My Dear Fellow Human Beings,

What HAS happened to the Ten Commandments? Are they *really* GONE? Can we dismiss them all that easily as belonging to the OLD Testament, and not relevant to the "new dispensation of love?" I think not. They are not only a part of God's Word, part of the Divine Revelation God meant for all mankind of all times and places, and they, though *given* to the Chosen People of Israel, were intended to apply to ALL His children -all those to whom He had given the priceless gift of life.
Before asking "Where have the Ten Commandments gone?" it might be wiser to ask "Whence came they?" The Ten Commandments are not simply the expression in words of "the law of God." They are *vastly* more. It is not the primary objective of the Ten Commandments to state the "moral law" for all the peoples of the earth. In the history of the world something of enormous magnitude had happened *before* the Commandments were given, before they *could* be given, I suspect. And that "something" was the Covenant that was established between God and His people.
The concept of "covenant" runs through the entirety of the Bible, in seed in the Book of Genesis, through to completion in the Book of the Apocalypse. In the language of the Bible, the term "covenant" is descriptive of an especially sacred relationship between Yahweh, God, King of the Universe, and His people. They were to be "His People," and He was to be "their God." He had chosen THIS people out from among all others. He had promised them that it would be *through them* that he would bring about the salvation of *humankind*. And it was precisely this agreement, accepted and binding on *both* sides, that MADE them his Chosen People....indeed, it was this covenant, accepted and binding on both sides, that made them *A* people.
They had experienced in their own lives, seen with their own eyes, eaten with their own mouths, handled with their own hands, the fruits of the miraculous and liberating power of God. He had led them from the Land of Slavery in Egypt, and had led them to the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey - and had given it to them. God Himself had solemnly bound Himself by His Own Word to be their faithful God and to deliver them from evil.
That people had, in their own turn, promised to be faithful to that God, to worship him ALONE, to keep the commandments. The Ten Commandments, then, were not so much the "moral law" passed down dictatorially to mankind *through* the Jews....they were the very terms of the covenant itself. So long as they were obeyed, so long would God be bound to keep His part of the bargain.
The Ten Commandments are the pointers, the guideposts which indicate the way for the people of God to be FREE, to be free from their ignorance, to be free from their passions, to be free from the consequences of ignorance, and passion and sin - to be free from death, the price of sin. Good Israelites - then and now - do not see the keeping of the Commandments as a matter of grudging submission to dictatorial rules established to assuage the infinite ego of a savage and demanding God - they see them as their way of expressing gratitude, thanks, and love, and the way to live out that relationship with their God with tenderness and joy. Unless they are seen * and* *observed* in the context of a loving relationship with God, any other kind of obedience quickly becomes meaningless.
It should be obvious that the Ten Commandments were framed for an uneducated people who lived in a terribly hostile and threatening environment. The commandments highlighted and pointed out the dangers to which His People would be exposed, and they focused on the values on which His People were to concentrate if they were to grow in grace *as* His People.
The Commandments were not then and are not now intended to be a cold, distant, detached expression of a hard and rigid set of rules to be obeyed, failure to obey which would be followed by instant and savage vengeance. In fact, they are "a package deal." They ARE, to be sure, an *eternally* valid set of values, values which are valid AND eternal, not only for the Jews and Christians, but for all mankind as well...but they were especially packaged for the People of the Covenant. We need to strip away the narrow constrictions that our unfamiliarity and ignorance have placed upon them, to free them from the bonds with which we clenched them lest we learn to love them, and free ourselves from the slavery of self-serving self-will. Perhaps *then* we might be able to repackage them in the terms and light of the moral issues and dangers we face in our *own* day. And I think we'll find that we face some of the very same dangers and issues faced by the earliest participants to that Covenant.
Those of us who feel that the Commandments are a burden laid unwilling upon us, that they are an imposition on our freedom, ponderous weights laid upon us unilaterally from on high, miss the very heart of things. We must first discover, each one for him/herself, that God is He Who Loves Us More Than Any Other, that He is the one who *wants* to be Our God. Once that is seen, the "Law" takes on a whole different meaning: it becomes the ONLY way in which we CAN live out and express our love, our gratitude, our bond in the covenanted relationship with God, Our Father, King of the Universe.
OUR covenanted relationship with God, however, is not the *same* as that of the ancient Israelites. WE are the People of the NEW Covenant. Let's revisit the Ten Commandments.


THE FIRST COMMANDMENT:

"I am the Lord your God; You shall have no other gods except Me."

In light of the foreword, how should we in the modern world view the first of all the Commandments? "I am the Lord your God...You shall have no gods except Me!" The peoples of the ancient world had all *sorts* of gods - gods of the sun, gods of the sea, gods of fire, darkness, death, health, wealth, beauty, wisdom and knowledge, war and destruction, lightning and thunder. God wanted the People of Israel to keep an identity AS *HIS* PEOPLE, not as just another silly little people with other silly little gods. And he wanted them, not just to freely worship Him, but to be freely BOUND to Him, bound to Him by the bonds of free will, choice - hence, by bonds of LOVE. And so He commanded them to have no other gods except Himself. They were to see themselves *always*, even in the midst of all the other peoples with all their various gods, as the People of Yahweh, and of Yahweh alone.
Aside from its historical significance and the expression if it in the terms of the historical context of its own times, how can WE understand it, for those of us of a new dispensation, and a different century, and do so without destroying its meaning - either the meaning it held for the ancient Israelites, or the meaning it was intended to have for us? The core of the command is obvious - and so simple we constantly let it elude us.

YOU MUST LET *GOD* BE GOD. You must not set yourself up as God. You must not try to determine for yourself what YOU would do if you were God - you must seek to understand what it is that God Himself has SAID He wished done.

The central value it holds is that of WORSHIP - not of terror, not of fear, not of submission (or even of "obedience" in the sense that obedience is so often conceived in Western life, a form of grudging submission). God, Yahweh, is not only now the God of the Israelites, He is also Father of us all...He is OUR FATHER, Who is in heaven. We might well re-state the central idea in terms such as these:

Give God, your Father, His place at the center of your life. Live in a world in which God *really* IS your Father. Open your heart, as well as your mind, to God, your Father in Heaven.


THE SECOND COMMANDMENT:

"You shall not utter the Name of Yahweh your God to misuse it!"

For the average person today, the second commandment has a clear but limited meaning. It forbids the inappropriate use of God's name. One should not disrespectfully use the name of God.

Some also interpret that the commandment prohibits the use of foul language or cussing.

This interpretation of the commandment reflects attitudes which are prevalent in our society. They tend to emphasize the importance of external behavior and refined speech. "Bad language" and the use of coarse and unbecoming speech are offensive to others and, therefore, to God as well, who commanded us to behave toward others as we would behave toward Him Himself. However, without starting a campaign *in favor of* vulgar language, we should realize that the Second Commandment meant something quite different to the Israelites of the First Covenant.

In the religious culture of the Old Testament, there was a very profound link between a person's name and his/her very being. So much so, in fact, that in many of those cultures a person received TWO names at birth - one by which he was known in the general world, and one which was revealed only to those most loved and trusted by them. When the Name of God was spoken, God Himself was at once *present*. To call on the Name of God was, for the Israelites, the same as inviting God to come down and be right beside them. To use the Name of God in *any* way was a religious act. The link between God's name and religion itself was much stronger in Israelite society than it is in ours. In fact, the Israelites of the covenant had such a great religious reverence and respect that they were reluctant even to *pronounce* God's name.

In view of this, the Second Commandment's significance is clear. Now, when we take away that significance and uncover the core of the commandment, we can say that this commandment underlines the link between speech and worship.

We are social beings. We are *made* in order to relate one to another. We face life and its tasks together. As we live together, we must communicate. Thoughts and feelings are shared. Speech - the words we speak or write - is our primary means of communication. A person's speech should reflect, should be indicative of, his or her inner reality. For the Israelite, then, speech *should* have reflected the Covenant and an attitude of deep respect for the God of the Covenant.

Though the Israelites would hardly pronounce God's Name at all, Jesus came and called God "Father." In fact, he called him "ABBA" - a term of very endearing *familiarity*. This change was revolutionary! It alone earned Jesus the opposition and the enmity of the religious leaders of His people.

We are the people of the NEW Covenant. We can *joyfully* call God our "Father." Because of Our Lord, this manner of address is much MORE than a free use of names and titles. In Him, the fatherhood of God and our sonship/daughtership are a glorious and a joyful reality.

Our acceptance of the New Covenant should be reflected in our speech.


THE THIRD COMMANDMENT:

"Thou shalt remember the Sabbath Day, and thou shalt keep it holy!"

There is no one of the commandments which is quite so Jewish in its expression as this one. And none other is quite as non- Jewish in its present meaning. The Sabbath is - as Genesis indicates - the seventh day, the last day of the week - Saturday. The Jewish people still DO keep our Saturday as the Sabbath and as their special day (at least those who still observe their faith and its rituals still do), but others do not.

It is very difficult for twentieth-century people like ourselves to grasp the meaning and significance of the Third Commandment unless one also understands how terribly deep the very IDEA of a Sabbath had been planted in the religious experience and psyche of the Jews.

It was the Sabbath that *commemorated* how God rested on the seventh day, and its observance sanctified that memory - and with it sanctified the very idea of creation and creativity itself. It was in memory of the fact that even God Himself rested on the seventh day to enjoy the fruits of His labor that the Sabbath observance was commanded - and commanded by God Himself. We are reminded that not only are we to "rest, and enjoy His Creation" (as well as those things we ourselves have 'created'), but the command is "TO KEEP IT HOLY." Is it not a little 'odd' that the Commandment instructs the Jews to "remember" something they already know very well? The FULL text of the commandment spells out the HOW of keeping the Sabbath "holy." It also spells out the WHY of it...and the benefits that accrue - since this IS a covenant, and all contractual relationships are based on a "quid pro quo."

No work was to be done on that day. Still, the eschewing of work was not considered an end in and of itself; the rest was "a Sabbath for the Lord," in the words of Scripture. A strange phrase. It was, in fact, a special way to offer worship to the Lord of Heaven and Earth, King of the Universe.

If we take away those elements of the Commandment which are specifically "Jewish" in their nature and context, and bore in until we reach the core value, we might express the central significance of the Commandment thusly: "Into the natural rhythms of a person's life, there ought to enter holy moments, holy days, days which would encircle the remaining days of our lives and draw them into the circle of our worship.

For any of us, then, Sabbath is the day in the week which is different, different in the sense that it belongs not to us but to God. It is different from the others in that it is a day on which we rest rather than work. It is different in that we set it apart in a special way for the worship and adoration of the Father. A day of rest, however, need not mean, that, like the ancient Jews, we are tied down to a day of total inactivity and contemplation and meditation, though surely both of the latter are to be encouraged. Restful, healthy, entertaining activity does not destroy the quiet of the Lord's Day....at least, not by itself, it doesn't.


THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT:

"Thou Shalt Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother."

When we discuss the Fourth Commandment we are essentially speaking of "family". To speak of "family" is in some way always addressing society in general - since society at large is no more than a composite of the families within a community. Despite the changing patterns of family life - throughout the history of mankind, the family has remained in all civilizations and cultures throughout the entire recorded period of man's history (and, one suspects, long before recording began) the family has been and remains even now the cornerstone of society. It is relatively safe to say that the health of any society can be measured by the general condition of family life within it. Healthy family life usually signifies a healthy society, a healthy culture.

Each of us is the product of a home and family. Even those of us who grow up in some measure abandoned or orphaned are in some way the product of family - family fantasized, family adoptive, family desired. But family is and remains the norm. Our lives have been shaped, marked and formed by the family life we experienced...or the lack of it. It is not surprising, therefore, to insist that the Fourth Commandment has a profound significance for each of us as individuals and for society at large.

When the commandment was given (in the Book of Exodus) the background of the history and purpose of the Law was the intense love and friendship of God for His people: "...so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God has given you." The Israelites had a very strong sense of being "a people," "The Chosen People," "The People of the Law," "The People of the Book." It was God's wish that it be so - it was the function of most of the ritual observances laid down later in the Bible to build this sense of "differentness" and bring them to a consciousness of "being different." The commandments themselves are expressions of the covenant which bound them, both to Yahweh and to the community of Israel itself. In the same way that the first three commandments have to do with God Himself, the remaining seven have to do with the community He had established by this covenant, and with the relationships between and among His people. As the first three say "Give to God the place that is rightfully His," the remaining seven say "Give to each person the place that is rightfully his/hers." The Fourth Commandment was the commandment of the covenanted people, the commandment of community....the commandment which ordered the people to BE a community.

What is the deepest central meaning behind this commandment, the element which endured and would be valid for the people of all ages and every nation throughout time? God has linked the lives of each of us with all other men. There is no such thing as a "private sin," or a "private virtue" in that we can have elements of our lives that have no impact on the lives of others. There ARE no sins we can commit by which we "are hurting nobody but ourselves."

We must, therefore, permit people to be what God wishes them to be for us. We are not to make those determinations for Him. We must also be, for ourselves as well as for the benefit of all others, whatever it is that God has wished for US to be. The core value is RESPECT. RECOGNIZE AND RESPECT THE PLACE THAT OTHERS HAVE IN YOUR LIFE....not only those people and places that we find pleasant to our tastes. For the Israelite, honor for father and mother was a realistic and practical expression of that respect. It fit into the social pattern of life as it was then known. Since that time, society has changed a great deal, not always for the better. Both the patterns of life have changed, and the significance of relationships. We live in a complex society. We belong to many different groups: family, the work team, the town, city, parish, club, bowling league, volunteer fire company. In the meantime, something has happened, something of profound significance for the People of God, for the lives of people living together. The great reality of the community of God's Kingdom has come among us.

The Fourth Commandment points to the sanctifying power of human relationships, such as those between parents and children, employer and employee, elected official and citizen, pope and laity, teacher and student. We are all part of the New Israel. We are all part of a new community, a community of believers and non-believers gathered together into unity and oneness. There is a wide range of gifts accorded each of us, but there is only one Spirit who works in each of us for the benefit of all. The togetherness of the Gospel is now the channel of God's redeeming grace. So, respect means a good deal more than simple reverence and obedience toward the head of the family. It means, instead: "Listen. Listen to all those whom God has given to you in your life. In a word, this commandment enshrines *listening*. Listening to one another."

No relationship stands simply on the right of authority to command and the duty of submission and obedience from the rest. The primary relationship is that of persons who have been drawn together by the unifying Spirit of God, who works differently in each of us, for the benefit of all of us. The primary duty we each have, in the light of all our relationships taken all together, is to listen. To listen to what it is that God is telling us through all those whom He has placed in our lives.

Parents are not parents merely because they have a God-given right to command; nor are children only children because they have an equivalent duty given by God to obey. In the New Covenant, there is more to it than that. A parent can and should command, but only if he or she has first listened to the child. A parent may say "are you serious? How do you listen to a gurgling infant or to the childish prattle of a five-year- old, or to the tantrums of a fifteen-year-old?" The point I'm trying to make is that the parent has to try to listen to what is growing in the child, not to the words of the child. The cry for love, the cry to be assured of love, the hunger to know what things are, to know the meaning of life, what to do and how to do it -- these are the significant things behind the gurgling, the prattling and the tantrums. And through the years there is the longing to become independent, to accomplish something worthwhile in life. The child will usually listen - if the parents have listened first.

We are all part of a group. Children cannot grow to full adulthood alone. God has so arranged it that they need the love, guidance, and direction of parents if they are to grow properly. Children should obey, to be sure; but obedience will be fruitless if all it is is submission, if they do not first listen to the concern and the greater wisdom of their parents.

In this sense, home may be described as a place where everyone listens and where everyone is listened to. Authority will be respected and honored, or spurned and mocked, depending on the fairness and wisdom with which it is exercised. There are two extremes to be avoided - as are, indeed, all extremes. A repressive, overly severe use of parental authority where parents fail to listen and become unreasoning, unreasonable and inflexible; and, what is perhaps an even greater danger today, a too permissive and too passive attitude on the part of parents. When children are allowed to do whatever they like, when parents seem not to care where children go or with whom, there is another failure in real listening. Why? Because parents fail to listen to what their children need and to what is growing in them.

The listening spoken of here in the context of family must touch all other groups as well. It should touch the school, the workplace, the Church. It should touch even the relationships between and among nations themselves. This doesn't happen nearly often enough. In educational, industrial and in international relationships, all too often only force is listened to, only personal gain is attended to or heeded. Negotiation becomes a sparring match, a means by which to gauge another's weakness. We live in a society filled with calculated deafness.

There should be no such thing as an "entrenched position." That is, a position which pretends to be self- sufficient, able to meet all eventualities alone and without assistance or accompaniment. There is no position so right that it can afford to close itself off to all others. In the grand scheme of things, each gift, good in and of itself, must work together with the other gifts, given to others. Embrace each other. Respect and appreciate each other's differences and position in life. Realize that we are here FOR each other. Honor each other.


THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT:

"Thou shalt not kill."

Of all the commandments of the Law, this is the one most individuals are least likely to break. Right? I mean, after all, how many of us are likely to murder anyone? How many "murderers" do YOU know? Sure, this commandment demands that each of us take a stand on issues like abortion and violent crime, but far too many people think that that's about as far as it goes. On the contrary, the Fifth Commandment touches the most basic and fundamental attitudes each of us ought to have towards others - in the entirety of life.

"Thou shalt not kill." The words are direct, clear, and quite unequivocal. It might seem we could rephrase this commandment in twentieth-century English without any change at all. Right? And, true, the WORDS can stand without change; but we should be able to see MORE behind the words than the Israelites did...we should be able to see more deeply into the mysteries of God's intent since the arrival of the Word of God, to Whom the Father revealed all his mysteries, and Who, in His own turn, revealed them to us. For us God became man in Jesus Christ - and spoke to us the mysteries of His Own Heart.

The action which the words forbid is very clear, indeed: "to kill." But every human action is ALSO a human "word." Actions DO speak. What the killer SAYS to the victim is as significant as what he DOES to him or her. The killer says, in effect, "I do not want you on this earth. I want a world without you in it." Note the heavy emphasis on the I. This is the REAL substance of the Fifth Commandment.

Each of us exists because God chose, from all eternity, that we do so. GOD WANTS US TO EXIST. And to exist here, now, and in the circumstances in which we find ourselves. And another man has the audacity to decide the HE wants a world without another man. HE does NOT want him/her here. A man has usurped the prerogatives of God.

But more than that, the issue is not simply the fairly obvious fact that God is totally committed to life, since it is He who created it. The issue is that WE cannot be Children of God unless we, TOO, are committed to life - to the FULL life of EVERY person. Behind the four direct words of the commandment lie the indirect but positive challenge: "BE COMMITTED TO THE LIFE OF EVERY HUMAN BEING."

What has deepened our perception of this commandment is the fact of the Incarnation. God has become man in Jesus Christ. God stepped into human life so He could transform it from within. The marvelous destiny of every person is now revealed in the face of Jesus, who rose in triumph from the dead..."By Death He conquered Death," as the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom for the Feast of Easter has it. EVERY ONE OF US can now truly call Jesus "brother," since we have a common Father - and have shared a human nature. The Spirit of the Risen Christ is even now at work in all of us. There is NO SUCH THING AS AN "EXPENDABLE" HUMAN BEING! In the Incarnation, God has shown that He is totally committed to life. Because of the Incarnation, we now see that "life" means much more than a breathing being and a pumping heart.

The entirety of the life ought to be an effort to grow into the mindset and attitudes of Jesus, to become ever more like Him, each day to come a bit closer to thinking the way He thought, to feeling the way He felt. Each one of the commandments concerns itself with a specific area of our lives. As fellow children of God, we are called to see each area in the same way as Jesus saw it. The Fifth Commandment deals specifically with "Life." It is our duty to see life as Jesus sees it.

To "live" is to "grow within oneself." It is to "grow" as a child of God, to grow as a human being. As fellow human beings, we are challenged by this commandment to be committed to the "life" of our brothers and their sisters, their existence on earth, and their full growth and development. Each of us is surrounded by a circle of people; the circle may be small, or large, depending on circumstances. We are called and challenged to be committed to the "lives" of these people, to their well-being and to their growth as brothers and sisters of Our Lord. We HAVE to be involved with their personal development. The Fifth Commandment reverses both the action and the attitude of Cain: we MUST be our brother's and our sister's keeper! Should Cain have known that the answer to his question was *yes*?

In some ways, our current culture seems very sensitive to the value of human life. Ever more people are revolted by the concept of war - and there is a growing and spreading conviction that nothing can justify a nuclear war. Even the idea of capital punishment is becoming more widely rejected - despite the fact that it has been re-instituted as a practice in several states. The idea even that a human life may be taken as punishment for a crime has become an affront to many.

There is a sad side to the story, though. There is a strange lack of logic and love. There is an inconsistency. While it is true that some forms of killing are becoming LESS acceptable, there is an increase in the social acceptance of OTHER forms of killing. The most notable and significant of these (though surely not the only one) is, of course, abortion.

Murder and abortion are serious issues under the Fifth Commandment, but they are by NO means the ONLY issues. The "words" behind ALL killing are: "I don't like a life with you around. I don't want a world with you in it. You are in my way - get out of my way....for good!" You can say the same thing without ever raising a hand or striking a blow. For example, "I don't want people like you living next to me." "I don't want you in my country." "I don't want you in my church." "I don't want you in my school." The ultimate (and incredibly arrogant) message is: YOU have to fit into MY life. YOU have to serve MY needs. I don't care at all about whether or not you are alive. Who you are, how you grow, what you think, say or feel mean nothing to me. I want to live AS IF you were not here." There are an awful lot of us "AS IF" murderers running around, who never even dream we are violating the Fifth Commandment. What God wants, thinks and feels has become of no consequence. And so, the First Commandment is violated as well. "I am the Lord, THY God...," not the other way around.

There are a thousand ways with which we can crush another man or woman in their life and growth. A child is tortured by the cruel remarks of other children. A teenager is less kind and loving because of the sneers of his or her peers. Initiative and joy - so vital for growth, are crushed in a junior partner by a senior partner at work. Most of us carry lifetime scars from wounds inflicted by "brothers and sisters." As each of us moves through life, we do so as builder or destroyer. The choice is ours.

It is our attitude toward life which shows the stuff of which we're made. There are some who are committed to life, all right - but THEIR life only....to life as THEY want it to be. Their lives are totally SELF-centered. As such, there is nothing of the Spirit of God in them.

Others go through life trying to force everything into the shape THEY think it should be. Physical force is their way of "serving life." As often as not, the use of physical force is an admission of weakness - as, too, is the use of "emotional" force. Used in the home against family members, or used against others in a larger society, no matter...it is an admission that one has neither the imagination nor the patience to solve a problem without resort to violence of some sort. The person whose "word" is the fist, the gun, the knife, or the abortionist's instrument has given up the effort to bring life to others and is failing as a human being.

Jesus never shed a drop of anyone else's blood. He poured his own out for us in complete, perfect and total love. He commanded us who claim to follow Him to love in the same way as He did...."A new commandment I give unto you. Love one another as [in the same way] I have loved you." REALLY observing the Fifth Commandment is the only way of doing that. Embrace life. Respect life. Honor life. Love life.

(That's it for now. The next five will follow)

Love,

Michael

Continuation of the initial post in the topic "Revisiting the Ten Commandments - With Love" (all due credit is hereby given to Fr. Hal Stockert and the Most Rev. Michael J. Dudick, D.D.).

Commandments six through ten follow.


THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT:

"Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery."

How can we possibly address this commandment in today’s society? I mean, after all, the subject matter IS "sexual morality," and in this culture and environment sexual morality touches very nearly every one of the areas of human life; our ways of dressing, our reading, the things we do and watch for entertainment and recreation; our style of dating and relating to one another, whether those ways are intimate or only "social." It involves the way we stand, and sit, the ways we look at one another and speak to one another, the things we think, the ways we think about them, the things that are done and said, the things left UNdone and UNsaid.

But the simple fact of the matter is that the Sixth Commandment is in itself absolutely clear, absolutely simple, and absolutely direct. There is no possibility of misunderstanding its meaning. Perhaps that is the very reason it has become such an item of controversy. Something so totally unequivocal must be either accepted or rejected in its entirety - it cannot be explained away or rationalized away.

It deals with only one very clear, easily recognizable, act: it absolutely forbids and prohibits adultery. No "ands," no "ifs," and no "buts." "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery." In its very simplicity itself it seems unrealistically far removed from a subject which has become, for many reasons, quite so disparately complex.

Is it realistic, for example, to assume that human beings have become more evil as centuries have passed? Or less evil? Has our increased knowledge about sexuality increased our capacity to sin? Or diminished it? An approach along these lines misses the point of the contrast entirely. The problem of "modern sexuality" is a cultural problem - it is the culture in which we live that has given rise to such a complex code of sexual morality, not the nature of sex itself.

Our culture is enormously preoccupied with sex. We are literally bombarded with it, deluged with it. Advertising uses of sex is increasingly blatant. Everything from boats to beer is sold with it. The "good life" philosophy, the "playboy" philosophy encourages the idea that frequent and casual sexual activity is the most necessary part of a life of "fulfillment," that one cannot BE "fulfilled" without frequent and "satisfying" sex - preferably whenever and as one wishes it, even more preferably without consequence. The "heroes" and "heroines" of our prime time TV and our smash-hit movies are very often sexually "permissive," if not outrightly promiscuous. Magazines, books, and TV talk shows endlessly discuss sexual activity both inside and outside marriage. Societal restraints are few - and the pressures are great to render them even fewer. In the name of "personal liberty and freedom," of course.

In short, we are faced with an explosion of sexual activity within our culture - and with all the associated consequences of it. And the effects of it are all the more damaging because we have just emerged from an era in which so much of the subject was 'verboten,' forbidden to discussion. Not very long ago, sex was something that you didn't talk about; it was not "forbidden ground," but it WAS "sacred ground." I cannot recall being taught that sex was "dirty" when I was young. I learned that sex is a very natural thing and quite obviously NOT an evil thing at all. But "sacred" things, too, are not subjects for light or loose treatment - and all too often, those curious about the "sacred" assume a "dirtiness" when not permitted to enter the discussions. Silence about sex was construed as 'negative', particularly when IT had, in its own turn, followed an era in which it WAS often viewed as "dirty" (I refer here to the Victorian era - and to only the latter portion of it, at that). Where *silence* was characteristic of the past century and a half in matters concerning sex, *blatant exploitation* of sex is typical of ours.

IS sexual morality a simple and uncomplicated thing by itself? Is sex even a human value in it self - but made evil in the context of our culture? The question should drive us to look more closely at the original commandment: "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery." Obviously, the commandment as it is phrased does not address the entire range of sexual behavior in the culture of late-twentieth-century America. But it certainly does give an approach to be followed by which we may search out an overall statement that does address all of sexual morality.

For the ancient Israelites, the Sixth Commandment had a social significance that was more important than its sexual aspects. That society was closely-knit, family-conscious, and respect for another person HAD to include respect for the sacred bond which lay at the very root of his family's foundations. The evil to be avoided was the breakup of the family unit, the invasion of the sanctity of another's home. The commandment was not itself directly concerned with the misuse of the sexual faculty. It was aimed at the HARMONIOUS relationships built with much suffering and great labor and sacrifice between a man and a woman, not primarily to the moral implications of the relationships between them.

The Sixth Commandment fits perfectly into the background of the Old Testament. In the Creation Narrative we are presented with the image of God creating the beasts and the birds because he does not want humankind to be lonely. But that wasn't enough. He created woman, someone like man, yet unlike, different from him, a sexually different person. Now it is indeed that man will not be alone. So, sexuality is NOT exclusively associated with procreation. It is in its very essence good, because it enables man and woman to be more as God wants them to be - not alone and isolated, but in a communion that is built upon love, compassion and creativity.

The morality of the Sixth Commandment was social. It began with the social reality of a man living in a communal relationship. It did not address the moral significances of the personal misuse of sex - not directly. In fact, in the culture of Israel, at that time, that wasn't even necessary - nor would it have been understood. But it did make a basic and fundamental point inescapably clear: SEXUALITY IS SOCIAL BEFORE IT IS GENITAL. It is quite clear from the context of the entire Old Testament that human sexuality is NOT simply a matter of "personal and private" behavior.

In the Gospels there is remarkably little mention of "sexuality" as such. Jesus is depicted quite clearly as a man totally comfortable with his own sexuality, and with the sexuality of all those with whom He came into contact. He was gentle, compassionate, loving, tender, warm - and surprisingly physical in His relationships. How very often we hear of him "laying on hands," or lifting children, or touching another to heal. He touched people with an astonishing regularity. He had both male and female friends. When he meets with sexual frailty, he shows an immense compassion - witness the story of the Woman Taken In Adultery. There surely is no suggestion of negativeness toward sex on His part. He insists on the "sacredness" of two people entering marriage. He emphasizes that it is *fidelity* that is the hallmark of TRUE union and love. He shows that sexual uprightness is NOT merely a matter of external behavior, but is a matter of the heart. One could even summarize things this way: "Sexuality is social. Sexuality is sacred. Sexuality is a matter of relationships. Sexuality is a matter of the heart, and not simply of behavior."

It is in and through our natural sexual relationships that we can enter into the sacred relationships. It is an upright heart, a redeemed heart, a committed heart that enables a person to enter into and live within such a sanctifying relationship.

The decisive factor in reshaping the Sixth Commandment for ourselves is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The whole person - in all his/her instincts, gifts, relationships - is now, for the first time in the history of the world, able to be healed and brought to the perfection for which it was originally intended. The Resurrection of Jesus has not just "saved our souls," but has saved us "body AND soul." It has given us strength. We are assured by the human nature of Christ Himself that never again will a thing be "too" difficult, "too" hard, "too" burdensome to bear, because His own strength will be provided us as it is needed. "My strength is sufficient unto Thee." The Resurrection has touched (and saved) the WHOLE person, including sexuality, with all that the idea of "wholeness" means: thought, awareness, curiosity, desire, passion. ALL of these are made essentially good by the Redemptive Act of Jesus Christ; they are now part of our lives in our relationships with God and with others. We have become, in virtue of the Resurrection, "Temples of the Holy Spirit," sacred unto God, and, like anything dedicated to the special service of God, to be treated with the utmost respect and dignity. Even in our sexuality, now, we are "set apart for the special worship of The Lord." It is NOT (and never has been) a "purely private and personal thing, nobody's business but mine."

For the Israelite, the family unit and its life were part of the Covenant itself. For us, the sexual relationship between a man and a woman is part of the very Kingdom of God itself. Our sexual lives do not stand outside or apart from our growth toward (or away from) God and each other. Sexuality is NOT morally determined by its "biological" values; it IS a matter of redeeming and creative love, a love that heals, develops, creates.

Maybe now we can restate the commandment for our days: "Love with all your being, uniquely, creatively."

If sexuality has to do with sacred and redemptive relationships that come from the heart, then one cannot use sex casually. Love is a choice, not a feeling. The use of sex should always be in connection with a mature, respectful, Christ-like, LOVING choice.

I am NOT talking about "affection." I AM talking about LOVE. In our culture we need to TIGHTEN the bond between sex and love. We need to recognize evil where it REALLY exists - in the ways and habits of a culture that exploits sex for its own purposes, and not even for sexual purposes themselves. Sex is NOT evil. It IS good. Sexual pleasure is good. But to seek sexual pleasure, gratification, without the setting of a sacred and moral commitment of LOVE is like mouthing words without any sound. It is truly "senseless," it is without meaning, and empty and void - UN-loving. The real problem in our society is that too many have confused affection and love - and the two are not at all the same. They are, in fact, not even necessarily related. Embrace your wholeness, including your sexuality. Dignify your human sexuality. Love and respect your sexual partner and yourself in all matters of the heart, including fidelity.


THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT:

"Thou Shalt Not Steal"

In the seventh commandment we see a marked contrast between an original, simple statement of the Bible and the present, complicated moral issue of Justice. The issue in the seventh commandment is: "You shall not steal." Four words. No more. To deal with Justice adequately in the environment of the Twentieth Century, however, seems to call for a bit more.

"You shall not steal" was aquite an adequate expression of the concept of Social Justice for a simple, nomadic and pastoral people. They didn't need any explanations of what the commandment signified; the implications were clear. The commandment simply presumed the existence of a specific system of property ownership - private ownership, in fact. It didn't make any express judgments on the desirability or undesirability of the system, it just took the existence of the system for granted as it was, good or bad. And within that accepted system, the issue was made clear: "You shall not steal."

The commandment did not have as its function or goal the upholding of the system of ownership, nor of sanctifying any specific form of ownership. It did not, for example, mean to indicate that the system of private ownership we call "capitalist" is inherently more or less moral than that which we call "communist" or "socialist." It looked in an entirely different direction. It aimed at upholding the Covenant just entered into between God and His People. It (The Covenant) drew the Israelite to God - but it also drew each Israelite to his or her fellow Israelites. The seventh commandment was not (and is not now) simply a matter of defending the concept of "private property", and guarding against misappropriation of it by others; the main issue is NOT the taking of "what belongs to another." The issue was, in fact, considerably more serious than even that.

The issue was one of harming a brother or sister through one's material goods. In short, the issue is a matter of *exploitation* - the exploitation of individual need and hardship, the exploitation of the weak by the strong, the enfranchised by the disenfranchised, the un-established by the established, the exploitation of another's dependence on me, my wealth, position, power or good will, such as it may be.

The message to the Covenant People was quite clear. "You simply cannot be, you CANNOT BE, a genuine friend of God, or hold any close personal relationship with Him unless you really love and treat others JUSTLY." A worship of God that is not accompanied by respect for the well-being of others, especially of the poor, is false. As one example among many, listen to the Prophet Amos, who lived some centuries before the Birth of Christ:

"I hate and despise your feasts. I take no pleasure in your solemn festivals... Let me have no more of the noise of your chanting, No more of your strumming on harps. But let Justice flow like water, And integrity like an unfailing stream."

The coming of Jesus Christ into human history added a deeper dimension of Justice. The great reality for which Christ lived and died was a unity of real brotherhood for mankind: "Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in You." This is the supreme value of life. This IS Justice, for it gives every person his or her proper place, and it gives to each of them that which is rightfully theirs! From the viewpoint of the gospel, the good things of this world fit into this order of *brotherhood*.

According to the Gospels, our major task is to build up a real brotherhood in the circle of life in which each of us moves. MY property, MY rights, MY profit, MY comfort can never be the dominant value of my life. We should see all these things within the context of a concern for the needs of each of our brothers and sisters. In fact, a modern re-statement of the seventh commandment might be this: "Thou Shalt Use The Things That Are Thine To Serve Those Who Are Mine."

In the society of modern-day America there is little difficulty about re-stating this commandment, but there is surely a great deal of difficulty in upholding it. Our understanding of Justice and Rights is so narrow and impoverished as to be virtually non-existent. It is almost exclusively concerned with our own ownership of property and how that ownership is violated by the theft and unjust damage perpetrated *by others* upon US. Our concept of rights has become so contaminated by the same standpoint that we almost universally conceive of Rights as "something owed to us by others," instead of "something each of us owes another."

The solipsism and isolationism of these particular emphases has led to the impoverishment of virtually every area of modern life - EXCEPT the possession of the tangible material wealth of the world. But it takes no account of REAL NEED, nor is it part of any REAL BROTHERHOOD- public propaganda about the generosity of Americans to the contrary notwithstanding.

Religion and life have too far been driven too far apart from each other. Too many understand what it means to be a Christian solely in terms of its individualism; "Just you and me, Lord....all the way." For far too many, religion is seen as something related solely to prayer and worship. Religion is something you do in *Church*, on Sundays. It's something kept in a separate airtight compartment, having nothing to do with the rest of our lives.

Living and working, making money and spending or saving it, improving one's financial lot - all these are definitely in VERY separate, OTHER compartments. They are "life," and religion doesn't have anything to do with life. Likewise politics. Religion shouldn't have any place in politics, right? Riiiiiiiiiiight. And water should flow uphill and night should become day.

It follows then, as night does follow day, if the last paragraph is true, that if one finds it needful to take advantage of others in the marketplace or even exploit them without mercy, then, "that's the way life is. Tough." "You know how it is. Business is business. After all, I'm not in business for my health." WHAT'S MINE IS MINE. In OUR society - as opposed to that of the early Israelites - we have a very complex economic order. As a result the range of ways of stealing and exploiting others is vastly wider than ever before. There are now HUNDREDS of ways I can harm others, as opposed to the relatively few of ancient days, though I may never see their faces, know their names, or know where it is they live. I may never know how many of them there have been I have injured, or how badly.

I can create a need others do not really have - and then exploit that very need I have created to their detriment and to MY benefit. I can raise my profit-margin as high as the system will allow, and I can exclaim in horror when those who work for me demand an equivalent increase in wages. I can strike for what I want - no matter what the effect of my action is on the poor, the weak, the sick, the elderly. I can believe that *having*, in itself, is an absolute value. The plight of those others who have nothing is, of course, saddening, but (tongue in cheek) is not a matter of my concern. Beggaring me will not improve the lot of any others significantly. What I have is MINE; and what I CAN get I WILL get (even if it increases the misery of others - but why should "I" be concerned about that?).

We cannot dismiss these and similar attitudes as "good business," as something which has nothing to do with our participation in the Universe. Through prophets like Amos, and, indeed, through Jesus Christ Himself, God calls us to see our possessions in terms of stewardship of things that belong really to the Lord; God calls us to see "our" possessions in terms of THOSE THINGS AVAILBABLE TO SERVE OTHERS. Reap what you sow and sow what you reap.

Now, more than ever, we are called to re-discover the inherent and supreme value of every human person, and to understand that we have responsibilities, in Justice, for one another. That, in a nutshell, is what the seventh commandment is truly all about.


THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT:

"Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor."

For a large number of people, the most important of the Commandments have been dealt with once the sixth has been mentioned. Perhaps, if one wishes to stretch the imagination a bit, the seventh may be considered almost as important as the sixth. Once those two have been reviewed, either in a sermon or in examination of conscience, the attention begins to drift. The last three commandments are many times viewed not only as being of less importance, but, for all practical and practicable purposes, as of no importance.

The truth of the matter is of course that as the Ten Commandments progress they reach ever more deeply into the human spirit. If there is a high point to the commandments at all, in terms of reaching into the fundamental motives of the human being, that high point is actually reached in the ninth which addresses the INNER conversion of the HEART - instead of the simple reformation of one's external behavior - that should result from the observance of the preceding eight commandments. Our sensitivity to the last three shows whether or not the previous seven have achieved their stated function.

You might think, at first glance, that the eighth commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor," seems to touch a very narrow area of human life and to make an equally narrow point. It refers to the giving of false witness against another, either in the formality of a court case, or in the informality of open conversation. The Jewish people could survive only through the enforcement of common codes of law. The law held them together. For their survival as a people, the law demanded truthfulness so that the proper order of things might be upheld.

Behind this negative and rather narrow wording of the eighth commandment, however, there lies a profound human issue: the truth and its effect on human life. A person can grow and develop only if she or he lives in the truth! If one does not hear and accept the truth about oneself, one becomes closed to the grace of God. A healthy society is a society where the truth is spoken, welcomed and listened to.

The Israelites, as has been frequently noted, were a people formed by covenant, by agreement, by contract. The covenant drew them as much to one another as it drew them as a people to God. The covenant deeply impressed upon them that their God not only was the One, True God - He Was TRUE - HE WAS TRUTH! Truth stood at the very heart of their relationship with God. It should stand also at the heart of their relationships with one another.

Human relationships are terribly fragile. The pain we experience from even one broken relationship gives us some sense of what original sin must have meant - and must now mean. At the very root of our beings there is a deep insecurity. Mistrust is never very far from the surface either of our hearts or of our minds. We are surrounded with vast amounts of evidence that people are as readily destroyed by words as with bullets and with bombs. People can be eliminated, eradicated, annihilated in fact by prejudice and contempt.

Jesus Christ is the Lord of the commandments. But he was also a man of the commandments. He was a man of God, a man of Truth. Jesus - He Who Reveals To Us Truths We Could Not Discover By Ourselves - was always himself, always true. He dared to be himself in complete openness to people. He played no roles. He did not have one "face" for one situation and another "face" for another situation. He could be angry, outspoken, joyful, amused - but he never compromised. He did not love people for what they *might become*; he loved them for whatever it was *they were* at that very moment - warts and all. He dealt with people in truth, in the *realities* of their situations, not on an idealized level.

Jesus made a most remarkable statement to Pilate: "...I was born for this, I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice." Jesus stands for the truth - for truth in life, and especially, for truth in relationships.

In the light of Jesus, the eighth commandment may be rephrased this way: "Speak the truth in love." The value enshrined here is truth. That means MUCH more than "telling the truth," or "not lying." It means that we must be true to ourselves as human beings. It says something about the kind of people we should be: genuine, reliable, sound, worthy of trust. As God's people, we are challenged to become what he is - true. We should have an honest and accurate assessment of ourselves. We should know and openly admit our strengths and weaknesses, our virtues and vices.

We should, moreover, look for the truth in every area of life. All of us have prejudices. We view people and events with our opinions already formed and fixed. All of us are insecure and unsure. We tend to protect our insecurity by either falsifying the facts, or embellishing them. We are afraid we will get into trouble, or cause people to think less of us if we stand on the truth.

We have to learn (and the lesson does not come easily) how to speak the truth in love. Some people are marvelous at speaking the truth, always and everywhere - But without any spark of love. Much of the damage that is done to people is done because people tell the truth - needlessly. It is often forgotten that we are NOT free to say things about others HOWEVER TRUE, if there is no need for them to be said. For them, the truth becomes a stick with which to beat others, not something with which to build others up. Others are so anxious "to love" that they refuse to confront another with the truth when needed. Furthermore, we cannot speak the truth in love, if we do not have the fundamental honesty to listen. The truth we seek will shine forth, in a special way, from what our brothers and sisters have to say to us. The truth is saving when it tries to fit gently into the needs of others.

Doubtlessly, one of today's issues is that of truthfulness. Public life is too often two-faced and double-tongued. We live in an age of platitudes and bumper-sticker thinking, twenty-second answers to four-hour questions, where all the words sound right, but are either deceptively shifted in meaning, or are essentially meaningless. Business life, for example, is a place of undercover activity; the realities and real intentions are often concealed. Private life is full of gossip: the scandalous and the sensational are chosen for retelling, while the rest of the truth either ignored or deliberately suppressed. In the middle of all this, ordinary people are skeptical, nervous and circumspect. They conceal their true thoughts and feelings, and allow only a chosen few to know their real selves.

As brothers and sisters in the unity of the NEW covenant, it is as important as ever for our health and our freedom that we speak the truth in love and never try to distort it.

The lie harms; the truth heals. Behind every sin, there is a lie, an untruth. Behind every wounded human being there lies the cutting edge of untruth, distortion, bigotry, bias, lies. Such wounds are healed only by the truth - not by more deception and further lies. Jesus said of those who would follow him: "...you will learn the truth, and the truth will make you free."


THE NINTH AND TENTH COMMANDMENTS:

"Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's House."

"Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Wife...Nor Anything That Is His."

In these two final commandments the Decalogue arrives at its final objective - a transformed heart! These two commandments (the Ninth and the Tenth) obviously stand together . They are the only two which do NOT deal with the world of EXTERNAL actions. They both deal with that fundamental motive power of human activity, the human heart, with a person's inner world, with his/her inmost essence, that which makes him or her uniquely what they are, with attitudes and with desires.

The first eight of the Ten Commandments deal primarily with external behavior. The forms of expression are negative: "Thou Shalt Not..."; but their objectives are internal and positive. If one follows them, if one is committed to God, to His service, to life, to love, to justice and to truth, one's inner attitudes will be transformed. It cannot be otherwise.

Before we look at the particular message of the Ninth and Tenth Commandments, we would do well to reflect on what they tell us about the whole law. Without a renewed heart, human growth is vain, in the classic sense of the Latin term: "empty, void, without meaning." Without good INNER motives and attitudes, upright conduct is a lie, a sham, a public fraud. THIS is the issue on which Christ confronted the religious leaders of His day - the Scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees. Oh, he upheld all the commandments, all right; He took his stand on the basic values enshrined in them. But on the religion of the HEART - He went to war. "Alas for you, Scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who clean the outside of the cup and dish, and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance and all manner of corruption! Blind Pharisee! Clean the inside of the cup and dish FIRST, so that the outside may become clean as well!"

"Alas for you, Scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You, who are like whitewashed tombs that look lovely and pleasing on the outside, but inside are full of dead mens' bones and every kind of corruption. In the same way YOU appear to people, from outside like good and honest men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness!" In their Old Testament expression, the Ninth and Tenth Commandments speak of "covetousness." To "covet" your neighbor's spouse or goods or servant or donkey or anything else is wrong, even if you never actually make a move to take them. This is simple, practical religion of the heart, expressed in terms that the Jewish people of that day would readily understand. The terms and concerns of our lives today may be different, but the principle remains the same: to be true - human growth in becoming closer to God must be of the heart.

That understanding makes it possible for us to express the Ninth and Tenth commandments in Twentieth Century English: "Truth, honesty and goodnes must be in your heart - not only in your actions." Expressed this way they challenge each of us to face the ultimate human question: what are you like inside? We would do well to pause once in a while and attempt an answer to that question. That, in fact, is the function of the "examination of conscience" that God urges each one of us to set aside time to contemplate daily. We slip into "externalism" with an astonishing ease. We build up a picture, a profile, for and of ourselves by our outward practices and by espousing our uncompromising stand on current moral issues - and then accept that self-constructed profile as evidence of our righteousness.

It is important to note that the Ninth and Tenth Commandments describe the basic sinfulness or corruption of the human heart. The descriptive word is "covetousness," the desire to have and to possess at any price. It is "covetousness." It is "possessiveness." In this regard, the Ninth and Tenth Commandments echo the story of Adam and Eve as described the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis. There, also, the basic sin of the human heart is described. Adam wanted to get his happiness and the control of his world into his own hands, instead of leaving them where they belonged, in the hands of He Who Created It All. He wanted to "have," to "own." He refused to live on the "Gifts" of God. He wanted to have his "security" within his own grasp. He refused to accept happiness as a gift and demanded it as a right. Yet, oddly enough, that is all happiness can ever be - a gift.

The basic sin of humankind has not changed. It is now as it always was - "possessiveness" - to have and to control all that can satisfy our desires. "Life is mine," is the cry of sin.

Power is the issue between mankind and God - nothing else. To whom belongs the power to control the destiny of men? Do we accept life as a gift from the hand of a loving Father, not only in the moment of taking our first breath, but each and every day? Are we willing to admit that He IS "Lord" and to live our lives in brotherhood and dependence on Him, and in the full knowledge and acceptance of that brotherhood and dependence? Are we willing to loosen our grip on things and to commit ourselves, in faith, into His hands? It may be as terrifying a thing for us to do as it was for Peter to step out onto the surface of that lake at three o'clock in the morning in the middle of a storm. But that IS the real issue of faith. So, the Ten Commandments, then, have come full circle; and the issue in the tenth is the same as the issue in the first: "I am Yahweh, your God!"

In our society, America of the Twentieth Century, it is very difficult for us to have and to preserve a Christ-like heart. The odds against us are strong, for we are living our lives within a system and culture that is in many ways selfish and un-loving. To a very large extent the very objectives of our society itself are contrary to the spirit of the Ninth and Tenth Commandments - the very raison d'etre of our way of life is at odds with it in many ways. Ours is a consumer society, and consumerism is based on the desire to have, to possess, to acquire material things, to control other things and other people through one's possession of material things. It is essentially self-oriented. There are many, very many, who will see nothing at all wrong in that. As Maurice O'Connell has pointed out, consumerism is directly opposed to the Ninth and Tenth Commandments because it is based on the perversion of the human heart. "In the consumerist society, the value of each man is not personal and intrinsic, but is measured by our purchasing power and our ability to compete."

The terrifying thing is that a society which is fundamentally wrong inevitably collapses. It must collapse because it is false to the human heart which was made in the image and likeness of God. In the course of history many such societies have collapsed; ours runs the very same risk, and, unless we change our course, it will collapse, either from rot from within, or from assault from without.

For us, then, the challenge of the Ninth and Tenth Commandments is a twofold one. First, we must look at the inward quality of our lives, and, where necessary, reform them! It is not sufficient to acknowledge them - or even to acknowledge the error. Secondly, we must resist the pressures of a consumerist society. Such a society will be reformed ONLY if it IS resisted. It must be TOLD, by actions more than by words or reason, that "we do not want your alluring offers; we are not going to be tricked by your glowing promises of the 'good life' into buying those things of which we stand in no need."

In a very real sense, we must all become protesters. We must protest the consumerist values which encourage poor people to live beyond their means, and encourage richer people to live as if there were no poor, as if no one else existed. It is hard to be a protester. It is simpler to retire within our little cocoons, to allow a glimpse of the outside world in through a piece of glass in brilliant, glowing, living color for a few hours each night, and convince ourselves that all is well. Let someone else do the protesting. I've got what I want!

Fortunately, one sign of vitality in the world today is the growing number of men and women who ARE resisting and protesting. They are rejecting the values of a selfish international consumerist society. They are seeking the Gospel values of a simpler lifestyle conducive to generous sharing with those less fortunate than themselves. Their example is a shining light to all the rest of us pilgrims who are trying to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

LOVE God, allow Him into your life, LOVE yourself as a sacred child of God, let the TRUTH flourish in your heart and LOVE others as yourself.

*********************************************

This discussion of The Ten Commandments has been offered to you in love. Hopefully, like me, you will contemplate their universal and timeless significance and apply them in your daily life whether you are a believer or not.

We are all in this thing called life together my brothers and sisters.

Love and Best Wishes,

Michael