Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

Commands and Desires

In third grade religion class, we memorized the Ten Commandments, which contained the “do”s and “don’t”s we were supposed to follow if we wanted to go to Heaven.

The “do”s were to worship God alone, honor our parents, keep holy the sabbath and rest on it. The “don’t”s slightly outnumbered the “do”s: don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t murder, don’t use God’s name in vain, don’t bear false witness, don’t covet things that aren’t rightfully yours, and don’t commit adultery (we weren’t quite sure what adultery was until the later grades, just that we shouldn’t do it).

We learned the things to do and the things not to, but that was about it. We didn’t know that what we were learning were not God’s orders for us but his desires for us and the world he wanted us to live in, where God was respected, people were cared for and kept each other safe and people could be trusted to keep their word. Thus, the Ten Commandments are, at heart, not so much a matter of obedience but love: God’s love for us and our love for God.