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YOUCAT# 348, 349, 352, 353, 355, 359, 360, 364, 365, and pp.192-193 margin [1]
YOUCAT#348 “Teacher, what . . . must I do to have eternal life?” (Mt 19:16)
Believing Jesus says, “If you would enter life, keep the commandments” (Mt 19:17). Then he adds, “and come, follow me” (Mt 19:21). [2052-2054, 2075-2076]
Christianity is more than a correct life and keeping the commandments. Being a Christian is a living relationship to Jesus. A Christian unites himself deeply and personally with the Lord and with him sets out on the way that leads to true life.
YOUCAT#349 What are the Ten Commandments?
1. I am the Lord your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me.
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the Lord’s day (SABBATH).
4. Honor your father and your mother.
5. You shall not kill.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
YOUCAT#352 What is the meaning of the commandment, “I am the Lord, your God” (Ex 20:2)?
Because the Almighty has revealed himself to us as our God and Lord, we must not place anything above him or consider anything more important or give any other thing or person priority over him. To know God and to serve and worship him has absolute priority in our life. [2083, 2084-2094, 2133-2134]
God expects us to give him our full faith; we should place all our hope in him and direct all the strength of our love toward him. The commandment to love God is the most important of all commandments and the key to all the others. That is why it stands at the beginning of the Ten Commandments.
YOUCAT#353 Why do we worship God?
We worship God because he exists and because reverence and worship are the appropriate response to his revelation and his presence. “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve” (Mt 4:10). [2095-2105, 2135-2136]
Worshipping God, however, is also beneficial to men, for it frees them from servitude to the powers of this world. When God is no longer worshipped and when he is no longer thought to be Lord over life and death, others assume that position and put human dignity at risk.
YOUCAT#355 “You shall not have strange Gods before me.” What does that mean?
Believing This commandment forbids us:
to adore other gods and pagan deities or to worship an earthly idol or to devote oneself entirely to some earthly good (money, influence, success, beauty, youth, and so on)
to be superstitious, which means to adhere to esoteric, magic, or occult or New Age practices or to get involved with fortune telling or spiritualism, instead of believing in God’s power, providence, and BLESSINGS
to provoke God by word or deed
to commit a SACRILEGE
to acquire spiritual power through corruption and to desecrate what is holy through trafficking (simony).
YOUCAT#359 Why does God want us to “hallow” his name (that is, keep it holy)?
To tell someone your name is a sign of trust. Since God has told us his name, he makes himself recognizable and grants us access to him through this name. God is absolute truth. Someone who calls Truth himself by his name but uses it to testify to a lie sins seriously. [2142-2149, 2150-2155, 2160-2164]
One must not pronounce the name of God irreverently. For we know him only because he has entrusted himself to us. The Holy Name, after all, is the key to the heart of the Almighty. Therefore it is a terrible offense to blaspheme God, to curse using God’s name, or to make false promises in his name. The Second Commandment is therefore also a commandment that protects “holiness” in general. Places, things, names, and people who have been touched by God are “holy”. Sensitivity to what is holy is called reverence.
YOUCAT#360 What is the meaning of the Sign of the Cross?
Through the Sign of the Cross we place ourselves under the protection of the Triune God. [2157, 2166]
At the beginning of the day, at the beginning of a prayer, but also at the beginning of important undertakings, a Christian makes the Sign of the Cross over himself and thus starts his business “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. We are surrounded on all sides by the Triune God; calling upon him by name sanctifies the things we set out to do; it obtains BLESSINGS for us and strengthens us in difficulties and temptations.
YOUCAT#364 Why do Christians replace the Sabbath with Sunday?
Christians replaced the celebration of the Sabbath with the celebration of Sunday because Jesus Christ rose from the dead on a Sunday. The “Lord’s Day”, however, does include elements of the Sabbath. [2174-2176, 2190-2191]
The Christian Sunday has three essential elements:
(1) It recalls the creation of the world and communicates the festive splendor of God’s goodness to the passage of time.
(2) It recalls the “eighth day of creation”, when the world was made new in Christ (thus a prayer from the Easter Vigil says: “You have wonderfully created man and even more wonderfully restored him.”).
(3) It includes the theme of rest, not just to sanctify the interruption of work, but to point even now toward man’s eternal rest in God.
YOUCAT#365 How do Christians make Sunday “the Lord’s day”?
A Catholic Christian attends Holy Mass on Sunday or on the vigil of Sunday. On that day he refrains from all work that would prevent him from worshipping God or disturb the festive, joyful, restful, and restorative character of the day. [2177-2186, 2192-2193]
Since Sunday is an Easter celebration that occurs each week, Christians from the earliest times have gathered together on that day to celebrate and thank their Redeemer and to reunite themselves with him and with others who are redeemed. So it is a central duty of every conscientious Catholic Christian to “keep holy” Sunday and the other holy days of the Church. One is exempted from it only by urgent family duties and important responsibilities in society. Because participation in the Sunday EUCHARIST is fundamental for a Christian life, the Church explicitly declares that it is a serious sin to stay away from Sunday Mass without good reason.
p.192 margin
The Ten Commandments as printed nearby are not found in precisely that form in Sacred Scripture; the text is based on two biblical sources: Ex 20:2-17 and Deut 5:6-21. Centuries ago the two sources were summarized for instructional purposes, and the Ten Commandments were presented to the faithful in the present form of the catechetical tradition.
p.193 margin
DECALOGUE
(“Ten Words”, from Greek deka = ten and logos = word). The Ten Commandments are the central summary of the basic rules of human behavior in the Old Testament. Jews and Christians both look to this fundamental text for orientation.
References / Citations
[1] Miller, Michael J, and Benedict. Youcat English: Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church. San Francisco, Calif: Ignatius Press, 2011, pp.192~201.
[2] Catechism of the Catholic Church. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1994. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM
[3] BibleGateway (online bible). https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/Good-News-Translation-GNT-Bible/
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