes, nothing more just could be
exacted from man, nothing that could confer on him a more exalted dignity,
nothing more advantageous. 19 Hence St. Augustine, filled
with admiration of God's infinite goodness, thus addresses God : What is man
that Thou wouldst be loved by him ? And if he loves Thee not, Thou threatenest
t him with heavy punishment. Is it not punishment enough that I love Thee not ?
20
But should anyone plead human infirmity to excuse himself for not
loving God, it should be explained that He who demands our love pours into our
hearts by the Holy Ghost the fervor of His love; 21 and
this good Spirit our heavenly Father gives to those that ask him. 22 With reason, therefore, did St. Augustine pray: Give what thou
commandest and command what thou pleasest. 23 As, then, God
is ever ready to help us, especially since the death of Christ the Lord, by
which the prince of this world was cast out, there is no reason why anyone
should be disheartened by the difficulty of the undertaking. To him who loves,
nothing is difficult.
Furthermore, it will contribute much to persuade (obedience to the law)
if it is explained that such obedience is necessary, especially since in these
our days there are not wanting those who, to their own serious injury, have the
impious hardihood to assert that the observance of the law, whether easy or
difficult, is by no means necessary to salvation. {c}
This wicked and impious error the pastor should refute from Scripture, especially
from the same Apostle by whose authority they attempt to defend their
wickedness. What, then, are the words of the Apostle? Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but
the keeping of the commandments of God. 24 Again,
inculcating the same doctrine, he says:
A new creature, in Christ, alone avails. 25 By a new creature in Christ he evidently means him who
observes the Commandments of God; for, he who observes the Commandments of God
loves God, as our Lord Himself testifies in St. John: If anyone love me, he
will keep my word. 26
A man, it is true, may be justified, and from wicked may become
righteous, before he has fulfilled, by external acts, each of the Commandments;
but no one who has arrived at the use of reason can be justified, unless he is
resolved to keep all of God's Commandments.
Finally, to leave nothing unsaid that may be calculated to induce the
faithful to an observance of the law, the pastor should point out how abundant
and sweet are its fruits. This he will easily accomplish by referring to the
eighteenth Psalm, which celebrates the praises of the divine law. The highest
eulogy of the law is that it proclaims the glory and the majesty of God
more eloquently than even the heavenly bodies, whose beauty and order excite
the admiration of all peoples, even the most uncivilized, and compel them to
acknowledge the glory, wisdom and power of the Creator and Architect of the
universe.
The law of the Lord also converts souls to God; for knowing the
ways of God and His holy will through the medium of His law, we turn our steps
into the ways of the Lord.
It also gives wisdom to little ones; 27 for they alone who fear God are truly wise. Hence, the observers
of the law of God are filled with pure delights, with knowledge of divine
mysteries, and are blessed with plenteous joys and rewards both in this life
and in the life to come.
In our observance of the law, however, we should not act so much for
our own advantage as for the sake of God who, by means of the law, has revealed
His will to man. If other creatures are obedient to God's will, how much more
reasonable that man should follow it?
Nor should it be omitted that God has preeminently displayed His
clemency and the riches of His goodness in this, that while He might have
forced us to serve His glory without a reward, He has, notwithstanding, deigned
to identify His own glory with our advantage, thus rendering what tends to His
honor, conducive to our interests.
This is a great and striking consideration; and the pastor, therefore,
should teach in the concluding words of the Prophet {d} that in keeping them
there is a great reward. 28 Not only are we promised those
blessings which seem to have reference to earthly happiness, such, for example,
as to be blessed in the city, and blessed in the field; 29 but we are also promised a great reward in heaven, 30 good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over,
31 which, aided by the divine
mercy, we merit by our holy and pious actions.
I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt
not make to thyself a graven thing. 32 {e} The Law, although delivered to the Jews by
the Lord from the mountain, was long before written and impressed by nature on
the heart of man, and was therefore rendered obligatory by God for all men and
all times.
It will be very useful, however, to explain carefully the words in
which it was proclaimed to the Hebrews by Moses, its minister and interpreter,
and also the history of the Israelites, which is so full of mysteries.
(The pastor) should first tell that from among the nations of the earth
God chose one which descended from Abraham; that it was the divine will that
Abraham should be a stranger in the land of Canaan, the possession of which He
had promised him; and that, although for more than four hundred years he and
his posterity were wanderers before they dwelt in the promised land, God never
withdrew from them, throughout their wanderings, His protecting care. They
passed from nation to nation and from one kingdom to another people; He
suffered no man to hurt them, and He even reproved kings for their sakes.
33
Before they went down into Egypt He sent before them one by whose
prudence they and the Egyptians were rescued from famine. In Egypt such was His
kindness towards them that although opposed by the power of Pharaoh who sought
their destruction, they increased to an extraordinary degree; and when they
were severely harassed and cruelly treated as slaves, God raised up Moses as a
leader to lead them out in a strong hand. It is especially this deliverance
that the Lord refers to in the opening words of the Law: I am the Lord thy
God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
From all this the pastor should especially note that out of all the
nations God chose only one whom He called His people, and by whom He willed to
be known and worshipped; 34 not that they were superior to
other nations in justice or in numbers, and of this God Himself reminds the
Hebrews, but rather because He wished, by the multiplication and aggrandizement
of an inconsiderable and impoverished nation, to display to mankind His power
and goodness.
Such having been their condition, he was closely united to them, and
loved them, 35 and Lord of heaven and earth as He was, He
disdained not to be called their God. He desired that the other nations might
thus be excited to emulation and that mankind, seeing the happiness of the
Israelites, might embrace the worship of the true God. In the same way St. Paul
says that by discussing the happiness of the Gentiles and their knowledge of
the true God, he provoked to emulation those who were his own flesh. 36
The faithful should next be taught that God suffered the Hebrew
Patriarchs to wander for so long a time, and their posterity to be oppressed
and harassed by a galling servitude, in order to teach us that none are friends
of God except those who are enemies of the world and pilgrims on earth, and
that an entire detachment from the world gives us an easier access to the
friendship of God. Further He wished that, being brought to His service, we
should understand how much happier are they who serve God, than they who serve
the world. Of this Scripture itself admonishes us: Yet they shall serve him,
that they may know the difference between my service and the service of the
kingdom of the earth. 37
(The pastor) should also explain that God delayed the fulfillment of
His promise until after the lapse of more than four hundred years, in order
that His people might be sustained by faith and hope; for, as we shall show
when we come to explain the first Commandment, God wishes His children to
depend on Him at all times and to repose all their confidence in His goodness.
Finally, the time and place, in which the people of Israel received
this Law from God should be noted. They received it after they had been
delivered from Egypt and had come into the wilderness; in order that, impressed
by the memory of a recent benefit and awed by the dreariness of the place in
which they journeyed, they might be the better disposed to receive the Law. For
man becomes closely attached to those whose bounty he has experienced, and when
he has lost all hope of assistance from his fellowman, he then seeks refuge in
the protection of God.
From all this we learn that the more detached the faithful are from the
allurements of the world and the pleasures of sense, the more disposed they are
to accept heavenly doctrines. As the Prophet has written: Whom shall he
teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand the hearing? Them that
are weaned from the milk, that are drawn away from the breasts. 38
1>
Quæstio
cxl. super Exod. lib. ii.
2>
Matt.xxii.
40.
3>
Mal.
ii. 7.
4>
2
Cor. iii. 18.
5>
Matt.
v. 14.
6>
Rom.
ii. 19, 20.
7>
Gal.
vi. 1.
8>
2
Tim. iv. 3.
9>
Tit.
ii. 14.
10> Gal. iii. 19.
11> Exod. xx. 2.
12> Mal. i. 6.
13> Deut. iv. 6.
14> Ps. cxlvii. 20.
15> Exod. xix. 10. ff.
16> Serm. xlvii. de temp.
17> Rom. xiii. 8.
18> 1 John v. 3.
19> Liber De Diligendo Deo, cap.
1.
20> Confess. lib. i. c. 5.
21> Rom. v. 5.
22> Luke xi. 13.
23> Confess. lib. 10. c. 29, 31
et 37; De Dono Persever. c. 20.
24> 1 Cor. vii. 19.
25> Gal. vi. 15.
26> John xiv. 21, 23.
27> Ps. xviii. 8.
28> Ps. xviii. 12.
29> Deut. xxviii. 3.
30> Matt. v. 12.
31> Luke vi. 38.
32> Exod. xx. 2.
33> Ps. civ. 11.
34> Deut. vii. 6. 7.
35> Deut. x. 15.
36> Rom. xi. 14.
37> 2 Paralip. xii. 8.
38> Isa. xxviii. 9.
{a} On the Decalogue see Summa Theol. 1a 2æ. cxxii.
1.
{b} That is, the law of nature
{c} “The Decalogue,” said Luther, “has no right to
accuse and terrify the conscience, in which Christ reigns through grace, for
through Christ those laws have become antiquated.”
{d} The eulogy of the Law in Psalm xviii begins with
verse 8 and ends with verse 12.
{e} Some editions of the Catechism add here the
remaining words of the first Commandment: “nor the likeness of anything.” etc.