SECCOND PART
WHAT HAS TO BE DONE
COMMANDMENTS OF THE LAW OF GOD
PRECEPTS OF THE CHURCH
156. It is not enough to believe in order to be saved, for Jesus Christ said: "If you want to be saved, keep the commandments."
157. The commandments of God’s law are ten, namely:
1º Love God above all things
2º Do not take His holy Name in vain.
3º To sanctify the feasts
4º Honor father and mother
5º Do not kill
6º Do not fornicate
7º Not to steal
8º Not to give false testimony or lie
9º Do not desire your neighbor’s wife
10º Do not covet the property of others.
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The Decalogue contains explicitly or implicitly all the duties of man in relation to God, his neighbor and himself.
God, in His commandments, commands us to do good and avoid evil; therefore every commandment contains a precept and a prohibition.
God has printed these commandments in the heart of man, and gave them to Moses on Mount Sinai, written on two tablets of stone.
The first three, contained in the first table, have as their direct end the honor of God. The other seven, contained in the second table, are directed to the good of their neighbor.
Our Lord Jesus Christ confirmed the ten commandments and perfected them with the evangelical counsels.
We can, must, and is absolutely necessary to fulfill the divine commandments in order to save ourselves.
We can: God knows our strength, and if He commands the fulfillment of the commandments, it is because He knows that we can fulfill them.
If we find any difficulty in fulfilling them, let us ask God for His grace, and infallibly He will help us and make it easy for us what was difficult and even impossible for us.
We must: because God wants it, He commands it, and no one like Him has more right to be obeyed.
The common good and sound reason demand it.
The code of all civilized countries is based on the law of God.
It is absolutely necessary to fulfill the commandments: because only by doing them we will be free from hell and get heaven.
It is enough to break a commandment in a serious matter, to deserve eternal condemnation.
[If one commandment is broken, all are broken, teaches us Saint Francis of Assisi. If one had the misfortune to break any one, one must confess with sorrow that he made Jesus suffer on the cross, with abhorrence of all sins, even venial, and with a purpose of amendment, that is: a plan not to fall into that sin ever again. Mortal sins must be confessed all by adding the number of times they were committed. There is no need to confess the venials, they are erased by confessing the mortal ones or by making the signal of the cross with holy water. Likewise, read the two messages of the Virgin of Garabandal to the world. ]
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FIRST COMMANDMENT
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158. The first commandment of God’s law is: Love God above all things.
159. In the first commandment it is commanded to worship God with utmost reverence of body and soul, to love Him above all things, and to believe and trust Him with living faith.
160. He loves God who keeps his commandments.
161. To love God above all things is to prefer to lose them all rather than to offend Him.
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The Charity
Charity consists in loving God above all things, and our neighbor as ourselves, for the love of God.
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The love of God
We have to love God above all things, because He is infinitely good, and because from Him we receive all good.
Being an infinitely good God, He deserves infinite love.
Only the same God can love Himself as He deserves to be loved.
We, since we cannot love God as He deserves to be loved, let us love Him as much as we can.
The measure of our love for God is to love Him beyond measure, to love Him more and more every day.
God is the one who gives us, and keeps, continuously all that we have:
Without His help we cannot move a finger of the hand
And He has prepared for us an eternal paradise of infinite delights.
Our heart must therefore be all for God.
All other things we must love as much as they lead us to God, and hate them as much as they separate us from God.
The true love of God consists in keeping His commandments.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said: if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, that is, My commandments (Saint John, XIV, 23)
The rule, therefore, to know if one loves God, is to see whether one keeps His commandments.
All men, except some who are very depraved, say they love God; but many speak falsely because they do not keep His commandments. [that was in past times, now depravity became general for lack of good catechesis in childhood and youth, for lack of prayer in the family, for lack of good examples]
Let us not say it falsely, but with truth.
Let us repeat very often and wholeheartedly the following short prayer: My God, I love You above all things, because You are infinitely good and because I receive all good from you.
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Love of your neighbor
We must love our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
We must always remember that the neighbor is image and son of God, and a brother to us. [God is the Creator Father of all men, and Mary Most Holy adopted all men as Her children. Besides, we are all children of Adam and Eve]
It is the image of God: Every man bears engraved in his soul the image of God.
He is the son of God: we can and must all call God OUR FATHER.
He is our brother: we are all descendants from Adam and Eve, and we have the same Father, who is God. [Although some chose to have the devil as a father and therefore hate Jesus Christ]
Every man has an angel to guard him.
These considerations should instill in our hearts a great respect and love for every human being.
Our neighbor or fellow man, is all who are or can go to Heaven.
All the people of this world are our neighbor, even the wicked; for while they live, they can become good and go to Heaven.
Our respect and love should be for every person of any race, religion, idea or opinion.
But it should not be said: "I respect every religion, idea or opinion"; because if they are false, they constitute an error.
Error, vice and sin do not deserve to be respected but destroyed.
Attack the error, but respect the person, says Saint Augustine.
As long as it is not done in a spirit of revenge, it is not against charity to desire and even to seek that the wicked be punished by the competent authority.
We have to treat our neighbor as we want to be fairly treated.
We all want to be treated very well, with every consideration; let us treat others so.
The brute animals are not our neighbor.
However, extremisms should be avoided: make them suffer unnecessarily, and treat them with as much gift as if they were people.
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The commandments of charity
1º You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.
2º You will love your neighbor as yourself.