On the 3rd Sunday of Lent, the Church reads about Israel’s covenant with God at Mount Sinai. A covenant is an agreement. It has terms that each party agrees to keep. In the covenant at Mt. Sinai God promises to be Israel’s God and the people promise to be God’s people by keeping the ten commandments.
This covenant establishes a relationship between the former slaves and the God whose name, Yahweh, means I Am Who Causes to Be. Yahweh, the Creator God who opened a dry path to freedom through the sea, promises to be Israel’s liberating, loving God. The people agree to worship Yahweh alone, not to take God’s name in vain, and to keep the Sabbath holy. These actions express their relationship with God. They invite us to return God’s love with our love for God.
The people also promise to keep seven other commandments that express respect for each other. They promise to honor parents and elders. They promise not to kill, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness (which means lie), or covet their neighbors’ property or wives.
What do the ten commandments ask of us?
Keeping these ten commandments makes Israel a people who have bonds with one another and with their God. Israel’s history before the covenant is a history of families and tribes. Its history after the covenant is the story of a people who live and worship by this law.
When Jesus teaches his new law, he insists that he comes not to abolish the law of Moses but to fulfill it. He urges people to deal with their anger as well as not to kill. He cautions married people not to look at other men or women, let alone commit adultery. He teaches turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, and loving our enemies.
Today, more than 3,200 years after the covenant at Mt. Sinai, Jews and Christians still keep its terms. Christians also keep the covenant Jesus makes in his own lifeblood and which we celebrate in every Eucharist.
Christians know God through Jesus in whom God becomes one of us and shows us in his humanity what God is like. Christians know God through God’s raising Jesus from the dead and through the Holy Spirit in whom we live, move, and have our being.
The commandments are summed up in this sentence: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Catechism of the Catholic Church #2055
(Romans 13.9-10)
TEN COMMANDMENTS
- I am the Lord, your God, you shall not have other gods before me. What gods or idols do we worship today that this commandment should prohibit?
- You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. What does this commandment forbid? OMG? What if people take no responsibility when they swear by God’s name or make vows?
- Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day. Is Sunday more than the day before school starts, the day for homework? How should we honor it? In this 24/7 world when do we rest? When do we work? When do we appreciate and worship?
- Honor your father and mother. What does honoring parents require? How do people in our society honor elders and their wisdom? What authority do we honor?
- You shall not kill. This commandment addresses all life issues—abortion, euthanasia, murder, just war, self-defense, capital punishment.
- You shall not commit adultery. Is this commandment too narrow? What about being unfaithful in other relationships? What about sexual intercourse before marriage?
- You shall not steal. Can stealing be more than taking what doesn’t belong to one? Is stealing ever okay? What about illegally downloading movies or music? Is greed stealing? What about paying fair wages?
- You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. What about texting rumors or plagiarism? What about masking who one really is and being someone else?
- You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. Should wife be changed to spouse?
- You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods. How much is enough? How do we not want more? What do we deserve?