CFE

Covenant Morality (The Ten Commandments)

Why are they different?

• Depends on who wrote it (ST. Augustine (Doctor of the Church and found the list in 400AD) & Origen (200AD and adopted by Protestant churches))

First Commandment (I am the Lord your God… You shall have no other gods besides me….)

Positive form:

• Recognize, accept and worship only the One, True God

Jewish Context:

• Jewish people practiced Monolatry/ Henotheism (“heis” - one) (“theos” -god)

• Yahweh establishes his position relative to the Israelites who are expected to render complete submission and obedience to him

• This commandment assets that this one God is unique and transcendent

• We have to recognize that this one God has offered us a unique relationship so we have to pay attention to him and do nothing to sully the relationship

• Calls us to see how God has kept us in being, through God’s own merciful hand, guiding, directing, healing, and sustaining us

• In accepting the commandment we accept the idea that God is in a relationship with us. If by faith we see God as the standard of bringing goodness and compassion to the world, we must also acknowledge our respective roles as part of the relationship

• We have to submit ourselves to his authority and sovereignty and to love Him above all else

• Where is God in our hierarchy of values?

*Christians create carved statues in the church which serve as a reminder that these people existed and not representations

Second Commandment (You shall not make wrongful use the name of the Lord (Ex.20:7))

Positive form

• Respect and revere God

Jewish context

• For the Semitic people, the “name” was the person. To give someone a name was to say something about the person

• It was prohibition against blasphemy

• To show disrespect or to insult God’s name is to insult and show disrespect to the person of God

• The purpose of the second commandment is to protect true worship

• The commandment tells us that God should not be used as a tool for serving human or earthly desires

• When we use God’s name we should do it with honor and respect and with great consciousness of what God means to us

Third Commandment (Remember the Sabath Day, and keep it holy)

Jewish Context

• The Sabbath probably originated in response to the social need for a day of rest from work and for family reasons. It eventually became,e a day of worship since Israel is a religious nation

• God intended for His people to enjoy their relationship with Him and Each other by valuing the Sabbath

• This commandment was given to us so we can “rest”, “celebrate”, and “gather” and most importantly, “worship”

• The holiness of Sunday revolves around the positive worship of God, but as a family day it should also be seen as helping to preserve an important social value (worship should not be separated from the totality of life)

• The Eucharist(ing) (thanksgiving) is the venter of community worship, which is why it is not an optional but a duty and a responsibility

The Commandments for the people

Fourth Commandment (Honor your father and your mother, that you may have a long life in the land which the Lord, your god is giving you)

Jewish Context:

• This commandment speaks of respect, reverence, and care that the Israelites need to show to the elders that is applicable for all since families in those days were more like clans

• Honor shown to parents is the same as honor shown to God

• The focus of this commandment is that we are born into a society of persons. We cannot develop fully as human persons outside of human society (our family and the nation)

• It urges us to respect, promote, and protect the integrity of the family as society’s basic unit.

• The honor due to our parents extends to the support we owe to them in their old age

• Question: What have we done lately to preserve family unity and happiness and How often have we told our parents that we appreciate them?

Fifth Commandment (You shall not murder)

Positive form: Respect life, and the bodily intergrity of every person, including your own

Jewish context:

• The Torah portrays murder as a capital crime. Since man is made in God’s image, the shedding of innocent blood is viewed as a direct offense against God

• Human life as God’s dominion: what belonged to God was not ours to violate

  • Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the ‘creative action of God’ and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can in any circumstance, claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being

• Our bodies participate in our intrinsic dignity as persons. It must not be defiled or mutilated, nor unjustly terminated

• The gift of life in endowed with a purpose, that is, the challenge to find meaning in our lives

• We must come to the aid of someone who is in trouble. We are our brother’s keeper. The ability to grasp the sacredness of life, entails an attitude of willingness to lay down our lives for the benefit of others

Sixth Commandment (You shall not commit adultery)

• Positive form: Respect the integrity of married life

Jewish context:

• In the Old Testament, adultery was understood as sexual relations between a married (or betrothed) woman and a man other tan a her husband. It was therefore a sin against the husband

• In the New Testament, Jesus extended the definition of adultery to include sexual relations between a married man and a woman other than his wife

• It was therefore shattering of someone else’s marriage

• This commandment stands as a witness to the fact that it is in our bodies that we declare ourselves for one another

• It is a reminder tat every time we physically extend ourselves to another we nurture the faithful bonds we share with one another

• Sex must be responsible

• Adultery devalues the commitment made between a husband and wife and to God

• In keeping our faithfulness with our spouse, we remain faithful to God and keep the covenant relationship

Seventh Commandment (You shall not steal)

Positive Form: Respect the personal freedom of others

Jewish context

• It originally focused on the “stealing”/ kidnapping of people

• Forbids the enslavement of a free Israelite

• This commandment is intended to safeguard the freedom and equality of each individual in the community

• How do we protect others’ freedom

Eighth Commandment (You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor)

Positive form: Respect the truth

Jewish context:

• “to witness” - more of a real testimony over someone

• The Israelites believed and were made aware of the fact that their juridical; procedures were meant to protect the individual from injustice and thus to protect society from the wrath of God

• Offenses against the truth is a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness

• Truth is the basis of all human communication because it is the basis of trust

• Jesus himself was angered by the sin of lying and hypocrisy

• “Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence” - Henri Fredric Amiel

Ninth Commandment (You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife”

Positive form: Respect the integrity of marriage even in intention and desire

Jewish context:

• “Chamad” - covet, lust, strong desire

• To covet means to desire eagerly

• Torah: “Even if covetous desire is concealed in the heart, it is in itself is damaging to the neighbor

• Left unchecked, covetous desire is the source of personal, interpersonal and international strife - Philo of Alexandria

• Jesus reminds us that sin is ultimately in the intention

• “A person can control his desires by training his heart to be content with what God has allowed him” -Ian Ezra

• What positive steps have we taken to guard against the possibility of covetousness?

Tenth Commandment (You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.. or anything that belongs to your neighbor)

Positive form: Respect the right of your neighbor to own a property

Jewish Context:

• People have a right to property and that right must be respected by others

• Covetousness is concerned with and ultimately leads to unjust acquisition of that which is coveted

• Private property is necessary for the full and proper development of the human person

• The greedy acquisition of and accumulation of property and money, usually at the expense of the poor, is an iniquity as scandalous as stealing a poor person’s livelihood

• We have much to be grateful for and that we should not pine after what is not ours

• We are called to live a content and simple lifestyle

The Theological and Cardinal Virtues

Virtues

• A virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself

• The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions

• The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good

The cardinal Virtues

• “Cardinal” - “caro” (Latin), which means hinge because they are moral hinges on which all moral virtues depend

• These are also called “moral” because they govern our actions, order our passions, and guid our conduct according to faith and reason

• The cardinal virtues are natural because they can be achieved through human effort, aided by grace

• Prudence

  • It is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to chose the right means of achieve in it; “the prudent man looks where his is going”

  • It is prudence that immediately guides the judgement of conscience

  • Prudence is “right reason in action,” - St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle

  • The “perfected ability to make right decisions.” -Josef Peiper

  • It is called auriga virtuous (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure

  • The ability to be cautious in making decisions

  • Prudence helps us weigh the consequences of an action or decision before they happen

  • A prudent person for example is not driven by compulsion or hasty decisions

  • Being prudent requires:

    • Insight

    • Thoughtfulness

    • A keen assessment of circumstances

    • Careful deliberation and reflection

    • A moral imagination healthy enough to enable us to judge different possibilities for appropriate action

• Justice

  • It is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor

  • Justice toward God is called the “virtue of religion”

  • Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons and to the common good

  • The just man, often mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of his conduct towards his neighbor

  • “The route to achieving equity will not be accomplished through treating everyone equally. It will be achieved by treating everyone justly according to their circumstances” -Paula Dressel

• Fortitude

  • It is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good

  • It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life

  • The virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions

  • It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause

• Temperance

  • Is a virtue that governs and directs our desires

  • It does not fear or repress the desires, passions, and hunger of our lives, but it does order, and regulate them in case they begin to rule over us

  • It ensures the will’s mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable

  • In the New Testament it is called “moderation” or “sobriety”. We ought ”to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world”

  • It is simply self-control

Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope, Love)

• The human virtues are rooted in the theological virtues for the theological virtues relate directly to God

• They have the One and Triune God for their origin, motive, and object

• They are obtained by grace and always remain in the work of grace and we perform them with God’s help

• Faith

  • It is the virtue whereby we assent to the truths about God, truths that surpass our reason - St. Thomas Aquinas

  • By faith “man freely commits his entire self to God.” For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God’s will.”

  • The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it.

• Hope

  • Hope fixes our attention on God so that as we move through life we don not turn away from God to lesser goods but continually tend to God as our greatest possible good (Peiper, 1990)

  • This virtue responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man

  • Is the theological virtue by which desire/hope the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness

  • Christian hope takes up and fulfills the hope of the chosen people which has its origin and model in the hop of Abraham, who was blessed abundantly by the promises of God fulfilled in Isaac’s and who was purified by the test of the sacrifice

  • Hope if the “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul…” It is expressed and nourished in prayer

  • In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God, to persevere “to the end”

  • Hope is activated when we say to ourselves: “I am willing to trust, to wait without demanding answers, and to contribute myself to the most positive use of the present”

  • For I know the plans I have for you,” Declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future -Jeremiah 29:11

• Love

  • Self transcendence

  • It is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God

  • Jesus makes love the new commandment. By loving his own “to the end,” he makes manifest the Father’s love which he receives. By loving one another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which they themselves receive. Whence Jesus says: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.” And again: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

  • The lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies, to make ourselves the neighbor of those farthest away, and to love children and the poor as Christ himself

  • The Apostle Paul has given an incomparable depiction of love/ charity: 1 Cor. 13:4-8

  • Love is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: “So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity.”

  • Governs all of the other virtues