In your ½ crosswise answer the following:

1. What do you observe

in the pictures given?
2. Can you think of any event/experience where you
were reprimanded for not following a particular rule?

3. Can you think of any

event/experience where you were
praised for obeying a particular rule?
4. Why do we need to
follow every rules/law?
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
 Topic Outline
• Love the Lord your God • Building Justice
(First, Second, Third) (Seventh, Tenth)
Love one another
• Respect God’s Gift: Life • Respecting Truth
(Fourth, Fifth) (Eight)
• Respecting Human
Sexuality
(Sixth, Ninth)
 Love the Lord your God
(First, Second, Third)

“I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the
land of Egypt, that place of slavery.” (Ex 20:2; Dt 5:6 )

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone!

Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all
your heart, with all your soul, and with all your
strength.” (Dt 6:4)
 Love the Lord your God
(First, Second, Third)

- The first three concern our duties towards God.

- the remainder detail our duties towards our
neighbor.
- Thus, the Decalogue provides a framework within
which the demands of the Two Great
Commandments can be expressed.
 Love the Lord your God
(First, Second, Third)

- CONTEXT

……..….. The first thing that comes to mind

to many Filipino Catholics when asked
about morality is the “Ten
Commandments.”………….
 Love the Lord your God
(First, Second, Third)

…..... The truth is that the Ten

Commandments are actually moral
imperatives of how to love others and
to follow Christ’s own command to
love………
 Love the Lord your God
(First, Second, Third)

……… No one can relate to God

authentically while sinning against one’s
neighbor…….
…… neither can one adequately love one’s
neighbor while rejecting our heavenly
Father (cf. CCC 2069)…..
 Love the Lord your God
(First, Second, Third)

……. The Commandments actually point in

two directions: they call for reverence for
God, and respect for our fellow human
beings…………
 Love the Lord your God
(First, Second, Third)

…….Secondly, the lasting exceptional value

of the Ten Commandments can be
grounded in their historical origin, their
covenantal character and their liberating
power…….
 Love the Lord your God
(First, Second, Third)

…….. The Commandments originated not

from some particular process of
philosophical reasoning nor from mystical
contemplation, but from the concrete
historical events of Exodus and Mt.
Sinai…………
 Love the Lord your God
(First, Second, Third)

……. Moreover, the Commandments are

terms of the Covenant, “Ten Words”
revealing the pattern of life which is
righteous in God’s sight, the way of life
which leads to happiness (cf. CCC 2058-61).
 Love the Lord your God
(First, Second, Third)

………Finally, the Decalogue, set in the

context of Exodus, is that great liberating
act of God which stands at the center of
salvation history…….
 Love the Lord your God
(First, Second, Third)

…….. Though the Commandments have

the form of prohibitions, they are also
a deliverance from the slavery of
sin…….
 Love the Lord your God
(First, Second, Third)

………. They free men to travel towards

God, a journey of faithful service, and
so to discover their true selves and
achieve their true destiny (cf. CCC
2057)…….
 Love the Lord your God
(First, Second, Third)

Preamble of the Ten Commandments

…..“I, the Lord, am your God, who

brought you out of the land of Egypt,
that place of slavery” (Ex 20:2)….
 Love the Lord your God
(First, Second, Third)

- The Ten Commandments are needed to provide:

a) credible and durable moral norms for everyday life;

b.) a pattern and structure for living according to

Christ’s Commandment to love God and neighbor; and
 Love the Lord your God
(First, Second, Third)

c) a universally accessible source

for relating to non-Christians in
moral matters.
 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

- The First Commandment forms a unity with the two

following commandments….

……. The First Tablet of the Law consists of the three

Commandments of the Decalogue which set out our
duties towards God arising from his Oneness and
Lordship…………
 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

…….. They mark a first stage in coming to

understand the command: “You shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart, with all your
soul, and with all your strength” (Dt 6:5; cf. CCC
2083)………..
 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

… The First Commandment is usually expressed: “I am

the Lord your God. You shall not have other gods
besides me” (Ex 20:2-3; Dt 5:6-7)

…. Notice how the moral obligation (you shall not. . .) is

drawn directly from the reality (I am . . .).
 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

…….. This commandment is “first” not just

because it heads the list, but because, together
with its preamble, it is the most important.
…………
………….. From it all the other Commandments
are derived and governed…………..
 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT
- Fruits of the First Commandment
……. The uniqueness and oneness of God our
Lord, stressed by the First Commandment, is a
liberating truth…….reconciling truth……loving
truth…….
Liberating because adoration of one God frees
us from slavery and idolatry
 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT
- Reconciling because it makes us one family
despite the endless struggles between nations
and peoples.
- Loving because the oneness of God makes a
genuine unified love of God.
 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

- Commands/Prohibits

…….. The First Commandment forbids any other god

than the Lord . . . that any created thing should take the
place of God and receive the worship due to Him
alone……….
 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

Superstition
- is the deviation of religious feeling and of the
practices this feeling imposes.
 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

Idolatry
consists in divinizing what is not God. Man
commits idolatry whenever he honors and
reveres a creature in place of God, whether this
be gods or demons (for example, satanism),
power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state,
money, etc
 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

Divination and magic

All forms of divination are to be rejected:
- recourse to Satan or demons,
conjuring up the dead
Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of
omens and lots, etc.
All practices of magic or sorcery
 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

Main Sins of Irreligion:

Tempting God in words or in deeds, Sacrilege, and simony

Tempting God consists in putting his goodness and almighty

power to the test by word or deed.
Sacrilege consists in profaning or treating unworthily the
sacraments and other liturgical actions, as well as persons,
things, or places consecrated to God.
 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

Sacrilege is a grave sin especially when committed against the

Eucharist, for in this sacrament the true Body of Christ is made
substantially present for us.
Simony is defined as the buying or selling of spiritual things.
Atheism or denying the existence of God.
 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

…… Idolatry and superstition are real temptations

today………
…….. Enticements such as wealth, honor, success,
power, sex, drugs, nation, race, are sometimes pursued
with such single-minded enthusiasm that they
themselves become the objects of worship in place of
God (cf. CCC 2110-14)……………
 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

……. Catholic Filipinos are attracted very much to

images and statues of Christ, Mary and patron Saints…..

……… These images can offer genuine aid in their

worship of Christ and veneration of God’s blessed,
Mary and their patron Saints……….
 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

……… But in the Philippines today, many who

misunderstand the nature and function of venerating
sacred images, reject this practice as idolatry……
…….. Against such attacks the Church firmly insists on
the valuable help such images can offer for authentic
Christian prayer…….
 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

……… Nevertheless, the Church is equally insistent on

the proper use of such images, avoiding any and all
appearances of making the images into idols, or
treating them as endowed with some magical powers
(cf. CCC 2132)……
 The Second Commandment
- In the Old Testament, the Second Commandment is
expressed as: “You shall not take the name of the
Lord your God in vain” (Ex 20:7; Dt 5:11).

- It commands reverence for God’s holy name which

represents God Himself.
 The Second Commandment

……..We fulfill this Commandment positively

every time we repeat the prophet Isaiah’s text
in the Eucharistic acclamation: “Holy, holy,
holy, Lord God of power and might. Heaven
and earth are full of your glory” (cf. Is 6:3).
……..
 The Second Commandments
Offenses:
- More technically, it means rejecting blasphemy
(speaking of God or the saints with contempt),
cursing (calling down punishment on others), and
taking false oaths (using God’s name to confirm a
false statement) (cf. CCC 2148-52).
 The Second Commandment
“Name” in the Bible. It is common knowledge that
“name” for the people of the Bible held a special
importance and power.
The “name” stood for the person; the name made the
person present and active.
So the name of God was God’s gift to His covenant
people
 The Second Commandment
- Reverence for God’s Name
St. Paul quotes an early Christian hymn: “God
highly exalted him and bestowed on him the
name above every other name, so that at Jesus’
name, every knee must bend . . . and every
tongue proclaim: JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!” (Phil
2:9-11).
 The Second Commandment
- In the book of Acts Peter and John cured the cripple
“in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean” (Acts 3:6).

- And before the Sanhedrin Peter preached: “there is no

other name in the whole world given to men by
which we are to be saved” (Acts 4:12).
 The Second Commandment
- As Christians we are baptized in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt
28:29).
- We are received into the Body of Christ, the Church,
graced with the Holy Spirit, and given our own
Christian names.
 THE THIRD COMMANDMENT

- “Remember to keep holy the

Sabbath day” (Ex 20:8; Dt 5:12) is
usually formulated for Christians as:

- “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s

Day.”
 THE THIRD COMMANDMENTS
- The Third Commandment enjoins us to keep holy the
day set aside for the worship of God and for
recreation.
- When grounded in its Old Testament context, it binds
together the two tablets of the Law.
 THE THIRD COMMANDMENTS
- For two basic sources are given for this
Commandment, one stressing our direct relationship
to God, the other focusing on its human, liberating
effects.
- Both dimensions are firmly rooted in our Filipino
religious belief and cultural values tradition.
 THE THIRD COMMANDMENTS
- The first source relates the sabbath rest to God’s
creative action in Genesis. (Ex 20:11“In six days the
Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and
all that is in them; but on the seventh day He
rested” ).
 THE THIRD COMMANDMENTS
- The first reason given for the Third Commandment,
then, is God’s rest on the seventh day (cf. CCC 2172).
- This rest was not an absence of work; when God
stopped working, He created something new,
something which was not there before __ REST.
 THE THIRD COMMANDMENTS
- The second reason given for the Sabbath rest in
Scripture is the great liberation from slavery in
Egypt:
“For remember that you too were once slaves in
Egypt, and the Lord, your God, brought you from there
with His strong hand and outstretched arm. That is why
the Lord, your God, has commanded you to observe the
sabbath” (Dt 5:15; cf. CCC 2170).
 THE THIRD COMMANDMENTS

When the legalists tried to trap Christ into breaking the

Sabbath law, Jesus asked: “is it lawful to do a good
deed on the Sabbath — or an evil one? To preserve life
— or to destroy it?” When they refused to answer,
Jesus “looked around at them with anger, for he was
deeply grieved that they had closed their minds against
him” (Mk 3:4-5).
 THE THIRD COMMANDMENTS
- Easter: the New Sabbath. After Christ’s glorious
Resurrection and the Pentecostal enlightenment of
the Holy Spirit, a whole new dimension was added to
the Sabbath.
 THE THIRD COMMANDMENTS
- Christians have always kept this day as the new
Sabbath . . . . Sunday is the Easter celebration; it is a
day when the presence of the risen Lord Jesus is
celebrated, especially in the Eucharist” (CCC 2175).
 THE THIRD COMMANDMENTS

Sunday Eucharist. In the centuries preceding Vatican II,

the Lord’s Day or Sunday rest became more and more
identified with “going to Mass” and avoiding all “servile
work.”
 THE THIRD COMMANDMENTS
Sunday is the day on which the paschal mystery is
celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is to
be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in
the universal Church.“
 THE THIRD COMMANDMENTS
- The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and
confirmation of all Christian practice. For this reason
the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist
on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious
reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or
dispensed by their own pastor. Those who
deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin.
 THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT
- “Honor your father and your mother” is the usual
way of expressing the Fourth Commandment (cf. Ex
20:12; Dt 5:16).
- According to the fourth commandment, God has
willed that, after him, we should honor our parents
and those whom he has vested with authority for our
good.
• Marriage and family are ordered to the
good of the spouses, to the procreation
and the education of children.
• Children owe their parents respect,
gratitude, just obedience, and
assistance. Filial respect fosters harmony
in all of family life. 2252
• Parents have the first responsibility for
the education of their children in the
faith, prayer, and all the virtues. They
have the duty to provide as far as
possible for the physical and spiritual
needs of their children.
• Public authority is obliged to respect the
fundamental rights of the human person
and the conditions for the exercise of his
freedom.
 THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT
• “You shall not kill” (Ex 20:13; Dt 5;17)
forbids direct attacks on human life and
physical integrity.
• It thus protects God’s gift of life and
promotes practical care and respect for
the life and dignity of all persons
 THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT
Particular Offenses against Life
• Perhaps the most widespread abuse in
our country against physical well-being
are the common “vices” of alcohol and
drug abuse, and to a less intensive
degree, smoking.
 THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT
• Abortion, or the deliberate ejection of a
non-viable fetus from the mother’s womb.
• The principle that direct killing of the
innocent is always wrong holds also for
mercy killing or euthanasia - doing away
with the handicapped and the terminally
ill
 THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT
• However, when there is no real hope for the patient’s
genuine benefit, there is no moral obligation to prolong
life artificially by the use of various drugs and machines.
In fact, using extraordinary means to keep comatose or
terminally ill patients artificially alive seems clearly to
lack objective moral validity, especially in a society
where the majority of the population do not enjoy even
adequate elementary health care.
 THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT
• Suicide, expresses a total loss of will to survive that
results from extreme depression and despair (cf. CCC
2280-83).
• Capital Punishment
• Intentional homicide
• The fifth commandment forbids direct and intentional
killing as gravely sinful.
 THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT
• The murderer and those who cooperate voluntarily in
murder commit a sin that cries out to heaven for
vengeance.
THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
• . The Sixth Commandment, “You shall
not commit adultery” (Ex 20:14; Dt
5:17), forbids married persons from
entering into sexual union with
someone other than their spouse.
• Its aim was to protect the family, the
absolutely necessary basis for society.
 THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
• “Sexuality is a fundamental component of
personality, one of its modes of being, of
manifestation, of communicating with others, of
feeling, of expressing and of living human love.
Therefore it is an integral part of the development of
the personality
 THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
• Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality
within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his
bodily and spiritual being.

• Chastity is a moral virtue. It is also a gift from God, a grace,

a fruit of spiritual effort
 THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
Offenses against chastity
Lust is disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of
sexual pleasure.

Masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation

of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure.
 THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man
and an unmarried woman.
Pornography consists in removing real or simulated
sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to
display them deliberately to third parties. It offends
against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the
intimate giving of spouses to each other.
 THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
Prostitution does injury to the dignity of the person
who engages in it, reducing the person to an instrument
of sexual pleasure.
Rape is the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of
another person. It does injury to justice and charity.
 THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
Offenses against the Dignity of Marriage

Adultery (Extramarital sex) refers to marital infidelity.

When two partners, of whom at least one is married to
another party, have sexual relations - even transient ones -
they commit adultery.
 THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
Divorce is a grave offense against the natural law. It claims
to break the contract, to which the spouses freely
consented, to live with each other till death
Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into
the family and into society.
THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT
“You shall not steal” (Ex 20:15; Dt
5:19)
The seventh commandment enjoins
the practice of justice and charity in
the administration of earthly goods
and the fruits of men's labor.
 THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT
The seventh commandment forbids theft. Theft is the
usurpation of another's goods against the reasonable will of
the owner.
 THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT
Every manner of taking and using another's property
unjustly is contrary to the seventh commandment.
The injustice committed requires reparation.
Commutative justice requires the restitution of
stolen goods.
 THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT
Animals are entrusted to man's stewardship; he must
show them kindness. They may be used to serve the just
satisfaction of man's needs.
Giving alms to the poor is a witness to fraternal
charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God.
 THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT
“You shall not bear false witness
against your neighbor” (Ex 20:16; Dt
5:20).
The eighth commandment forbids
misrepresenting the truth in our
relations with others.
 THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT
Offenses Against Truth

Lying is the most common and direct

offense against the truth. It is the
intentional misrepresentation of the truth
by word, gesture, or even silence.
 THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT
Offenses Against Truth

False witness and Perjury. which

take place when the lie is spoken in
public, particularly in a court of
justice.
 THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT
Offenses Against Truth

In detraction and slander/calumny

we destroy the good name of our
neighbors by publicly revealing, without
necessity, their hidden faults.
 THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT
Offenses Against Truth

The faults may be real, as in detraction,

or invented which is worse as in calumny
and slander (cf. CCC 2477).
 THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT
Offenses Against Truth

Rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes

as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral
fault of a neighbor;
 THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT
Offenses Against Truth
Detraction who, without objectively
valid reason, discloses another's faults
and failings to persons who did not know
them
THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT
Offenses Against Truth

Calumny who, by remarks contrary

to the truth, harms the reputation of
others and gives occasion for false
judgments concerning them.
 THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT
Offenses Against Truth

"A lie consists in speaking a falsehood with

the intention of deceiving.
THE NINTH COMMANDMENT

You shall not covet your

neighbor’s wife” (Ex 20:17)
completes the Sixth Commandment
by going to the interior root and
source of disorders of the flesh:
covetousness of the heart.
 THE NINTH COMMANDMENT
"Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully
has already committed adultery with her
in his heart" (Mt 5:28)

The ninth commandment warns against

lust or carnal concupiscence.
 THE NINTH COMMANDMENT
The struggle against carnal lust involves purifying the
heart and practicing temperance.

Purity of heart will enable us to see God: it

enables us even now to see things according to
God.
 THE NINTH COMMANDMENT
Purity of heart requires the modesty
which is patience, decency, and
discretion. Modesty protects the intimate
center of the person.
Purification of the heart demands
prayer, the practice of chastity, purity of
intention and of vision. 2533
 THE TENTH COMMANDMENT
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s
house, . . . nor anything else that
belongs to him” (Ex 20:17; Dt 5:21).
This Commandment goes behind the Seventh
and deals with the disordered desires of the
heart, its covetousness, from which stealing
and exploitation of our neighbor arise (cf. CCC
2536).
 THE TENTH COMMANDMENT
It forbids not only unjust craving for
another’s property, but also envy at the
success of others.
Envy is a capital sin, exemplified in
Cain’s “envy-hatred-murder” sinful
pattern.
 THE TENTH COMMANDMENT
The tenth commandment forbids
avarice arising from a passion for
riches and their attendant power
The baptized person combats envy
through good-will, humility, and
abandonment to the providence of
God.
 THE TENTH COMMANDMENT

Detachment from riches is necessary

for entering the Kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are the Poor in spirit for
theirs is the Kingdom of heaven"
 THE TENTH COMMANDMENT
Both the Seventh and Tenth Commandments,
then, govern our basic relationships in justice
with others: the Seventh deals with our outward
actions regarding possessions and social
structures, while the Tenth focuses on the inner
desires of our hearts from which our external
actions originate.
 ½ CROSSWISE
Interview one married couple on
the pressing issues on family and
society. Write down your
responses and bring your work in
the class.