Expert: Sal - 5/19/2010

Question
Hi Sal,

For most of my life as a Catholic, I believed I was bound by the 10 Commandments.  I really believed that the 3rd commandment was referring to Sunday.  Your answers on this site and the SDA site have helped me more fully understand the true meaning of the New Covenant.

I assume that I may be fairly average about what I believed regarding the 10 commandments.  Why do you believe the Church hasn’t made an effort to make this concept clearer to us.  Is it that most Catholic’s aren’t questing it or is it something that most of us just missed when we were going through our CCD classes?

God Bless!

David

Answer
Dear Brother David:

I’m sorry, but I’m not sure what you’re asking. Are you asking why the Catholic Church doesn’t teach that the Ten Commandments are obsolete? If that is your question then I would suggest that the Church does teach that in a round about way. I, too, never heard that the Ten Commandments are obsolete in any CCD class. I do remember a dear nun, Sister Paul Marie who has since gone to be with the Lord, clearly stating that the Sermon on the Mount is “the Law” for Christians not the Ten Commandments. At the time I had never heard such a thing before and I found it shocking to hear.

Since Sister Paul’s revelation I have come to see that she was right. The Catholic Church does in its teachings concerning the nature of the Ten Commandments show that it does believe that they are obsolete as given at Sinai. I can say this because the Church teaches an expanded version of the Ten Commandments. For example, the third commandment as given on Sinai expressly listed the 7th day as the day of rest. The Church teaches that Sunday is the fulfillment of the Sabbath. In the New Covenant we observe the third commandment by resting and worshipping on Sunday. This being so, the Ten Commandments must be understood by the Church to be obsolete. This was the understanding of the Church Fathers as enunciated by St. Justin Martyr. “A law set down after another law abrogates that which was before it, and a covenant made later likewise voids that which was earlier” (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, 11).  

Let’s look at another commandment to confirm what I’m proposing. “You shall not commit adultery.” The Church teaches that the sixth commandment now prohibits in addition to adultery, the use of artificial means of birth control, homosexuality, incest, and pornography. None of those Catholic additions are prohibited by the commandment as given on Sinai. The simple, “You shall not commit adultery” is obsolete for Christians because we are under a much higher moral standard in the New Covenant.

I believe that this serves to point out the need for the Catholic Church. How else would I know that those additions to the commandments were valid? Therefore, Jesus established a Church and gave it his own authority to teach and correct his people (see Mt. 16:18-19; 18:17-18; Jn. 21:15-17). So through her actions the Catholic Church teaches that the whole Old Covenant including the Ten Commandments are obsolete. This is in complete agreement with St. Paul. “When he speaks of a ‘new’ covenant, he declares the first one obsolete. And what has become obsolete and has grown old is close to disappearing” (Heb. 8:13).

Again, I’m sorry if I didn’t understand your question correctly.

God Bless You,
Sal