3rd, 5th, 6th Commandments

This is the vigil mass for the fifth Sunday of Easter and it is also the world day of prayer for vocation.
This past week in 2007 saw the church in Dallas welcome and install her seventh bishop, the most Reverend Kevin Joseph Farrell. He was most recently an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. In his homily at the mass in the cathedral on Tuesday he welcomed everyone and thanked all those who had planned and taken part in the ceremony. He said that many had asked him what plans and new programs did he have in mind. His answer was none. His only plan was the mandate given by Christ to his apostles to preach the Gospel to love God and our neighbor and to know the will of God which is our sanctification and our salvation if we will abide in it.

Two weeks from today we celebrate Christ’s Ascension and the following Sunday is Pentecost, the coming down upon the apostles The Holy Spirit in tongues of fire.. Pentecost marks the fiftieth day after Easter.
In these two weeks before the Ascension, Christ in His resurrected  and
glorified body, is still present on earth but what of the period following that? Jesus said, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” How is He with us? He is present first in the presence of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the most Holy Trinity who Jesus said will remind you of all that I have taught; that is all truth. And secondly Jesus is present in His Sacraments, the seven avenues of sanctifying grace that convey his life to us, His life of holiness. We must become like Christ to achieve our goal of heaven we must become prefect as our heavenly Father is perfect.
Bishop Farrell remarked on this on Tuesday reminding us that the sacrament of baptism removes the stain of original sin and makes us one with Christ and that the sacrament of penance reestablishes and strengthens us in God’s life when, through weakness we have left the path of the Lord and that the Eucharist is the bread from heaven, the person of Christ in His fullness for our food and nourishment as He lives in the Father and the Father lives in Him, so does Christ life in us and we in Him. When we remain in sanctifying graces this life is life indeed. Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.” We read in Scripture, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” There is no other way than that of Christ’s way.

In this regard there are two passages in Scripture that should be noted today.

The first is in the Acts of the Apostles concerning this world and the second is in the book of Revelation about the new heaven and the new earth.

Paul and Barnabas strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.”

In this age of dissent and skepticism even Catholics are caught up in this secular mentality and so I would ask you to review with me three of the Ten Commandments of God and at home to reread the 5th, 6th and 7th chapters of Matthew which is the sermon on the mount. Our three commandants are the 3rd, the 5th and the 6th.

We should consider them in the context of the documents put forward by the bishops at their meeting in Baltimore in November, two of which were the conditions for the worthy reception of Holy Communion and the conjugal use of the gift of our sexuality.

The third commandment is “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.” Sunday is the Lord’s Day and our worship of Him as His people takes place in His house where He is present and where we offer ourselves to God the Father with the sacrifice of God the Son. The church states that we have an obligation to attend mass on all Sundays and Holy days of obligation except for a good reason such as incapaciting illness. The bishops’ document reminds us that it is a mortal sin to miss mass on those days and that in which case without receiving the sacrament of penance we should refrain from receiving Holy Communion.

The fifth commandment is “You shall not kill.”

We must consider carefully our attitude toward the killing of an innocent unborn human being in his mothers’ womb. Do we approve as polls show that over 50% of Catholics do, of the killing of 1.4 million babies in our country each year. Have we accepted the “pro-choice” slogan as being fair and just and democratic for the sake of the mother who must have dominion over her own body whereby we neglect the corollary argument that the person who is being eliminated does not have any choice and is certainly not afforded equal treatment under the law. The least and the weakest among us is given no protection wherein to keep his life.

The sixth commandment is “You shall not commit adultery.” Which is a broad  prohibition against the illicit use of the human sexual powers outside of marriage and inside as well.

The consideration is about purity of life and chastity of body and soul and applies to abortion as well as to fornication, (which by extension includes homosexual acts), masturbation (which includes pornography) and in a separate category contrception. These are all mortal sins and separate us form the friendship of God and if through weakness or willful neglect we commit any of these sins we must refrain from the reception of Holy Communion until we have repented and confessed them in the Sacrament of Penance.

We all can see the toll that the neglect of church teaching takes on our lives and the lives of others and we are less accountable if we really do not know and understand the seriousness involved. The remedy is not to remain in ignorance or in dissent, but in faith to come to an understanding of the dignity of every human being made in God’s image and likeness. And to put on the mind of Christ “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.” St. Paul reminds us.

In the second reading from the Book of Revelation we are told of the new heaven and the new earth where God Himself will always be with His people. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there shall be no more death, mourning, wailing or pain for the old order has passed away.”

If we are among those who dissent from the church teaching on the moral law found in the 3rd, 5th, 6th commandments or if we approve of conduct on the part of others that oppose them, then we should not receive Holy Communion. We should seek out instruction on why offences against the commandments are mortal sins. This is the church’s responsibility to teach the fullness of truth and to forgive sin where there is repentance.

These things I have mentioned to you require a deeper probing. Such a study has been given us by our late Pope John Paul II in his “Theology of the Body” which is a look at man and woman made for each other in the establishment of the family. A holy institution which is being crowded out by mans offences against the commandments, the natural and the moral law, Civilization and culture rest upon the strength of the family as does the future of our nation.

Take the time to read Matthew 5,6,7, the sermon on the mount which ends with these words, “And everyone who hears these my words and does not act upon them, shall be likened to a foolish man who built his house on sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and was utterly ruined.”