10.4.

4
JESUS RESTORES JUSTICE
IN PEOPLE’S HEARTS

This chapter presents the following key learning points:

• Jesus came to restore God’s original state of justice
• The Ten Commandments are related to the four harmonies of
God’s justice
– Living in harmony with God
– Living in harmony within yourself
– Developing harmony with other people
– Developing harmony with creation
• Jesus restores these relationships through the Sacrament
of Reconciliation.

Jesus came to restore God’s original state of justice

Jesus came to restore God’s original
state of justice. He did this in two
ways. First he restored the relationship
of the human race with God. Then,
by his own example, he answered
the question: ‘How can justice be
promoted in the world today?’

Jesus shares the Holy Spirit with

those who follow him. He told his
followers to live the two “Great
Commandments” he gave with the
power of this Spirit. Jesus also told
his followers to do what they could to
teach others these Commandments:

‘Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptise them … and teach them to
observe all the commands I gave you.’ (Matthew 28:19)

Through his followers Jesus seeks to promote justice in the world as they carry out his commands.
An important way of bringing about justice is to relate each of God’s Commandments to one of
the four levels of harmony that characterised God’s original justice.

YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME 1

 You must love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, with all
your strength, and with all your mind.

The Ten Commandments are related to the

four harmonies of God’s justice
Living in harmony with God
This is the basic relationship people need if they are to be spiritually empowered to develop
harmony within, harmony with others and harmony with the rest of creation. The following
Commandments of Jesus teach how to develop this relationship.

‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all
your strength, and with all your mind.’ (Luke 10:27)

The Holy Spirit helps people to develop greater harmony with God by keeping the
Ten Commandments.

2 YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME

 1st
COMMANDMENT
I am the Lord your God: you shall not
have strange gods before me

This Commandment calls people to draw on the power of the Spirit to develop personal
harmony with God by deepening:
• the spiritual gift of faith, which strengthens belief in God and God’s teachings
• the spiritual gift of hope, which strengthens trust in God’s promises
• the spiritual gift of charity, which empowers a baptised person to love God and all those God
loves which includes the whole human race.

To develop personal harmony with God, and the gifts of faith, hope and love, this
Commandment also calls Christians:
• to adore God as the One on whom they, and everything else in creation,
depends for its existence
• to pray, communicating thanks, praise, needs and sorrow to God
• to acknowledge God as Creator by offering sincere worship, particularly
through the Eucharist
• to keep promises to God
• to keep vows of dedication to God.

Relationships with God, just like human relationships, require faith, hope and love in God.
Therefore, this Commandment forbids:
• refusing to believe in God and all that God teaches
• failing to address religious doubts
• giving up hope in God, especially by despairing in difficult times in life
• taking God for granted by presuming on God’s help
• ignoring or being ungrateful towards God.

This Commandment also forbids activities that damage a person’s relationship with God:
• superstition
• idolatry
• trying to tame occult powers through sorcery and divination
• putting God to the test
• treating unworthily, people and objects, such as the
sacred vessels used during the Mass dedicated to God
• simony, trying to buy or sell something spiritual.
... love the Lord
Finally, this Commandment forbids atheism which your God with all
denies God’s existence and agnosticism which denies your heart, with all
that people can know and learn about God.
your soul, with all
your strength ...

YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME 3

 2nd
COMMANDMENT
You shall not take the name of the
Lord your God in vain

This Commandment calls people to

respect the names of God, of Jesus
Christ, of the Virgin Mary, and of
the saints. In human relationships
using people’s names disrespectfully
weakens the relationship. This is also
the case in people’s relationship with
God. Disrespectful use of God’s name
weakens people’s relationship with God.

This Commandment, therefore, forbids:

• swearing or using disrespectfully
in other ways, the names of God, of
Jesus Christ, of the Virgin Mary and of
saints
• perjury, or lying under oath
• blasphemy, or speaking in words of
hatred or defiance against God.

3rd
COMMANDMENT
Keep holy the Lord’s Day

Human relationships deepen as people give time to each other. A person’s relationship with
God deepens as they give the Sabbath to God.

This Commandment calls people to dedicate each Sunday of the week to God by:
• worshipping – especially through the Eucharist
• taking rest and leisure to celebrate God, and all that God has done for people
• engaging in good works, such as visiting the sick and elderly especially family members.

People who do not set time aside for God weaken their relationship with God. This
Commandment forbids:
• failing to worship God
• unnecessary work on Sundays
• not taking time for good works.

Where people cannot fulfil their responsibilities to God on Sundays, they need to fulfil their
responsibilities on another day of the week.

YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME

 10th
COMMANDMENT
You shall not covet your neighbour’s goods

God wants people to enjoy harmony and peace with their Creator. This is why:
• the Holy Spirit stirs those feelings called ‘Fruits of the Spirit’ (Galatians 5:22–24)
• Jesus told his followers: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit…’ (Matthew 5:3).

God can fully satisfy the yearnings and desires of the human heart. People should seek
God and live as God wants, before anything else.

In order to avoid weakening harmony with God the Tenth Commandment calls people to
overcome:
• excessive desires for material things
• excessive concerns for wealth and power.

Journal Activity
Spend some time reflecting on the following:
• What is required to develop a greater harmony with God?
• What are those things that weaken a close relationship with God?
• Does God call for anything that would not also be required for a close
human relationship?
• How can I deepen my relationship with God?

Avoid weakening
harmony with God
to overcome excessive
desires for material
things and excessive
concerns for wealth
and power.

YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME 5

Living in harmony within yourself
Jesus identified the second greatest Commandment as:

‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ (Matthew 19:19)

There are two parts to this Commandment: ‘love yourself ’ and ‘love your neighbour in the
same way’.

‘Love yourself’ means loving yourself as God loves you. It does not mean ‘be selfish’
or ‘self-centred’.

Journal Activity
In your journal list ten things that you like/love about who you are and
how you strive to model yourself on Jesus.

Next to each reflect on how each of these ten aspects helps you to develop
inner harmony.

One way to understand what

‘love yourself’ means is to
remember that God originally
created people to be in total
harmony within themselves. To
love oneself is to strive to model
oneself on the model that God
gave us in Jesus, the perfect
human who lived in total inner
harmony.

Six of the Ten Commandments

relate to people developing true
love for themselves. As they do
so, they develop greater inner
personal harmony.

love yourself
love your neighbour in the same way

6 YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME

 3rd
COMMANDMENT
Keep holy the Lord’s Day

Adequate rest, leisure and recreation

are needed for harmony within. For
this reason, this Commandment
calls people to make Sundays the
special day when they attend to
ensuring that they are adequately
rested and refreshed.

Growing levels of stress, emotional

exhaustion, physical tiredness and
inner conflict weaken harmony
within a person. This is one reason
why the Third Commandment
calls people not to engage in
unnecessary work on Sundays.

This Commandment is not observed widely in Australia. As a result, many people experience
stresses of various kinds that can even damage relationships. These stresses can dominate
the lives of some individuals to the extent that they can cause people to experience serious
problems.

4th
COMMANDMENT
Honour your father and mother

God created the family to provide for the physical, emotional, religious, social and other needs
of its members. The wellbeing of individual members can be affected by the health of the
family to which they belong.

For this reason, the Fourth Commandment requires people to contribute to the community
life of the family.

The opposite is also true. A weak family community may weaken a person’s inner harmony.

The Fourth Commandment is not observed by those who:

• are selfish and contribute little to the life of their families
• fail to support the development of family members by being negative about them
• refuse to share in family tasks and activities
• behave uncooperatively and cause tension in the families.

YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME 7

 5th
COMMANDMENT
You shall not kill

Inner harmony grows with inner

peace and good health. This
Commandment calls people to:
• love enemies and those who cause
hurt or, in Jesus’ words, ‘… love your
enemies and pray for those who
persecute you …’ (Matthew 5:44-45)
• take care of their physical health
through proper nutrition, exercise
and avoiding unnecessary risks
• try to understand and to direct
feelings, such as anger, hatred and
vengeance against other people,
that are likely to lead to fights and
violence.

Inner harmony weakens if people ignore the requirements of the Fifth Commandment by:
• surrendering to thoughts and feelings of anger, hatred or vengeance against other people
• neglecting their health
• eating an inadequate diet
• taking excessive risks
• abusing food
• taking drugs, except for medical reasons.

6th
COMMANDMENT
You shall not commit adultery

For inner harmony, a person needs a healthy sexuality. This affects the unity within the whole
person, conscience, emotions, thoughts, sexual feelings and love need to function as one.

This Commandment calls people to develop chastity, the virtue that gives people the freedom
to govern their passions. Chastity strengthens against sexual feelings that may grow so strong
that people are stirred to violate God’s laws and their consciences.

Sexual feelings can begin to control people’s lives if they stir them in ways that violate God’s
law. This Commandment, therefore, forbids:
• pre-marital sex
• homosexual actions
• pornography
• deliberate masturbation.

8 YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME

 9th
COMMANDMENT
You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife

To develop inner harmony, people need to avoid seeing others in ways that stir sexual desires,
for these tempt behaviours that violate the Sixth Commandment. The Ninth Commandment
promotes inner harmony by calling people to behave modestly, that is to:
• think about and to see others as persons
• dress and behave in ways that help others to see them as persons and not as ‘sex objects’.

This Commandment forbids thinking about others in immodest ways by:

• thinking about or seeing them as ‘sex objects’ or as sources of sexual pleasure outside
marriage
• deliberately thinking about others in lustful ways
• studying media and advertisements in immodest ways
• continuing deliberately to think about spontaneous sexual thoughts so that they
become lustful.

10th
COMMANDMENT
You shall not covet your neighbour’s goods

To develop inner harmony, people need

to avoid developing excessive desires
for material things. Material things
can never satisfy the human heart.
This Commandment calls people to
keep their desires for pleasant things
within the limits of reason and moral
conscience.

This Commandment forbids allowing

material desires to disturb inner
harmony. These desires include:
• envy
• greed
• avarice.

YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME 9

Developing harmony with other people
Jesus taught his followers to imitate God’s mercy by being merciful in turn. In fact, he told
them that they would be judged according to the mercy they show towards others:

Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you

will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive and
you will be forgiven. (Luke 6:36, 37)

Jesus ultimately commanded his followers to love others. They were to:

‘... love one another, as I have loved you.’ (John 15:12)

The love of Jesus was totally focussed on the good of others. He modelled self-giving for others,
teaching his followers:

‘No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.’ (John 15:13)

Only love brings harmony and peace between people.

10 YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME

 1st
COMMANDMENT
I am the Lord your God: you shall not
have strange gods before me

This commandment calls people to recognise the rights of others to religious freedom. This
includes the rights:
• to worship
• to have one’s religious beliefs respected
• to follow one’s conscience in religious matters
• to acceptance by others, regardless of religious beliefs, provided that these do not suggest
that the lives and rights of others be violated.

The First Commandment forbids all forms of religious discrimination:

• religious persecution
• ridiculing or rejecting others because of their religious beliefs or practices
• pressuring others to violate religious conscience.

4th
COMMANDMENT
Honour your father and mother

This Commandment is primarily concerned with harmony and peace within family life and society.

To develop harmony with others in their family

The Fourth Commandment calls:
• children to fulfil responsibilities to parents
• parents to fulfil responsibilities towards children.

To develop harmony with others in society

Harmony in society requires the cooperation of all its members. The Fourth Commandment
calls people:
• to recognise and obey legitimate authority, except where laws disobey God’s laws
• to respect the just rights of members of society
• to contribute to the running of society, such as by paying taxes.

Authorities have basic responsibilities towards members of society:

• to respect the God-given rights of members
• to pass laws that are just, and in keeping with God’s laws.

Harmony in society also requires governments to respect the following rights of the family.

In general, society has a responsibility to:

• protect and support marriage and the family
• safeguard moral standards
• promote family prosperity.

These responsibilities should be considered in political policies related to taxation,

employment, education, health and housing.

YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME 11

Family rights taught by the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church identifies seven basic family rights that governments in particular
are bound to respect. These are the right to:
• the freedom to have children and bring them up according to the moral and
religious beliefs of the parents
• a stable marriage and family life
• the freedom to profess their faith, to hand it on and to raise their children in that faith
• the right to private property and the freedom to work, to have
somewhere to live and to emigrate
• medical care, assistance for the aged and family benefits, according to the country’s
institutions
• security and the protection of public health, especially with regard to such dangers as
drug abuse, pornography and alcoholism
• the freedom to associate with other families.

The Fourth Commandment forbids behaviours by children that weaken harmony in

the family. Behaviours such as:
• deliberate disobedience
• showing disrespect for other family members
• failing to care for members who are sick, young, elderly or who have some special need
• not respecting parents’ wishes while living under their roof, even if one is an adult son
or daughter
• being argumentative and uncooperative in the home.

The Fourth Commandment forbids parents from:

• neglecting the needs of their children
• neglecting their children’s religious development
• failing to help children discover their vocations or life-callings
• pressuring their children to follow a certain career or to enter into a marriage.

The Fourth Commandment forbids citizens from disobeying legitimate civil authorities. It
forbids governments from passing laws that disobey God’s law or laws that violate the just
rights of people.

Human beings have the

right to have a life of
freedom and harmony.

12 YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME

 5th
COMMANDMENT
You shall not kill

For harmony with others, it is essential to recognise their right to life. God created human life
as sacred. This Commandment calls people, therefore:
• to respect everyone’s right to life, from conception to natural death
• to defend people from aggressors
• to do all that they can to protect human life
• to do whatever they can to see that all people have the necessities of life – food and clothing,
housing, health-care, basic education, employment and social assistance
• to support the dying
• to promote peace and the avoidance of war.

The Fifth Commandment forbids actions that kill or endanger human life unnecessarily:
• murder
• abortion
• euthanasia
• suicide
• refusing to contribute to provide for those
who do not have the necessities of life
• endangering the health of others
• terrorism
• kidnapping
• expressing hatred for others
• venting anger in harmful ways.

6th
COMMANDMENT
You shall not commit adultery

When a man and woman exchange marriage vows, they are committing themselves to a
life-long partnership. Each builds their future life on the promise made to them by the other.

A stable marriage relationship provides a firm foundation for a stable family life. Respect in marriage
leads to harmony between husband and wife which is essential to harmony within families.

Through this Commandment, God calls:

• husbands and wives to remain faithful to their marriage vows for the rest of their lives
• family members to encourage and support the relationship between married couples
• all other people to encourage and support the relationship between married couples.

The Sixth Commandment forbids behaviour that weakens the marriage relationship:
• adultery
• marrying again after divorce
• ‘trial marriages’ or de facto relationships.

YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME 13

 7th
COMMANDMENT
You shall not steal

This Commandment is concerned with respect for what others own. Those lacking the
necessities of life have first claim to what they need. Private property is a right people have,
provided this does not conflict with the needs of someone lacking life necessities. God gave
the resources of the earth to provide for the needs of the human race. This Commandment
calls people:
• to ensure that those lacking the necessities of life are provided with what they need
• to respect private property
• to keep business contracts and promises
• to love the poor
• to pay just wages to workers.

Cheating others out of what is legitimately theirs violates the Seventh Commandment.
It forbids:
• theft
• not returning what was borrowed
• business fraud
• taking unfair business advantage over others
• breaking business contracts and promises
• excessive gambling
• reducing others to slavery, including economic slavery.

8th
COMMANDMENT
You shall not bear false witness against
your neighbour

There cannot be real harmony with others unless there is basic trust. This in turn requires
truthfulness between people.

The Eighth Commandment calls all people to be truthful in their words and deeds. The
Commandment forbids the many ways people can be untruthful. These include:
• lying
• perjury by lying under oath
• damaging the reputation of others through calumny; saying what is untrue about them or
detraction; gossiping or repeating what is true without serious reason
• making rash judgements; forming opinions and views about others without sufficient
evidence or reflection
• flattering others
• boasting; exaggerating truth about oneself
• refusing to give information needed to protect others from harm, or to violate their privacy
• revealing secrets
• breaking others’ confidences.

14 YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME

 Harmony between human
beings and the rest of creation –
calling people to respect the
integrity of creation; the
environment and its laws; and
the needs of future, as well as
the present generation, to use
the mineral, vegetable and animal
resources of the earth.

Developing harmony with creation

Laws of God which are concerned with safeguarding harmony between human beings and
the rest of creation are also found under the Seventh Commandment.

7th
COMMANDMENT
You shall not steal

The Seventh Commandment promotes harmony between human beings and the rest of
creation by calling people to respect:
• the integrity of creation
• the environment and its laws
• the needs of future, as well as the present generation, to use the mineral, vegetable and
animal resources of the earth.

People weaken this harmony by abusing creation for greedy and self-centred purposes. The
Seventh Commandment forbids:
• exploiting the resources of the earth without giving due concern to the needs of others of
present or future generations
• unnecessary cruelty to animals
• environmental degradation and pollution.

YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME 15

Jesus restores these relationships through the
Sacrament of Reconciliation
The foundation for true justice is each person’s personal relationship with God. The Holy Spirit
draws baptised people closer to God. People grow spiritually stronger. Their ability to live the
Commandments and to resist sin grows.

When they sin, people’s spiritual strength weakens. Human weaknesses, such as greed and
selfishness, become more influential. People find it harder to live the Commandments and the
harmonies within themselves, with others and with the rest of creation.

Jesus gave the Church the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that baptised people who sin can
receive God’s forgiveness and restore their relationship with God. People can strengthen this
relationship further through daily prayer, Sunday Mass, and by trying to live as Jesus taught.

As well as restoring a person’s relationship with God, this Sacrament restores the other
relationships needed for true justice:

… reconciliation with God leads… to other reconciliations, which repair the other breaches
caused by sin. The forgiven penitent is reconciled with himself in his inmost being…
reconciled with his brethren… and reconciled with all creation.

(Pope John Paul II, Reconciliatio et paenitentia cited

in Catechism of the Catholic Church 1469)

In Class Work
Use the information from this chapter to answer the following:
1. Name three activities forbidden by the First Commandment.
2. How does the Fifth Commandment call people to develop harmony
within themselves?
3. Name four basic family rights the Catholic Church identifies that governments
are bound to respect.
4. How does the Sixth Commandment call people to develop harmony
with others?
5. How does the Seventh Commandment call people to develop harmony
with creation?

16 YEAR 10 | COME FOLLOW ME