Pope at Audience: Commandments
are guide to authentic Christian life
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| Pope Francis at the General Audience in the Paul VI Hall.(Vatican Media) |
Pope Francis wrapped up a long series of catecheses
focussing on the Ten Commandments pointing out they should be seen not as a
series of rules, but as a guide to an authentic Christian life.
By Linda Bordoni
Speaking to the pilgrims gathered in the Paul VI Hall for
the weekly General Audience, Pope Francis said his
catechesis concludes a series dedicated to the ten Commandments, that he
explained, provide us with the key to open ourselves up “to receive His heart,
His desires, the Holy Spirit”.
Reflecting on St Paul’s Letter to the Galatians which tells
us that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
generosity, faithfulness,gentleness, self-control, ” the Pope said the Spirit
plants in our hearts holy desires, which are the seed of new life.
And new life, he explained, is the very Spirit of God who
leads us to its fruits, “in a happy synergy between our joy of being loved and
His joy of loving us”.
The deception of idolatries
God, the Pope continued, invites us "to be obedient so
that He can redeem us from the deception of idolaters who have so much power
over us".
He pointed out that when we seek self-realization in the
idols of this world, we are emptied and enslaved, while our relationship with
God gives us freedom, stature and consistency.
The freedom granted us by the Father
That relationship with the Father liberates us, he
said, explaining that it is strengthened through the Spirit so that Christ may
dwell in our hearts through faith.
This liberated life, Pope Francis said, reconciles us with
our personal history and makes us adults who are capable “of giving the right
value to the realities and to the people in our lives”.
It puts us on a path, he continued, that is grounded and
rooted in love and is a call to “the beauty of fidelity, generosity and
authenticity” by showing us how to enter into a faithful and loving
relationship with God our Father, rejecting false idols, finding our authentic
rest in the freedom of Christ and the Holy Spirit.
A new heart
To be able to live in this way, Francis said, we need “a new
heart that is inhabited by the Holy Spirit”.
And reflecting on the need to transition from “an old heart”
to a “new heart” the Pope said this happens through the “gift of new desires”,
which are sown in our hearts by the grace of God, especially through the Ten
Commandments in their fullest sense, as taught by Jesus in the “Sermon on the
Mount”.
Open the door to salvation
The Pope explained that in Christ we see “the true, the good
and the beautiful” and that the Spirit "sparks in us faith, hope and
love"; Jesus, he continued, “did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfil
it”, “to make it grow”.
The Law was perceived, he said, as “a series of
prescriptions and prohibitions”, but according to the Spirit it “became
life” - no longer norms but “the very flesh of Christ who loves us, seeks
us, forgives us, consoles us and in His body recomposes communion with the
Father, communion that was lost through the disobedience of sin”.
So, the Pope continued, the negative expression of the
Commandments: “thou shalt not steal”, “thou shalt not bear false witness”, “thou
shalt not kill” – is transformed into a positive attitude: “to love, to make
room for others in my heart”; this, he said, is “the fullness of the law that
Jesus came to bring us”.
In Christ, he explained, the Decalogue ceases to be
condemnation and becomes “the authentic truth of human life” where the desire
for goodness, for joy, for peace, for magnanimity, for benevolence, for
goodness, for fidelity, for meekness, for self-restraint, is born.
The work of God
So, the Pope said, seeking the Lord in the Decalogue means
“to make our hearts fruitful so that they may be filled with love and open to
the work of God”.
When we nurture the desire to live according to Christ, Pope
Francis added,we open the door to salvation, which is possible because the Lord
is generous and “thirsty that we thirst for him”.
This is what the Decalogue is, he concluded: “the
contemplation of Christ in order to open ourselves up to receive his heart, to
receive his desires, to receive his Holy Spirit.
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