One thing to keep in mind when you read the first reading today from the book of Deuteronomy, is to first understand the person who spoke to the people of Israel and gave them the ten commandments. Moses himself broke one of the ten commandments, when he killed an Egyptian man who was mistreating a Hebrew slave. Moses fled from Egypt because he was a murderer. So, before we delve into the first reading from mass today, we should approach it from this standpoint, that the ten commandments were given to a man who had committed a serious sin himself.
God rescued His people from a life of slavery, but he also wanted to set them free from the sins they had committed and give them a fresh start, and sound moral footing before they entered into the new lands he gave them. His purpose in giving the ten commandments to his people was not simply to give them a list of things they could not do, but to show them a better way of life. Moses and the Israelites were disoriented and carried a lot of baggage from the past with them when they left Egypt, and they needed some clear guidance for the new life that lay before them. Without some sort of guidelines on how to live, chaos develops that not only offends God, but also causes a great deal of human suffering.
God did not give us the ten commandments as a set of rules he imposed on us, to keep us from being happy. On the contrary, He loves us and wants us to be happy and gave us the commandments to be like guideposts, that light up the path to a life of love, peace and happiness. Most human suffering is caused by veering off the path of these commandments. It is important to remember them, not just for our own lives but also to teach our children how to live a happy life as well.
Do you remember the ten commandments? Can you name them? If you have any troubling remembering all of them, here is where to go in the old testament to look them up: Exodus chapter 20, 1-17. It is easy to get side tracked onto many other things, but even Jesus refers back to these very basic guidelines that God has given us.
Jesus spoke some beautiful words in today’s gospel, because it imparts a sense of the permanence of the truths found in the ten commandments God gave us: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter, or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.
