Newton Stewart, Wigtown and Whithorn RC Churches

Catholic Churches in the Machars of Galloway

Ten Positive Ways to Be and To Live.               (17th December ‘07)

Ten Positive Ways to Be and To Live

 

First Commandment: When God commands, I am the Lord you God, have no other gods before me, he is saying positively: allow the Lord alone to dominate your life, your choices, your loves and even your thoughts. He is your first origin and final end. Every moment of your life depends on him. So recognize him as the ground of your being. Any other god of whatever kind, i.e. any other person or thing (addictions, money, work, sport, etc.) which would claim to rule your life, cannot, indeed must not, take his place.

 

Second Commandment: For the same reason, just as you treasure the name of your own loved ones and would hate anyone who would speak ill of them, so don’t take his name in vain. Keep it holy, as a secret treasure deep in your heart. His name (God, Lord, Father, Abba, Son, Jesus, Christ, Spirit, Comforter, Consoler) is not just a title, but something which reminds you of all he has done and is for you, similar to the word “mum” or “dad” to anyone. His Name should set your heart on fire.

 

Fifth Commandment: Don’t kill, means love, treasure and respect the gift of life in self and in every other self. It means look after your health and that of others. It means taking action to defend life, above all innocent life, whenever and wherever it is threatened.

 

Sixth Commandment: Don’t commit adultery is another way of saying live faithfully the beauty of your married love, and if you’re not married, keep the beautiful gift of your body for the Lord, until and unless he sends you a husband or wife. Chastity is not a “no” but a “yes”, a yes to integrity and a deep unity and peace between body and soul.

 

Seventh Commandment: Don’t lie, means do tell the truth as an expression of the fact that you belong to the one who is Truth in person. Let no praise of God and deception of neighbour come from the same mouth.

 

Eighth Commandment: Don’t steal, means do be generous and honest, with things, with people and with time, and respect what others are and have.

 

Ninth & Tenth Commandments: Don’t covet really means rejoice in the Lord’s gifts to others as well as to yourself, be they material gifts, relationships or character and personality and spiritual gifts. Want what you have rather than have what you want!

 

If we do all these positive things, and live our moral life with a hope-filled attitude of trust in what the Lord shows us to be the right way, then we will experience a lifting away of our burdens and the gentle yoke of his Love.

 

This is all the more so when we consider the two remaining of the 10 commandments which are positive:

 

Third commandment: Keep Holy the Sabbath Day means recognize that the Lord deserves and has a right to your worship, praise and thanksgiving, not only for creating you, but for redeeming you through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Sunday Mass is the centre around which our entire lives should revolve. Everything we are and have and do are gifts given to us to help us come to eternal life. At Mass we have the gift of gifts, the Body and Blood of the Lord himself, as well as the gift of his Word, our light and truth. The Mass gives substance and eternal meaning to the person I am and am becoming. This is why it is a true and permanent obligation. Deliberately to avoid the Mass or to reject it is only logically a most serious matter. To treat it as an “optional extra” is a total misunderstanding of its importance and of the eternal benefits we gain from it. Related to this commandment is also the duty and grace of prayer. How can our love for the Lord grow without prayer? Prayer is time with the Beloved.

 

Fourth Commandment: Honour thy Father and thy Mother. This is the first thing which God expects of us after our love and worship of himself. By means of them, God has given us human life itself! We would not even exist without them! Normally speaking, this should mean an immense debt of gratitude and love towards them, as a sign of our love for the Creator himself. Of course, this means that they should show to their children the face of God, and be an example and inspiration to their children to worship, respect and adore God (= the first three commandments). Family life should be rooted in God. Mass and sacraments are essential to the Christian family. The effort involved here can certainly be great, but a loving and persevering commitment will bear great fruit in children and parents alike. Unfortunately, of course, some parents (often for tragic reasons) do not fulfil their responsibilities towards their children, even at the level of basic acceptance of them. In such cases, honour towards parents might even be impossible. In such cases, we can only hope that other adults will assume the role of parents, out of love and a sense of duty. To quote Jesus, “their reward will be great in heaven.”

 

In the confession of sins, then, we seek to unburden ourselves of the weight of those deeds or omissions, thoughts or words, which have deprived us of the fully positive and fully human way of living set out in the ten commandments. We can certainly use any other method we find helpful to evaluate and to test whether the way we have been living responds to that model of human life desired by God for us and made possible for us with the help of his grace. For example, the beatitudes (Matthew, chapter 5); the poem of love (1 Corinthians, chapter 13); the fruits of the Holy Spirit and of the evil spirit (Galatians 5); the seven “deadly sins” and their opposing virtues, etc.. In preparing, you might follow this simple procedure:

1. Give thanks to God for all the blessings he has given you, perhaps mentioning a few things in particular which occur to you.

2. Ask the Holy Spirit for light to see your sins, for courage to face them, for trust and honesty in confessing them

3. Go through whatever approach helps you to identify your sins (10 commandments, the Beatitudes, etc..). You may want to focus first on what you think are your main sins or sin. You may not need any special method to identify your sin. It may already be clear to you and “weight you down.”

4. Come and confess them with simplicity and honesty. Remember the priest, too, is a sinner, so he understands the feelings you may have. Don’t worry!

5. Once you have been absolved by the priest and have said your penance, give thanks with great joy to the Lord and ask him to sustain your great hope and firm purpose to avoid sin in the future. Ask him to help you stay under his “light yoke” of his true and beautiful love.

Celebrate when you get home, for the angels in heaven are rejoicing!