# The Catechism of the Council of Trent/Part 3

THE
CATECHISM
OF
THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.
PART III.
ON THE DECALOGUE.
THAT the Decalogue is an epitome of the entire law of God is the recorded opinion of St. Augustine. The Lord, it is true, had uttered many things for the instruction and guidance of his people; yet two tables only were given to Moses. They were made of stone, and were called " the tables of the testimony," and were to be deposited in the ark; and on them, if minutely examined and well understood, will be found to hinge whatever else is commanded by God. Again, these ten commandments are reducible to two, the love of God and of our neighbour, on which " depend the whole Law and the Prophets."
Imbodying then, as the Decalogue does, the whole Law, it is the imperative duty of the pastor to give his days and nights to its consideration; and to this he should be prompted by a desire not only to regulate his own life by its precepts, but also to instruct in the law of God the people committed to his care. "The lips of the priest," says Malachy, "shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth, because he is the angel of the Lord of Hosts." To the priests of the New Law this injunction applies in a special manner; they are nearer to God, and should be "transformed from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord." Christ our Lord has said that they are "the light of the world:" they should, therefore, be "a light to them that are in darkness, the instructors of the foolish, the teachers of infants;" and " if a man be overtaken in any fault, those who are spiritual should instruct such a one." In the tribunal of penance the priest holds the place of a judge, and pronounces sentence according to the nature of the offence. Unless, therefore, he is desirous that his ignorance ​should prove an injury to himself, and an injustice to others, he must bring with him to the discharge of this duty, the greatest vigilance, and the most intimate and practised acquaintance with the interpretation of the Law, in order to be able to pronounce according to this divine rule on every omission and commission; and that, as the Apostle says, he teach sound doctrine, doctrine free from error, and heal the diseases of the soul, which are the sins of the people, that they may be "acceptable to God, pursuers of good works."
In discharge of this duty of instruction, the pastor will propose to himself and to others such considerations, as may be best calculated to impress upon the mind the conviction, that obedience to the law of God is the duty of every man; and if in the Law there are many motives to stimulate to its observance, there is one which of all others is powerfully impressive it is, that God is its author. True, it is said to have been delivered by angels, but its author, we repeat, is God. Thus, not only the words of the Legislator himself, which we shall subsequently explain, but also, innumerable other passages of Scripture, which the memory of the pastor will readily supply, bear ample testimony. Who is not conscious that a law is inscribed on his heart by the finger of God, teaching him to distinguish good from evil, vice from virtue, justice from injustice? The force and import of this unwritten law do not conflict with that which is written. How unreasonable then to deny that God is the author of the written, as he is of the unwritten law.
But, lest the people, aware of the abrogation of the Mosaic Law, may imagine that the precepts of the Decalogue are no longer obligatory, the pastor will inform them, that these precepts were not delivered as new laws, but rather as a renewal and development of the law of nature: its divine light, which was obscured and almost extinguished by the crimes and the perversity of man, shines forth in this celestial code with increased and renovated splendour. The Ten Commandments, however, we are not bound to obey because delivered by Moses, but because they are so many precepts of the natural law, and have been explained and confirmed by our Lord Jesus Christ. But it must prove a most powerful and persuasive argument for enforcing its observance, to reflect that the founder of the Law is no less a Person than God himself - that God whose wisdom and justice we mortals cannot question - whose power and might we cannot elude. Hence, we find that when by his prophet, he commands the Law to be observed, he proclaims that he is "the Lord God." The Decalogue, also, opens with the same solemn admonition: " I am the Lord thy God;" and in Malachy we read the indignant interrogatory: " If I am a master, where is my fear?" That God has vouchsafed to give us a transcript of his holy will, on which depends our eternal ​salvation, is a consideration which, besides animating the faithful to the observance of his commandments, must call forth the expression of their grateful homage in return for his beneficent condescension. Hence the Sacred Scriptures, in more passages than one, setting forth this invaluable blessing, admonish us to know our own dignity, and to appreciate the divine bounty: "This," says Moses, "is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of nations, that hearing all these precepts they may say: behold a wise and understanding people, a great nation; " " He hath not done in like manner to every nation;" says the royal psalmist, " and his judgments he hath not made manifest to them."
The circumstances which accompanied the promulgation of the Law, as recorded in the Sacred Volumes, also demand the attention of the pastor; they are well calculated to convey to the minds of the faithful an idea of the piety and humility with which they should receive and reverence a Law delivered by God himself. Three days previous to its promulgation, was announced to the people the divine command, to wash their garments, to abstain from conjugal intercourse, in order that they may be more holy and better prepared to receive the Law, and on the third day to be in readiness to hear its awful announcement. When they had reached the mountain from which the Lord was to deliver the Law by Moses, Moses alone was commanded to ascend; and the Lord descending from on high with great majesty, filling the mount with thunder and lightning, with fire and dense clouds; spoke to Moses, and delivered to him the Law. In this the divine wisdom had solely for object to admonish us to receive his Law with pure and humble minds, and to impress the salutary truth, that over the neglect of his commands impend the heaviest chastisements of the divine justice.
The pastor will also teach that the commandments of God are not difficult of observance, as these words of St. Augustine are alone sufficient to show: " How, I ask, is it said to be impossible for man to love - to love, I say, a beneficent Creator, a most loving Father, and also, in the persons of his brethren, to love his own flesh? Yet, he who loveth has fulfilled the Law. " Hence, the Apostle St. John expressly says, that "the commandments of God are not heavy?" for, as St. Bernard observes, "no duty more just could be exacted from man, none that could confer on him a more exalted dignity, none that could contribute more largely to his own interests." Hence in this pious effusion addressed to the Deity himself, St. Augustine expresses his admiration of his infinite bounty: "What," says he, " is man thou wouldst be loved by him? And if he loves thee not, thou threatenest him with heavy punishment - Is it not punishment enough that I love thee not?"
​But should any one plead human infirmity to exculpate himself from not loving God, it is not to be forgotten that he who demands our love "pours into our hearts by the Holy Ghost" the fervour of his love, " and this good Spirit our Heavenly Father gives to those that ask him." " Give what thou commandest," says St. Augustine, " and command what thou pleasest." As then, God is ever ready by his divine assistance to sustain our weakness, especially since the death of Christ the Lord, by which the prince of this world was cast out; there is no reason why we should be disheartened by the difficulty of the undertaking; to him who loves, nothing is difficult.
To show that we are all laid under the necessity of obeying the Law is a consideration, which must possess additional weight in the enforcement of its observance; and it becomes the more necessary to dwell on this particular in these our days, when there are not wanting those who, to the serious injury of their own souls, have the impious hardihood to assert that the observance of the Law, whether easy or difficult, is by no means necessary to salvation. This wicked and impious error the pastor will refute from Scripture, by the authority of which they endeavour to defend their impious doctrine. What then are the words of the Apostle? " Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." Again, inculcating the same doctrine, he says: "A new creature, in Christ, alone avails;" by a "new creature," evidently meaning him who observes the commandments of God; for, as our Lord himself testifies in St. John, he who observes the commandments of God loves God: " If any one love me," says the Redeemer, " he will keep my word." A man, it is true, may be justified, and from wicked may become righteous, before he has fulfilled by external acts each of the divine commandments; but no one who has arrived at the use of reason, unless sincerely disposed to observe them all, can be justified.
Finally, to leave nothing unsaid that may be calculated to induce to an observance of the Law, the pastor will point out how abundant and sweet are its fruits. This he will easily accomplish by referring to the eighteenth psalm, which celebrates the praises of the divine Law, amongst which its highest eulogy is, that it proclaims more eloquently the glory and the majesty of God than even the celestial orbs, which by their beauty and order, excite the admiration of the most barbarous nations, and compel them to acknowledge and proclaim the glory, the wisdom, and the power of the Creator and Architect of the universe. "The Law of the Lord" also "converts souls:" knowing the ways of God and his holy will through the medium of his Law, we learn to walk in the way of the Lord. It ​also, " gives wisdom to little ones:" they alone who fear God are truly wise. Hence, the observers of the Law of God are filled with a profusion of pure delights, are enlightened by the knowledge of the divine mysteries, and are blessed with an accumulation of pleasures and rewards as well in this life, as in the life to come.
In our observance of the Law, however, we should not be actuated so much by a sense of our own advantage as by a regard for the holy will of God, unfolded to man by the promulgation of his Law: if the irrational part of creation is obedient to this his sovereign will, how much more reasonable that man should live in subjection to its dictate?
A further consideration which cannot fail to arrest our attention, is, that God has pre-eminently displayed his clemency and the riches of his bounty in this, that whilst he might have commanded our service without a reward, he has, notwithstanding, deigned to identify his own glory with our advantage, thus rendering what tends to his honour, conducive to our interests. This is a consideration of the highest importance, and one which proclaims aloud the goodness of God. The pastor then will not fail to impress on the minds of the faithful this salutary truth, telling them in the language of the prophet whom we have last quoted, that "in keeping the commandments of God there is a great reward." Not only are we promised those blessings which seem to have reference to earthly happiness, to be "blessed in the city, and blessed in the field;" but we are also promised " a very great reward in heaven," " good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over," which, aided by the divine mercy, we merit by our actions when recommended by piety and justice.
* ↑ Qusestio 140. super Exod.
* ↑ Matt. ixii. 40.
* ↑ Mal. ii. 7.
* ↑ 2 Cor. iii 18
* ↑ Matt. v. 14.
* ↑ Rom. ii. 19, 20.
* ↑ Gal. vi. 1
* ↑ 2 Tim. iv. 3.
* ↑ Tit. ii. 14.
* ↑ Gal. iii. 19.
* ↑ Exod. xx. 2.
* ↑ Malach. i. 6.
* ↑ Deut iv. 6.
* ↑ Ps . cxlvii. 20.
* ↑ Exod. xix. 10. et seq.
* ↑ Aug. serm. 47. de temp.
* ↑ Rom. xiii. 8.
* ↑ 1 John v. 3.
* ↑ Lib. de diligendo Deo, lib. 1. Confess, c. 5.
* ↑ Rom. v. 5.
* ↑ Luke ii. 13.
* ↑ Lib. 10. confess, c. 29. 31 et 37. Item de bono persever. c. 20.
* ↑ Aug. in Ps. iii. Born. Serm. de Dom. in ramis palm, item in serm. de Magdal.
* ↑ 1 Cor. vii. 19,
* ↑ Gal. vi. 15.
* ↑ John xiv. 21. 23.
* ↑ Ps. xviii. 8.
* ↑ Ps. xviii. 12
* ↑ Deut. xxviii. 2
* ↑ Matt v. 12.
* ↑ Luke vi. 38.