God The Almighty And The Commandments Of God

 

To My Readers: This week's post, by John Gregory, explains what it means to follow an Almighty God, as well as the importance and duty of following the Ten Commandments. 

Feel free to comment as usual. If you have  a specific comment or question for me, I will respond as always, but it may take me a bit longer to do so this week.

God bless you all, my dear readers---Introibo

God The Almighty and The Commandments of God

By John Gregory

But the men wondered, saying What manner of man is this, for the winds and the sea obey him. 

(St. Matthew 8: 27)  

These men were not the disciples, but the sailors and others who were in the ship of Jesus, and in the other ships which accompanied it.  For, as Origen says, “The disciples are never named but with the mark of distinction, Apostles, or disciples.”  Saint Jerome adds, “If anyone maintains that the disciples are meant here, the reply should be that they are called men, because they have not yet known the Savior’s power.  What manner of man? “Who and what sort of man is this, and whose messenger?  He does not seem to be like other men, but a Being of a different race.  He does not seem to be born of earth, but to have come down from heaven, for not only the denizens of the earth and their sicknesses obey him, but also the heavens and their winds, as though he were their master and lord. (For the Greek text has, “For the winds and the sea heed him, submit to him.”)  Who, therefore, is this new Aeolus [“god”] in Palestine, what sort of wind-god is he, and how great his power command?”  Thus they thought, not yet knowing Christ to be the one true God. 

Topologically, Saint Augustine says, “Imitate the winds and the sea: obey the creator at Christ’s command.  The sea listens, and you are deaf?  The sea heeds, and the wind stops, and you blast? — What?  I speak, I act, I devise. — What is that, if not being puffed up, and at Christ’s word you are unwilling to cease?  Let not the waves overcome you in the commotion of your hearts.” (See Lapide Commentary on Saint Matthew Volume one, pages 419 and 420) 

God created us and maintains us in existence.  Therefore, we should know Him, and this knowledge of Him should lead to a filial fear and love of Him.  We should fear Him, because it is He Who can make us healthy or sick, rich or poor, happy or sad.  But more importantly, it is He who can damn us to Hell or give us eternal happiness.  This love of God should lead to the latria – the worship and adoration reserved for God alone – as the Introit of the Mass (the form of worship God prescribed for us and highest form of worship possible in this life) for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany suggests: 

Adore God, All you His angels: Sion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Juda rejoiced.  The Lord hath reigned; let the earth rejoice: let many islands be glad (Psalm 96: 7, 8)  

The Mass is the greatest prayer this side of heaven.  This public worship in common is the best way to strengthen the sanctifying grace in our souls.  The Mass is God Himself (Jesus) offering Himself to God (the Father) in the unity of the Holy Ghost.  It is the one sacrifice of the cross made present to us in an unbloody manner which is used to apply the fruits of that sacrifice to the benefit of our souls.  Prescribed prayer in public is strong and effective as there is strength in numbers.  We collectively pierce the heavens to rain down graces upon us, such as detachment from worldly goods, if we pray in unison with sincerity, devotion and confidence.  The prayer in the above mentioned Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany Mass gives such an example: 

O God, Who knowest that we are beset by perils so great as to be unendurable because of our human frailty, grant us health of mind and body, so that by Thine assistance we may conquer the things with which we are afflicted because of our sins. 

This is why praying to Rosary together in large groups and in the family is so very important for individual souls as well as for the world as a whole.  Our Lady of Lourdes and Fatima, who saw the increasing moral depravity that would fall upon the world along with the lack of valid Masses, bishops and priests, which provide the ordinary means of obtaining, fortifying and increasing sanctifying grace in this world, left us with her Rosary and brown scapular to cling to in this barren wasteland of what appears to be the end times. 

Some Protestants our fond of claiming that “they are saved."  As if they need not fear Hell so long as they believe.  They claim to get this belief, (faith alone) from the bible, their sole rule of faith (bible alone).  Yet the bible did not give itself to us.  It did not write itself.  It did not decide which books belong in it and which do not.  The Catholic Church gave it to us, wrote the New Testament, preserved the Old and decided which books belong and which do not.  The bible also does not interpret itself.  Guess who does that.  God through His Catholic Church which was founded upon the rock of Peter does that.  She (the Catholic Church) guards and preserves the deposit of faith and infallibly explicates it for the ears and the hearts of the faithful.  That is why the Chosen People, those within the Catholic Church, do not put their souls in peril through heretical beliefs such as “faith alone”, “the bible alone”, “faith without works”.   

Ah.  That is why in the Mass we are looking at has in the Epistle for the day the following: 

Brethren, owe no man anything, but to love one another; for he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law.  For thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is comprised in this word, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  The love of our neighbor worketh no evil.  Love, therefore, is the fulfilling of the law.  (Romans 13: 8 – 10) 

The above passage is in the bibles Protestants use.  I do not use the term “Protestant bible” as that is a contradiction of terms.  For the Protestants ripped out seven books and parts of two others from the bible and mistranslate much of what they left in on their own authority.  Their bible, which is their sole rule of faith, and which they claim to understand and interpret correctly, tells them they must keep the Commandments for salvation to be possible.  For as Saint Paul explains above if we truly love our neighbor, we will not cheat on them, or kill them, or lie to them, or covet what they have, or do, or will any evil to them.  If we authentically love our neighbor as God wills and commands, we will keep the Commandments as a result of that love.  Yes, God indeed is almighty and we must obey His Commandments if we wish to have eternal life.  And obeying His Commandments will give us great joy even in this life as the Gradual for this Mass states: 

The Gentiles shall fear Thy name, O Lord, and all the kings of the earth Thy glory.  For the Lord hath built up Sion, and He shall be seen in His majesty.  The Lord hath reigned, let the earth rejoice: let many islands be glad.  (Psalm 101: 16, 17) 

No one on earth is glad or rejoices if they do not keep the Commandments.  The worm that will gnaw at the conscience of those outside the Catholic Church and or lacking sanctifying grace for all eternity gnaws as it does now even with all the distractions of this life, and when they are alone with their thoughts, they wonder why they are not really happy.  For their pleasures are momentary and not fulfilling. 

Atheists and Agnostics often claim not to believe in God because if He existed, He would not allow all the terrible things we see going on around us and to us in the world today.  But what did God the Father allow to happen to God His Son?  To be born in poverty, to be hated and misunderstood during His whole public life, to be spat upon, beaten, scourged, crowned with thorns and nailed to a cross to die a most ignominious death between two thieves.  But we refuse to believe in God because something bad happened to us or to someone we love, or to countless innocent victims?  I believe the real reason they chose not to believe stems from fear.  They know the lifestyle they live would be at odds with God if He exists and that they will be damned to Hell if He exists.  So, they just convince themselves He doesn’t exist.  Much easier huh.  In time perhaps.  But not in eternity, which lasts a bit longer than our life on earth.  They should be afraid not to follow the Lord.  For though doing so can lead to temporary tribulations it ultimately will lead to eternal bliss.  What follows is the Gospel of this Mass: 

At That time, when Jesus entered into the ship, His disciples followed Him.  And behold a great tempest arose in the sea, so that the ship was covered with waves, but He was asleep.  And they came to Him and awaked Him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish.  And Jesus saith to them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?  Then rising up, He commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm.  But the men wondered, saying, What manner of man is this, for the winds and the see obey Him. 

This shows that our best option is not only to believe in Jesus, but to follow Him.  If we follow Him we may have trials and tribulations, but they can be meritorious and exchanged for eternal crowns.  Let us look at the offertory of the Mass:  

The right hand of the Lord hath wrought strength, the right hand of the Lord hath exalted me: I shall not die, but live, and shall declare the works of the Lord. (Psalm 117: 16, 17) 

Do you notice how the Propers of this Mass continually extol God’s mightiness?  

Secret: Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that this sacrifice offered to Thee, may purge us of all evil and fortify our weak nature. 

Here we see how almighty God may cleanse of [venial] sin and fortify with us with additional graces if we worship at Mass with devotion. 

Communion: They all wondered at these things, which proceeded from the mouth of God. (Luke 4: 22) 

Every day at holy Mass, we get catholicized as the foundations of the Faith, such as the reiteration of the power of God which can help us in our temporal and eternal needs. 

Postcommunion: May Thy gifts, O God, free us from the allurements of earthly things, and ever restore us with heavenly nourishment. 

Again, detachment from worldly things get reemphasized in our minds and the reminder that we are in continual need of renewal for we are quite often guilty of venial sins and imperfections.  We never can rest on our laurels or we will drift away, we must continually strive for holiness.  Never getting too down when we fall, nor prideful when we are doing well.  See Pope Saint Gregory the Great: 

"We refresh the body lest it should grow too weak and fail us; we chasten it by abstinence, lest it should wax gross, and become lord over us; we strengthen it with exercise, lest it perish by the not using; and straightway we give it rest, lest it faint through weariness; we succor it with raiment, lest the cold should blight it; and we strip it of the raiment wherewith we have clothed it, lest the heat should afflict it.  In all these so many offices what do we but serve the corruptible?  Upon what is all this care spent but upon that whereover hangeth the doom of weakness and change? "

Therefor saint Paul tells: For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Hm Who hath subjected the same in hope because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Romans 8: 20).  The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly for when man had of his own free will abdicated his state of unchangeable blessedness, the just sentence of death was passed upon him, and whether he willed or not, he became subject to the state of change and corruption.  But the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption when it shall rise again incorruptible and be made partaker of the glory of the children of God. 

Where, then, the elect are still subject to sorrow, being yet bound by the sentence of corruption; but when we shall have put off this corruptible we shall be loosed from that sentence, and shall sorrow no more.  For though we earnestly desire to appear before God, we are still hindered by the burden of this dying body.  Rightly then are we called prisoners, since we are not free to go whither we will, that is to say, to God; and rightly did the prisoner Paul, yearning after the things which are eternal, and still weighed down with the burden of this corruptible, rightly did he cry out I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ. (Philippians 1: 23) He would not have felt this keenness if he had not felt himself bound down. 

Saint Jerome as well, may have a word of interest to us: 

The fifth sign that He did was when He took ship at Capernaum, and commanded the winds and the sea the sixth, when, in the country of the Gergesenes, He suffered the devils to enter into the swine the seventh, when, as He came into His own city, He cured the man sick of the palsy lying on a bed.  The first man sick of the palsy that He cured was the centurion’s servant. 

But He was asleep; and His disciples came to Him, and awoke Him, saying Lord, save us.  There is a type of this in the history of Jonah, who, when the storm arose, was lying fast asleep, and whom the sailors woke to help them; who also saved the sailors by commanding them to throw him into the sea, the said casting of him into the sea, being, as we know, a figure of Christ’s Passion.  Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea.  From these words we understand that all things, which have been made, are sentient to their Maker.  All things which He rebuketh or commandeth, hear His voice.  This is not the error of the heretics who will have it that everything is quick, but part of the majesty of the Creator, Who maketh to feel Him things which we cannot make to feel us. 

But the men marveled, saying what manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?  It was not His disciples that marveled, but the sailors, and the others that were in the ship.  If however, any one willeth to withstand this our interpretation and to maintain that it was the disciples who marveled, we are ready to answer them that they who knew not before the power of the Saviour deserve to be stripped of the title of disciples, and to be called simply the men. 

A disciple is one who follows Christ by keeping His Commandments.  When trying to obey the Commandments the understanding that God is Almighty can be very helpful. 

And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10: 28) 

The Arabic has “into the fire of hell.”  The sense is: Do not, from fear of death with which the persecutors will threaten you, deny My Faith, or cease from the preaching which I have commanded you, or commit any act unworthy of it, for if ye do this, ye will incur both the death of the body and the far worse and longer-lasting death of the soul, even its eternal death in hell, where the damned die an undying death, because they are constantly living in mortal torments and endure as though in living death and moribund life, according to Isaias 66: 24, Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched.  Truly does Saint Chrysostom say, “He who is always afraid of hell will never fall into its flams, for he is continually purified by this fear. (See Lapide Commentary on Saint Matthew Volume one, pages 502 and 503) 

For a better understanding of the term “Almighty” and how that should resonate with those truly devoted to God, let us take a look at the beloved Catechism of Trent (COT): 

“Almighty” 

The Sacred Scriptures, in order to mark the piety and devotion with which the most holy name of God is to be adored, usually express His supreme power and infinite majesty in a variety of ways; but the pastor should, first of all, teach that almighty power is most frequently attributed to Him. Thus He says of Himself: I am the almighty Lord; (Genesis 17: 1) and again, Jacob when sending his sons to Joseph thus prayed for them: May my almighty God make him favourable to you. (Genesis 43: 14) In the Apocalypse also it is written: The Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the almighty; (Apocalypse 1: 8) and in another place the last day is called the great day of the almighty God.  Sometimes the same attribute is expressed in many words; thus: No word shall be impossible with God; (Luke 1: 37) Is the hand of the Lord unable? (Numbers 11: 23) Thy power is at hand when thou wilt, (Wisdom 12: 18) and so on.  

MEANING OF THE TERM “ALMIGHTY” 

From these various modes of expression it is clearly perceived what is comprehended under this single word almighty.  By it we understand that there neither exists nor can be conceived in thought or imagination anything which God cannot do.  For not only can He annihilate all created things, and in a moment summon from nothing into existence many other worlds, an exercise of power which, however great, comes in some degree within our comprehension; but He can do many things still greater, of which the human mind can form no conception. 

But though God can do all things, yet He cannot lie, or deceive, or be deceived; He cannot sin, or cease to exist, or be ignorant of anything.  These defects are compatible with those beings only whose actions are imperfect; but God, whose acts are always most perfect, is said to be incapable of such things, simply because that capability of doing them implies weakness, not the supreme and infinite power over all things which God possesses.  Thus we so believe God to be omnipotent that we exclude from Him entirely all that is not intimately connected and consistent with the perfection of His nature.  (COT – p. 23, 24) 

“MIGHTY” 

But both the carnal and the spiritual should be spurred on, especially by two considerations which are contained in this concluding clause, and are highly calculated to enforce obedience to the divine law. 

The one is that God is called the strong.  That appellation needs to be fully expounded; because the flesh, unappalled by the terrors of the divine menaces, frequently indulges in the foolish expectation of escaping, in one way or another, God’s wrath and threatened punishment.  But when one is deeply impressed with the conviction that God is the strong, he will exclaim with the great David: Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy face? (Psalm 138: 7) 

The flesh, also, distrusting the promises of God, sometimes magnifies the power of the enemy to such an extent, as to believe itself unable to withstand his assaults; while, on the contrary, a firm and unshaken faith, which wavers not, but relies confidently on the strength and power of God, animates and confirms man.  For it says: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? (Psalm 26: 1) (COT – p. 378) 

Our Lord Himself says “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”.  This leads us to the following consideration of the commandments: 

The Ten Commandments of God come to us by Revelation through Tradition.  They were given to the Jewish people through Moses, and were confirmed by Christ in the New Dispensation, which is the Law of Reality, whereas the Old Law was the law of the shadow of things to come (Colossians 2: 17).  The ceremonial precepts of the Old Law are displaced once for all; for the Jewish Sabbath, the Christian Church has substituted Sunday as the Lord’s day, in memory of Christ’s Resurrection. 

The Commandments summarize in explicit terms man’s duties according to Natural law.  The first three precepts refer to the external worship of God, the last seven refer to authority in the family, the sacredness of life and good report, the sanctity of marriage and the rights of property respectively.  

Since these precepts are imposed by God, their observance is prima facie a matter of serious obligation.  If they are violated in trivial matters—where from the nature of the case that is possible, as in the precept against theft—such violation is not a grave sin.  It is the task of Moral Theology to try to distinguish between what is objectively serious and what is not, for there is an objective order to be maintained; subjectivism in morality leads to nothing but agnosticism or moral anarchy. [This is nowhere so clearly patent as in the reaction from all objective morality that followed upon Luther’s teaching.  He himself deplored it and despaired of success in countering it (cf. Grisar, Life, vol. V): “It is clear enough how much more greedy, cruel, immodest, shameless, wicked, the people now is than it was under Popery.”  cf. Maritain, Three Reformers, p. 186.)  (Moral and Pastoral Theology by H. Davis S.J., 1958) 

The following is from the (COT) on the observance of the commandments: 

But since by this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments (1 John 2: 2 – 3), the next consideration, and one intimately connected with the preceding, is to press also upon the attention of the faithful that their lives are not to be wasted in ease and indolence, but that we are to walk even as he walked (1 John 2: 6), and pursue with all earnestness, justice, godliness, faith, charity, patience, mildness (1 Timothy 6: 2); for He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and might cleanse to himself a people acceptable, a pursuer of good works (Titus 2: 14) These things the Apostle commands pastors to speak and exhort.  

But as our Lord and Saviour has not only declared, but has also proved by His own example, that the Law and the Prophets depend on love, (Matthew 22: 40; 1 Timothy 1: 5; Romans 13: 10) and as, according to the Apostle, charity is the end of the commandant, and the fulfilment of the law, (1 Timothy 1: 5; Romans 13: 10) it is unquestionably a chief duty of the pastor to use the utmost diligence to excite the faithful to a love of the infinite goodness of God towards us, that, burning with a sort of divine ardor, they may be powerfully attracted to the supreme and all-perfect good, to adhere to which is true and solid happiness, as is fully experienced by him who can say with the Prophet: What have I in heaven? and besides thee what do I desire upon earth? (Psalm 72: 25) 

This, assuredly, is that more excellent way (1 Corinthians 12: 31) pointed out by the Apostle when he sums up all his doctrines and instructions in charity, which never falleth away. (1 Corinthians 13: 8) For whatever is proposed by the pastor, whether it be the exercise of faith, of hope, or of some moral virtue, the love of our Lord should at the same time be so strongly insisted upon as to show clearly that all the works of perfect Christian virtue can have no other origin, no other end than divine love. (1 Corinthians 16: 14) (COT – p. 6 – 7) 

THE DECALOGUE 

IMPORTANCE OF INSTRUCTION ON THE COMMANDMENTS 

Saint Augustine in his writings remarks that the Decalogue is the summary and epitome of all laws: Although the Lord had spoken many things, He gave to Moses only two stone tablets, called “tables of testimony,” to be placed in the Ark.  For if carefully examined and well understood, whatever else is commanded by God will be found to depend on the Ten Commandments which were engraved on those two tables, just as these Ten Commandments, in turn, are reducible to two, the love of God and of our neighbour, on which “depend the whole law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22: 40) 

Since, then, the Decalogue is a summary of the whole Law, the pastor should give his days and nights to its consideration, that he may be able not only to regulate his own life by its precepts, but also to instruct in the law of God the people committed to his care.  The lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, of the Lord of hosts. (Malachias 2: 7) To the priests of the New Law this injunction applies in a special manner; they are nearer to God and should be transformed from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3: 18) Since Christ our Lord has called them light, (Matthew 5: 14) it is their special duty to be a light to them that are in darkness, the instructors of the foolish, the teachers of infants; (Romans 2: 19, 20) and if a man be overtaken in any fault, they who are spiritual should instruct such a one. (Galatians 6: 1) 

In the tribunal of penance the priest holds the place of a judge, and pronounces sentence according to the nature and gravity of the offence.  Unless, therefore, he is desirous that his ignorance should prove an injury to himself and to others he must bring with him to the discharge of this duty the greatest vigilance and the most practiced acquaintance with the interpretation of the law, in order to be able to pronounce, according to this divine rule, on every act and omission; and, as the Apostle says, to teach sound doctrine, (2 Timothy 4: 3) free from error, and heal the diseases of the soul, which are sins, in order that the people may be acceptable to God, pursuers of good works. (Galatians 3: 19) (COT – p. 357, 8) 

GOD IS CALLED FATHER BCAUSE HE CREATED US 

Thus having created man to His own image—a favor He accorded to no other living creature—it is with good reason that, in view of this unique privilege with which He has honored man, Sacred Scripture calls God the Father of all men; not only of the faithful, but also of the unbelieving. (COT – p. 502) 

MAN’S PRONENESS TO ACT AGAINST GOD’S WILL 

From the beginning God implanted in all creatures an inborn desire of pursuing their own happiness that, by a sort of natural impulse, they may seek and desire their own end, from which they never deviate, unless impeded by some external obstacle.  This impulse of seeking God, the author and father of his happiness, was in the beginning all the more noble and exalted in man because of the fact that he was endowed with reason and judgment.  But, while irrational creatures, which, at their creation were by nature good, continued, and still continue in that original state and condition, unhappy man went astray, and lost not only original justice, with which he had been supernaturally gifted and adorned by God, but also obscured that singular inclination toward virtue which had been implanted in his soul.  All, He says, have gone aside, they are become unprofitable together; there is none that doth good, no, not one. (Psalm 52: 4) For the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth. (Genesis 8: 21) Hence it is not difficult to perceive that of himself no man is wise unto salvation; that all are prone to evil; and that man has innumerable corrupt propensities, since he tends downwards and is carried with ardent precipitancy to anger, hatred, pride, ambition, and to almost every species of evil. (COT – p. 529 - 30) 

“And lead us not into temptation” 

IMPORTANCE OF INSTRUCTION ON THIS PETITION 

When the children of God, having obtained the pardon of their sins, are inflamed with the desire of giving to God worship and veneration; when they long for the kingdom of heaven; when they engage in the performance of all the duties of piety towards the Deity, relying entirely on His paternal will and providence, — then it is that the enemy of mankind employs the more actively all his artifices, and prepares all his resources to attack them so violently as to justify the fear that, wavering and altered in their sentiments, they may relapse into sin, and thus become far worse than they had been before.  To such as these may justly be applied the saying of the Prince of the Apostles: It had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than, after they have known it, to turn back from that holy commandment which was delivered to them. (2 Peter 2: 21)  

Hence Christ the Lord has commanded us to offer this petition so that we may commend ourselves daily to God, and implore His paternal care and assistance, being assured that, if we be deserted by the divine protection, we shall soon fall into the snares of our most crafty enemy. 

Nor is it in the Lord’s Prayer alone that He has commanded us to beg of God not to suffer us to be led into temptation.  In His address to the holy Apostles also, on the very eve of His death, after He had declared them clean, He admonished them of this duty in these words: Pray that ye enter not into temptation. (John 13: 10; Matthew 26: 41) 

This admonition, reiterated by Christ the Lord, imposes on the pastor the weighty obligation of exciting the faithful to a frequent use of this prayer, so that, beset as men constantly are by the great dangers which the devil prepares, they may ever address to God, who alone can repel those dangers, the prayer, Lead us not into temptation. (COT – p. 565-6) 

Conclusion

Our Lord is recorded twice in Holy Writ to have said “He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved.”  [Mt. 10: 22 & 24: 13] Let us pray to our dear sweet Mother Mary to implore the Almighty God to please help us keep the commandments and thus to persevere in the state of sanctifying grace unto the end as His faithful and loving disciples!