Understanding the Ten Commandments

Lenten season is the ideal time, when we can reflect on the Ten Commandments of God and look into our conscience to check how faithfully we are living our status as the child of God and if not, to amend our ways so as to make ourselves a worthy child of God. In order to help your understanding of each of the Commandments, I would like to give a brief explanation for each of them in the weeks to come.

The first Commandment is: “Thou shalt not have strange Gods before me” one may wonder, why God should give this commandment. It is because the people of Israel

• believed in the fortunes of the false prophets, who having a pact with the devil, foretold one’s future.
• worshiped heavenly bodies as gods. They imagined the sun and the moon as gods that rule the world.
• others worshipped the lower elements such as fire and wind to be gods
• still others worshipped their ancestors.
• they made for themselves a golden calf, which they worshiped as their god, while they were waiting for the return of Moses from mount Sinai.

Why should we adore God alone? We should adore Him alone, because of

• God’s dignity. The dignity of God consists in His omniscience and His divinity.
• God’s bounty. We receive every good gift from God. Hence, it is our obligation to gratefully remember and adore God for the good gifts we have received.
• The strength of our promise. When we were baptized, and every time we renew our baptismal promise, we declare that we renounce the devil and promise our fidelity to God alone. We should not break this promise.
• Greatness of the reward. If we honor God with our whole heart, with our whole mind and with our whole soul, then Jesus assures eternal life. It was with this in mind that St. Peter declared: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

The first Commandment reminds us that there is only one God and that honor, worship and adoration belongs to Him alone. We would worship strange gods, whenever we place anything in our lives before God, whether it is a person, or money or entertainment or personal glory & honor.

We will continue our reflection.

God bless you,

Fr. Arul Joseph V.