For all practical purposes, the Catholic Church has failed to teach twenty-five percent of what Catholics need to know.
Nearly 200 of the 800 pages in the Catechism of the Catholic Church are dedicated to the moral life and the Ten Commandments. Yet, when I ask adult Catholics to recite the Ten Commandments, I'm surprised when more than one out of ten can do so. I don't blame them, any more than I blame myself for not knowing them, when I was given the same challenge several years ago. This prompts a simple question:
As Catholics, why don’t we know the Ten Commandments, and know them well?
The answer became apparent on a recent road trip during which I met with key catechetical leaders in the dioceses of Davenport, Iowa; Rockford, Illinois; Peoria, Illinois; Springfield, Illinois; and St. Louis, Missouri.
In each meeting, I asked the question: “Do you know of any Catholic adult faith formation program focused specifically on the Ten Commandments?”
Every time, I was met with a puzzled look as the person I was speaking with mentally searched their catalog of catechetical offerings. Sadly, each time the answer was the same: "No."
As a Church, we have made wonderful progress in producing engaging and informative faith formation programs on a wide variety of important teachings of our rich Catholic faith. Topics include the Gospel of Matthew, the Virtues, the Rosary, the Mass and the Eucharist, Theology of the Body, Salvation History, the Sacraments, just to name a handful. These are outstanding programs led by incredibly gifted and devout individuals.
But there is these divinely simple, yet complete, words written by the very hand of God have been overlooked and forgotten. Yet, they possess the divine wisdom that can guide us in the daily choices and interactions of our personal lives. The Commandments speak to both the seemingly small decisions that shape our character over time, and the consequential choices that can set our lives on a completely different trajectory, in an instant.
There is nothing in our Catholic faith that cuts through confusion and simplifies what is good, true, and beautiful more clearly than God's Commandments.
Since the Commandments were removed from schools, courtrooms, and public squares fifty years ago, we have witnessed the moral decline of our culture. It is painful to see the destruction, chaos, division, and loneliness that affect our personal lives and fill the evening news. Yet we have largely accepted these realities as simply "the signs of the times."
But it doesn’t have to be just the signs of the times. How much more modern wisdom are we willing to tolerate before we realize that the solution to the consequences of this moral decline has been right in front of us all along?
How much longer will it take before we recognize that much of today's "enlightened" secular wisdom is nothing more than a web of deception—while the "webmaster" watches its victims struggle?
For the past eight years, I have done everything I can to express that the Commandments are not restrictions imposed by a demanding God. But rather, they are THE antidote to the suffering we impose on ourselves and on one another. But I am only one voice in a very noisy world.
Therefore, I challenge the wonderful men and women who have committed their lives to learning and teaching the truths of our Catholic faith, to join me in proclaiming the truth and timeless wisdom of God's Commandments with the same intentionality and enthusiasm they have dedicated to so many other glorious topics.
Let us shine a new light on God's Commandments and change the misguided perception that they are merely a list of antiquated "suggestions" imposed on us by a jealous God.
Instead, let us proclaim them to the world what they truly are: God's loving recipe for authentic freedom, peaceful harmony, lasting joy, and the friendships we all desire.
The poetry of Psalm 19 beautifully captures the gift God has given us through these ten simple, yet complete, lessons:
The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul. The decree of the LORD is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart. The command of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eye. The statutes of the LORD are true, all of them just; more desirable than gold, than a hoard of purest gold, sweeter also than honey or drippings from the comb. By them your servant is warned; obeying them brings much reward. (Psalm 19:8-12)
Let us stop hiding these golden truths in the corners of our churches, or treating them as an afterthought in catechesis courses. Too many victims are trapped in the web of confusion and desperately need the clarity that God's Commandments provide.
The stakes are simply too high to continue discarding the Commandments as important for fourth graders, but are somehow irrelevant for us adults.
If you are fed up and are no longer willing to tolerate the confusion, desperation, and division you see in our culture—and if you have ever wanted to make the world a better place—PLEASE share this with others who are involved in teaching the Catholic faith. Collectively, we can become a voice that will be heard loudly and clearly.
Share it with your priests, catechetical leaders, diocesan staff, bishop, and those involved in developing the faith formation programs offered in our parishes and dioceses. Encourage them to join me in restoring the Commandments, not just to the churches, courtrooms, and schools, but to the minds and hearts of our families and friends, co-workers, and business leaders, and to all the nations, as we are commanded by Jesus before ascending back to His father.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
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