Luke 9:22-25
22 Jesus said to his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” 23 Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”

THE COMMANDMENTS – A YES TO VALUES

When we hear the word “commandment” we easily shy away. There are too many “don’ts” in a time when we want to be free and think real freedom means we can do what we want. But old Moses is wise and has calmed down. He doesn’t thunder anymore like before. He puts a simple reality before the Israelites and before us: There are two ways. You have the choice because God has given you freedom.

One way is to see the commandments of God for what they are — loving signposts along the road of life that we might go in the right direction — and obey so that we may be blessed by God and reach our goal. The other choice is: disobey and face the consequences.
Pope Benedict XVI, in a homily he delivered on September 8, 2007 in Austria, gave an interesting twist to the many “don’ts” and makes us aware that the commandments of God are all a “Yes” to a great value. I quote the Pope:

“To gaze upon Christ! If we do this, we realize that Christianity is more than and different from a moral code, from a series of requirements and laws… it is the gift of friendship. For this reason it also contains within itself great moral strength, which is so urgently needed today on account of the challenges of our time…. The Ten Commandments are first and foremost a ‘yes’ to God, to a God who loves us and leads us, who carries us and yet allows us our freedom: indeed, it is He who makes our freedom real (the first three commandments). It is a ‘yes’ to the family (fourth commandment), a ‘yes’ to life (fifth commandment), a ‘yes’ to responsible love (sixth commandment), a ‘yes’ to solidarity, to social responsibility and to justice (seventh commandment), a ‘yes’ to truth (eighth commandment) and a ‘yes’ to respect for other people and for what is theirs (ninth and tenth commandments). By the strength of our friendship with the living God we live this manifold ‘yes’ and at the same time we carry it as a signpost into this world of ours today.

”Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD

From Kerygma Family