“Did Jesus have a favorite commandment?” asked eleven-year-old, Sharlene. Sr. Rita, who is never known to be stumped by any question, replied: “I don’t know if he had a favorite Sharlene, but I know he made one the greatest commandment.”  Sharlene then asked,  “Which one?”  Sister answered the greatest commandment is this: “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole mind, your whole heart, and your whole soul.   Everything else is commentary.”

 Yahweh guides creation along life’s paths with the gift of his commandments.  The amazing quality of these ten commandments is that “one size fits all.”  In other words, they fit everyone’s personality, walk-of-life, and God’s plan for them.

 In following these commandments everyone learns to live them in any chosen vocation. God, our father, is not looking for uniformity in their practice, but rather for unity in showing others how these actions can speak louder and more resoundingly than mere words.

 I am the Lord your God you shall not have others before me.

 Contrary to the world’s thinking, the Lord intends his ten commandments to free believers rather than restrain them.  Jesus, God’s son, brought understanding to them through his preaching, his parables, and how our deeds can live them fully.  Jesus made it quite clear that these ten commandments were essential.  Jesus proclaimed, “I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.”

 Again, just to be clear, Jesus loved diversity and his teachings show that we can be true to our unique selves, while imitating him outwardly, and from our hearts.  It is always our faithful following and chosen commitment to Jesus, while living on earth, that opens heaven’s gates and welcomes us into life everlasting. 

After the garden experience, Yahweh reveals this new vision of how the human community, his creation, are to live together.  If Yahweh is to be their God and they his people, these ten commandments will show his chosen people what is important and worth thinking about as they live their ordinary lives.  

God wants his ten commandments to be considered differently than even the laws that keep nations afloat.  Why?  Simply because God designed these ten commandments to be laws of the heart.  They help commit us to think deeply about what is worth thinking about, as we strive to live the perfect life on this earth.

After the garden moment ended, Yahweh knew that these ten commandments would mean nothing unless these divinely crafted laws were  first absorbed in the heart.  Not arising from a whim, God wanted these laws to shape a way of living, an attitude of mind, a spirit for a human community, and mostly to form God’s own signature people.

Epilogue

 If we take time to time to talk to strangers long enough, more than likely they will say something that confirms the rare idea that they are as human as I am, that they need me, that I know exactly what they’re going through.  At that moment I finally begin to Love them “as myself.”  But first it takes the talking.

 It’s that “as myself” stuff in the great commandment where being really moral gets difficult.                                                                                          Sr. Joan Chittister OSB