You are definitely outraged, when the stronger beats the weaker and hurts him. You feel hurt painfully, when someone expresses himself or tells false things about your parents or about you. You don't want to be ripped off. You don't like your friends, who lie, crash, or even steal.
So you will definitely agree with that, that some law is needed, which everyone should keep, that there would be order in the world. Keeping this right would give people peace, security. It helps them, so that they can be good. We call such a law a moral law. Does such a law exist? ? Who gave them ?
Law of the covenant
By making a covenant at Sinai, God called a chosen people to cooperate with himself. He made him an intermediary between himself and other nations. He wanted, that through the chosen people salvation may reach other people. Therefore, the chosen people were to proclaim God to other nations with their whole life. His job was to truly worship God. It was to be a sign of God in the world, to bear witness to God. Therefore, he had to be a holy nation. Through his life, others were to come to know the one and true God. God has called his people to great tasks. To make it easier for him to complete them, God has come to the aid of his people. He proclaimed a moral law, called the Law of the Covenant (Decalogue, that is, the Ten Commandments). Admittedly, the moral law already existed before, people could know them with their minds, but it was not yet solemnly announced.
This is how Scripture. talks about granting this right :
God spoke to Moses : Come to me upstairs and stay there, and I will give you tablets of stone, Law and commandments, which I wrote, to instruct them. So Moses and Joshua got up, his helper, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. And he said so to the elders : Stay here, until we come back to you… When Moses went up the mountain, the cloud covered her. The glory of God rested on Mount Sinai and was covered in a cloud for six days. On the seventh day, God called Moses from the middle of the cloud. And the glory of God in the eyes of the sons of Israel was like a devouring fire on the top of a mountain. Moses entered the cloud and went up the mountain. And Moses stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights " (Wj 24, 12-18).
“Then God spoke all these words : I am the Lord, your god, with which he brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of captivity. You will have no other gods next to me!… Thou shalt not invoke the name of the Lord thy God to empty things…
Remember the Sabbath day, to sanctify it. You will work for six days and do all your activities. And the seventh day is a Sabbath in honor of your God…
Honor your father and your mother, that you may live long on earth, that your God will give you.
You will not kill.
You will not commit adultery.
You will not steal.
You shall not tell lies against your neighbor as a witness.
You will not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his slave, nor his slaves, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor any thing, which belongs to your neighbor "
(Wj 20, 1-3. 7a. 8. 9b. 12-17).
Before God announced the Law of the Covenant to His people, that is, the Decalogue, reminded him of his love shown in deeds. He spoke it in words : ,,I am your Lord God, who brought you out of Egypt, from the house of captivity ".
The chosen people understood, that God really loves him. After all, he freed him from heavy bondage. He freed him from the oppression of the enemy and gave him freedom. Furthermore, he constantly looked after him in the difficult journey through the desert. No wonder then, that God's people accepted the Law of the Covenant promulgated by God and made a solemn pledge to keep it. He had kept this right for centuries, he passed them on to future generations. He translated them to his children, and the prophets constantly exhorted the chosen people to better keep God's law.
The Perfect Law of the New Covenant
The Law of the Covenant prepared the future, an even more perfect law. The prophets foretold it.
All the predictions of the prophets were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ did not come to bear, nor change the Old Law. He confirmed and perfected them. He said : ,,Judge not, that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to bear, but fill " (Mt 5, 17).
At the Last Supper, Christ announced a new and universal law of love. This law is the basis of moral life for all those belonging to the new chosen people.
How will I answer God ?
Through Baptism, you too have been incorporated into the new People of God. You have made a commitment to love God and your neighbor with all your strength.
How You Are Fulfilling Your Baptismal Commitment. ?
As you listen to the Bible narrative about the giving of the commandments in the church, then God also addresses you. He calls you to be faithful to the law. Wants, that you may remain faithful to the commitments you made at Baptism.
How do you keep the Law of the New Covenant ? Is your life, procedure, helps others with this, to make them better ? You want, that everyone will be good to you, and how are you to your parents, siblings, colleagues ?
Decide to work more on it, to live Christ's law of love and thus to contribute to the increase of good in the world. Ask God for help :
,,I am looking for You with all my heart ; let me not stray from Your commandments. I keep your speech in my heart, so as not to sin against you. Blessed are you God, teach me your laws !” (Ps 118, 10-12).
■ Think :
1. Why a moral law is needed ?
2. Where God announced the Law of the Covenant ?
3. What tasks was to be performed by God's chosen people ?
4. What Christ Said About the Law of the New Covenant ?
5. Who made the new law of love ?
■ Remember:
38. When God announced the Ten Commandments ? God promulgated the Ten Commandments then, when he made a covenant with the Israelites at Sinai.
39. What the Commandments of God Confirm ? God's commandments affirm the moral law, which man can also know by his own mind.
40. Whom the Commandments of God Keep ? God's commandments are binding on all people of all times.
■ Task :
1. Consider, which you should be particularly working on, to more faithfully observe Christ's Law of Love ?
2. List any laws or regulations, which result from the moral law known by reason.
3. Compare and explain the differences between the wording of the Decalogue in the Book of Exodus and the catechism of the Ten Commandments.