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For the past 15
years I’ve taught at Villanova University—you know, the #1 cede in the
2006 NCAA Tournament—and during those years I’ve heard more than just a
few people opine regarding the 10 commandments as if they are a “burden”
or a “bunch of negatives.” What otherwise are very intelligent people
consider the 10 commandments “childish” and intended to appeal to
“immature” people with “rigid” personalities. Why? Because the 10
commandments “restrain” people—likening the 10 commandments to a
straightjacket—from becoming fully-functioning and self-actualized human
beings.
When I hear these
and other similar comments, I get the sense that these people really do
believe the 10 commandments are irrelevant in this day and in this age.
Why? Because they believe we are so much more sophisticated and mature today than
were people in previous generations or as far back as biblical times. So, we don’t any longer need any
such childish “do’s” and “don’ts.” Opinions like these make me think
those who are expressing these opinions must pray something along these
lines: “Dear Lord, you know we’re quite capable of knowing
what’s right and wrong. You’ve given us a mind and we can figure
these things out
for ourselves. Thank you and have a good day.”
“How odd!” I
think when I hear such opinions. Why? Because I consider the 10
commandments to be a gift from God, not a burden imposed by God. They
give us as the People of God a special and unique identity. I also view
the 10 commandments as liberating human beings from the straightjacket
of pride and arrogance not constraining human beings like a
straightjacket from going totally flippo. The 10 commandments free us
from the limitations of ignorance and the probability we will make
errors in judgment when it comes to determining what’s right and what’s
wrong.
Just consider
some of the important moral issues confronting us today. Is stem cell
research going to solve all of the diseases that scientists think it
will? Is there a guarantee that genetic engineering possesses no
adverse effects? Is the distribution of contraceptives to young people
a good way to stem unwanted pregnancy, to stop sexually transmitted
diseases, and to lower the number of abortions? Is homosexuality part
of God’s plan? Should homosexuals be allowed to marry? Should lesbian
couples be allowed to have one party artificially inseminated so that
these couples can have their own children? If we answer “Yes” to these
questions, what will be the outcome of our decisions for ourselves, our
society, and our world? And, if we are wrong, what will be the price we
will have paid? Do we possess sufficient knowledge that will enable us
to answer these questions infallibly?
Consider also
some of the moral issues of seemingly lesser import confronting us
today. Is much of what many parents characterize today as “creative
self-expression” on the part of young people helpful in forming people
who are virtuous? Is administering sedatives to young people, and boys
in particular, to control hyperactivity a helpful way to teach young
people self-control? Does attributing to illegal or immoral behavior
the concept “boys will be boys” or “girls will be girls” assist in their
moral development? If we answer “Yes” to these questions, what will be
the outcomes stemming from our decisions for ourselves, our society, and
our world? And, if we are wrong, what will be the price we will have
paid? Do we possess sufficient knowledge that will enable us to answer
these questions infallibly?
Today’s first
reading responds an emphatic “Yes.” The 10 commandments are the gift
God which provides the People of God a special and unique identity. The
10 commandments give the People of God infallible knowledge about how we
can live our lives in a way that we will always do what is right and
never look back upon our decisions with regret.
While we may all
know the 10 commandments, many of us don’t know that the first four
statements are obligations where God says, “You shall….” The first
three statements point us toward the source of our lives, God, and
remind us that nothing could or should have a higher place in our
hierarchy of values than God. But, the fourth statement points us
toward those who have cooperated with God in giving us our lives,
namely, our parents. God states that our parents deserve the same honor
we accord God.
The next six
statements also are obligations, but, in these statements God says, “You
shall not…,” thus prohibiting certain behaviors in our relationships
with other people. Because our only true happiness is found in God and
all we possess is God’s gift, people who are grateful to God for the
gift of the 10 commandments do not
allow their feelings to morph into malignant motives and to swell into
unbounded anger which can result in murder or into unbridled jealously
which can result in adultery, theft, lies, and coveting what does not
belong to us. No, because these people are grateful to God for the
gift of the 10 commandments, these women and men respect life, the bonds of love
and commitment, and are content with their possessions even if they
don’t possess everything they want.
This is where
teaching about the 10 commandments typically ends. Each is a command to
be followed, not a suggestion to be entertained. End of story. Fini.
I daresay there isn’t
one guy here today who shouldn’t be grateful for the gift of the 10
commandments because the third commandment outlaws “Honey, do...” lists
on Sunday! If you listened carefully to the first reading, you
heard it for yourselves: “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day....No
work may be done then by....your beast, or by the alien who lives with
you.” So, there you have it: the bible teaches that “couch
potato-itis syndrome” (CPS, for short) is one of God’s laws! Go
ahead...grab the remote, lay down on the couch, and enjoy television.
But, beyond
viewing the 10 commandments as a gift, I also said
that the 10 commandments are a gift that gives a special and unique
identity to the People of God. What is this “special” and “unique”
identity?
Taken as a
composite, the 10 commandments provide the orientation—a solid
foundation—for a way of life that is characterized by love of God and
neighbor just as one loves oneself. This way of life, Jesus teaches, is
the “fulfillment of all the laws and the prophets.” Or, to put it in
another way, the love of God so fills the hearts of these people who
base their lives upon the 10 commandments that they don’t “follow” the
letter of the law out of fear of God. No, they “fulfill” the spirit of
law by applying it in all they say and do because they love God.
For people who love God, the 10 commandments are a gift reminding them
where true and abiding happiness is discovered, namely, in a good relationship with God,
one’s parents, and others. In contrast, people who fear God view the 10
commandments as a straightjacket which they believe God intended to keep them from doing what
they believe will bring happiness.
That is why in
today’s gospel reading, Jesus becomes so angry with the people at the
Temple. Jesus understood the importance of the Temple and its
importance to Jewish history and religion. But, for Jesus, God’s temple
wasn’t the Temple building. No, God’s temple was the sacred place where
faithful Jews met God and saw God’s presence most clearly. This
“temple” wasn’t physical but spiritual, evidencing itself in the lives
of those people who find their identity in the gift of God’s law and
discover their freedom and God’s beloved sons and daughters as they
build solid relationships with God, their parents, and other people
based upon the 10 commandments.
This insight—that
the fulfillment of the 10 commandments is discovered not simply by doing
what the statements prescribe or proscribe (the “letter” of the law) but
more importantly by allowing the 10 commandments to change one’s heart
and to form one’s self-identity (the “spirit” of the law)—proved so
powerful to St. Paul that it struck him like a “flash of light” that
knocked him off of his “high horse.” In that blinding experience, St.
Paul suddenly realized that human beings do not meet God by looking for
Him in miraculous signs of divine power emanating from heaven or in
logical explanations demonstrating intellectual prowess, brilliance, and
wisdom. No, we meet God in those people whose lives and relationships
make incarnate the spirit of the 10 commandments.
Like St. Paul
prior to his conversion experience, many faithful Jews believed that God
would reveal himself in power, for example, in an all-powerful King who
worshipped the one true God in the Temple, not
in weakness, for example, a babe laying in a lowly manger in the
godforsaken town located in the middle of nowhere named Bethlehem. But, as a result of St.
Paul’s conversion experience, he recognized how God reveals himself most
powerfully in human weakness when—out of nothing other than pure love of
God and neighbor—one entrusts one’s life to God, just as Jesus did on
the Cross when he prayed, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” For St. Paul, the idea that God is found in
a person and those people who walk in his footsteps not in
a political power broker and magnificent buildings is the stumbling block to those who do not find
their identity in God’s gift of the 10 commandments and order their
relationships with God, their parents, and other people according to the
10 commandments.
This blinding
flash of insight taught St. Paul that the temptation to “follow” the 10
commandments as if we are to be its slaves threatens to undo the
authentic identity of the People of God. How? Because people who do
things out of fear are spiritually immature, always concerned in their
relationships with God, their parents, and other people about what they
can do get out of those relationships. Furthermore, because of this
preoccupation, the spiritually mature are always
evaluating their relationships in terms of what it means for oneself.
Notice how the focus of the spiritually immature person is always upon
“me.” In their relationships, spiritually immature people live in fear
of losing what their relationships get for them and are always
justifying themselves and their actions.
In contrast,
think about people like Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, Maximilian
Kolbe, Pier Giorgio Frassati, Gianna Beretta Molla, as well as Luigi
Beltrame and Maria Corsini Quattrochi. Like Jesus, the words of
Scripture “Zeal for your house will consume me” characterize their
lives. For spiritually mature people like these heroic witnesses
of the faith, their relationships with God, the
parents, and with other people require doing things—sometimes things
these people might not want to do—simply because they love others.
Notice how spiritually mature people direct their focus toward other
people and their needs. Acting out of love of God and neighbor,
spiritually mature people need no justification in their relationships
with God, their parents, or other people.
This why Jesus
was so angry when he entered the Temple precincts on that particular
Sabbath day. People were busily going about fulfilling their religious
duties—justifying themselves before God—as they purchased turtledoves to
offer in atonement for their sins. But here’s the irony: these people
were so wrapped up in themselves and in justifying themselves before God
in the sacred building they called the “Temple”—following the third
commandment out of fear—that there quite likely was little or no love of
God or neighbor present in their hearts. Needing to -justify
themselves in
order to feel holy or, at least, feeling the need to purchase
God’s mercy and forgiveness, these people had forgotten about other
people, and the poor and impoverished in particular.
Think about it:
how were the poor to atone for their sins since they had no money to buy
turtledoves? Is God’s grace something that can be purchased? If so, is
God only merciful to the rich?
The snobbery and
the selfishness—the absence of love of God and neighbor—on the part of
God’s Chosen People turned the Temple into a den of thieves. Thinking
themselves justified and holy by following the letter of the third
commandment while neglecting its spirit, Jesus condemned every one of
them as hypocritical and corrupt because they did not allow the third commandment to transform themselves into temples of the living God.
For our part, the
temptation to follow the 10 commandments to the letter reveals
fear of God not love of God. Furthermore, the
temptation to identify the sacred place where we meet God as a building
not in our relationships with God, our parents, and other people reveals
the attempt on our part to control God out of fear not to
serve God out of love. The sacred can never be subjected
to human power, try as hard as we might. Our identity as People of
God—our only justification and the source of authentic holiness—is
revealed in our love of God and neighbor as we root our lives in the
gift of the 10 commandments which is the only source of mercy and
forgiveness for failure and sin. “I, the Lord, your God…bestow mercy
down to the thousandth generation of the children of those who love me
and keep my commandments.”
Unfortunately, the 10 commandments are a stumbling block for many people
today. But, that’s nothing new. The 10 commandments have been a
stumbling block for people since the day God gave the 10 commandments to
the Israelites.
Contrary to what I have heard many people opine, the 10
commandments are a gift, not a series of mean-spirited and vindictive pronouncements
that God intended for ignorant and psychologically immature creatures. Quite the
opposite! The 10 commandments are the infallible source of wisdom
not only for
the spiritually mature but for all people. However, the
spiritually mature follow the 10 commandments not to
make God love them. No, they embrace the 10 commandments in response to
God’s love. For people of faith, the 10 commands are a guide—not a
straightjacket—that leads people of faith to live in the freedom God
promised as they allow this gift to transform them not into
fully-functioning, self-actualized human beings but into temples of the
living God.
For people of faith, then, the answer to every moral question is
discovered in the 10 commandments which are best summed up as Jesus
stated: “to love the Lord your God with all of your mind, with all of
your soul, and with all of your strength; and, to love your neighbor as
you love yourself.” |
HOMILY
