Letters

Ten Commandments

Arthur Hartwig

Contents - Mar 2007 - Buy a copy now Editorial: How we can help young East Timorese - Peter Westmore WYDSYD08: Salesian provincial urges parishes to sponsor Timorese to World Youth Day 2008 - Peter Westmore News: The Church Around the World Sandhurst: Goddess worship at Victorian education conference? - Michael Gilchrist Formation: Continuing growth of Sydney's Catholic Adult Education Centre - AD2000 Report Catholicism flourishes in South Korea - Richard Stokes Leadership: The scandal of Australia's anti-life Catholic politicians - Marcel White 'Professional', a lá carte Catholicism and its papier màché schools - Andrew T. Kania Survey of Catholic teachers The changing panorama of Victoria's historic 'Rupertswood' - Michael Moore Catholic religion courses and the challenge of relativism - Audrey English Letters: Reform needed - T. Kalotas Letters: Catholic schools - Kevin McBride Letters: Null and void - Fr. G.H. Duggan SM Letters: Presumption - John H. Cooney Letters: Suitable wedding attire - Tom and Barbara Phillip Letters: Modesty of dress - Greg Byrne Letters: Ten Commandments - Arthur Hartwig Letters: Abortion counselling - Frank Bellet Letters: Leadership needed - Anne Lastman Letters: Human embryos - Rebecca Soares Letters: Ecumenism? - Peter Davidson Books: The Glory of These Forty Days, by Fr James Tolhurst - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: LISTEN MY SON: St Benedict for Fathers, by Dwight Longenecker - Michael E. Daniel (reviewer) Books: SEEKING THE ABSOLUTE: The Founders of Christian Monasticism - Michael E. Daniel (reviewer) Media: The Rosary of the Virgin Mary - 4 DVD or 4 CD set - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) DOES YOUR PARISH STOCK AD2000? Books: Order Books from freedompublishing.com.au Reflection: The Holy Trinity - source of true Christian unity - Fr John O'Neill

I commend Fr Byrnes on his Reflection (December/January AD2000) but I think he does not go back far enough.

One difficulty is with the English word "love", which covers everything from the perfect, eternal love shown by God for His creation to the inane "I love fairy floss".

Love is not an emotion but a decision, a decision to place others before self, and to seek what is "best" for the beloved.

So, to the background of freedom from "slavery" (of whatever type, whether addiction, habit or oppression) the Commandment is for the Israelites to love with all their heart, soul and might, the Lord their God who has brought them and brings us out of "Egypt". With such love motivating us we become people in whom obedience to and fulfilment of the Ten Commandments is second nature. We wish to please Him.

To try to illustrate: I might say to a child, "Keep your fingers away from the fire or you will be burned." Alternatively, "If you keep your finger away from the fire, you will not get burned."

As a consequence of loving God with all our heart, mind and soul, we do not have other gods, do not covet, lie, murder, or commit adultery. Sure, these are laws to be obeyed. They are also promises to be claimed. They are also, and perhaps more importantly, natural outcomes or results of that love.

So, Christianity is simple but never easy. Some claim it has been tried and failed. Chesterton put it differently: "Rather Christianity has been found difficult and left untried". More recently a writer claimed that too few had come close enough even to find it difficult.

I am uncertain that the Commandments are now written in the hearts of all men. In any case, obedience to them, the ability to so love the Lord our God that our obedience is consequential, is completely dependent on the Holy Spirit's indwelling power.

ARTHUR HARTWIG (DR)
Auchenflower, Qld

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 20 No 2 (March 2007), p. 15