When Jesus openly entrusts to his disciples the mystery of Prayer to the Father, he reveals to them what their prayer and ours must be, once he has returned to the Father in his glorified humanity. What is new is to "ask in his name." 78 Faith in the Son introduces the disciples into the knowledge of the Father, because Jesus is "the way, and the truth, and the life." 79 Faith bears its fruit in Love: it means keeping the word and the Commandments of Jesus, it means abiding with him in the Father who, in him, so loves us that he abides with us. In this new covenant the certitude that our petitions will be heard is founded on the prayer of Jesus. 80

The Commandments of the Decalogue, although accessible to reason alone, have been revealed. To

The Ten Commandments belong to God's revelation. At the same time they teach us the true humanity

The Council of Trent teaches that the Ten Commandments are obligatory for Christians and that the

The Ten Commandments state what is required in the Love of God and love of neighbor. the first three concern love of God, and the other seven love of neighbor.

The division and numbering of the Commandments have varied in the course of history. the present Catechism follows the division of the Commandments established by St. Augustine, which has become traditional in the Catholic Church. It is also that of the Lutheran confessions. the Greek Fathers worked out a slightly different division, which is found in the Orthodox Churches and Reformed communities.

Ever since St. Augustine, the Ten Commandments have occupied a predominant place in the catechesis of baptismal candidates and the Faithful. In the fifteenth century, the custom arose of expressing the commandments of the Decalogue in rhymed formulae, easy to memorize and in positive form. They are still in use today. the Catechisms of the Church have often expounded Christian morality by following the order of the Ten Commandments.

The Commandments properly so-called come in the second place: they express the implications of

The Commandments take on their full meaning within the covenant. According to Scripture, man's

Obedience to the Commandments also implies obligations in matter which is, in itself, light. Thus

Baptism confers on its recipient the grace of purification from all sins. But the baptized must continue to struggle against concupiscence of the flesh and disordered desires. With God's grace he will prevail - by the virtue and gift of chastity, for chastity lets us Love with upright and undivided heart; - by purity of intention which consists in seeking the true end of man: with simplicity of vision, the baptized person seeks to find and to fulfill God's will in everything; 312 - by purity of vision, external and internal; by discipline of feelings and imagination; by refusing all complicity in impure thoughts that incline us to turn aside from the path of God's Commandments: "Appearance arouses yearning in fools"; 313 - by Prayer:

Whoever wants to remain Faithful to his baptismal promises and resist temptations will want to adopt the means for doing so: self-knowledge, practice of an ascesis adapted to the situations that confront him, obedience to God's Commandments, exercise of the moral virtues, and fidelity to Prayer. "Indeed it is through chastity that we are gathered together and led back to the unity from which we were fragmented into multiplicity." 127

This commandment is expressed in positive terms of duties to be fulfilled. It introduces the subsequent Commandments which are concerned with particular respect for life, marriage, earthly goods, and speech. It constitutes one of the foundations of the social doctrine of the Church.

In response to the question about the first of the Commandments, Jesus says: "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' the second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." 2 The apostle St. Paul reminds us of this: "He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." 3

The acts of Faith, hope, and Charity enjoined by the first commandment are accomplished in Prayer. Lifting up the mind toward God is an expression of our adoration of God: prayer of praise and thanksgiving, intercession and petition. Prayer is an indispensable condition for being able to obey God's Commandments. " (We) ought always to pray and not lose heart." 15

When God reveals Himself and calls him, man cannot fully respond to the divine Love by his own powers. He must hope that God will give him the capacity to love Him in return and to act in conformity with the Commandments of Charity. Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing and the beatific vision of God; it is also the fear of offending God's love and of incurring punishment.

"The first commandment embraces Faith, hope, and Charity. When we say 'God' we confess a constant, unchangeable being, always the same, faithful and just, without any evil. It follows that we must necessarily accept his words and have complete faith in him and acknowledge his authority. He is almighty, merciful, and infinitely beneficent. Who could not place all hope in him? Who could not Love him when contemplating the treasures of goodness and love he has poured out on us? Hence the formula God employs in the Scripture at the beginning and end of his Commandments: 'I am the LORD.'" 8

Jesus summed up man's duties toward God in this saying: "You shall Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." 1 This immediately echoes the solemn call: "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD." 2 God has loved us first. the love of the One God is recalled in the first of the "ten words." the Commandments then make explicit the response of love that man is called to give to his God.

The gift of the Commandments and of the Law is part of the covenant God sealed with his own. In Exodus, the revelation of the "ten words" is granted between the proposal of the covenant 22 and its conclusion - after the people had committed themselves to "do" all that the Lord had said, and to "obey" it. 23 The Decalogue is never handed on without first recalling the covenant (“The LORD our God made

The "ten words" are pronounced by God in the midst of a theophany (“The LORD spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire." 21 ). They belong to God's revelation of himself and his glory. the gift of the Commandments is the gift of God himself and his holy will. In making his will known, God reveals himself to his people.

Moral conscience, 48 present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil. 49 It bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the Commandments. When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.

Thus the Creed's final "Amen" repeats and confirms its first words: "I believe." To believe is to say "Amen" to God's words, promises and Commandments; to entrust oneself completely to him who is the "Amen" of infinite Love and perfect Faithfulness. the Christian's everyday life will then be the "Amen" to the "I believe" of our baptismal profession of faith:

Jesus, Israel's Messiah and therefore the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, was to fulfil the Law by keeping it in its all embracing detail - according to his own words, down to "the least of these Commandments". 330 He is in fact the only one who could keep it perfectly. 331 On their own admission the Jews were never able to observe the Law in its entirety without violating the least of its precepts. 332 This is why every year on the Day of Atonement the children of Israel ask God's forgiveness for their transgressions of the Law. the Law indeed makes up one inseparable whole, and St. James recalls, "Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it." 333

In the eyes of many in Israel, Jesus seems to be acting against essential institutions of the Chosen People: - submission to the whole of the Law in its written Commandments and, for the Pharisees, in the interpretation of oral tradition; - the centrality of the Temple at Jerusalem as the holy place where God's presence dwells in a special way; - Faith in the one God whose glory no man can share.

The sabbath is at the heart of Israel's law. To keep the Commandments is to correspond to the wisdom and the will of God as expressed in his work of creation.

"I believe in God": this first affirmation of the Apostles' Creed is also the most fundamental. the whole Creed speaks of God, and when it also speaks of man and of the world it does so in relation to God. the other articles of the Creed all depend on the first, just as the remaining Commandments make the first explicit. the other articles help us to know God better as he revealed himself progressively to men. "The Faithful first profess their belief in God." 2

We begin our profession of Faith by saying: "I believe" or "We believe". Before expounding the Church's faith, as confessed in the Creed, celebrated in the liturgy and lived in observance of God's Commandments and in Prayer, we must first ask what "to believe" means. Faith is man's response to God, who reveals himself and gives himself to man, at the same time bringing man a superabundant light as he searches for the ultimate meaning of his life. Thus we shall consider first that search (Chapter One), then the divine Revelation by which God comes to meet man (Chapter Two), and finally the response of faith (Chapter Three).

The third part of the Catechism deals with the final end of man created in the image of God: beatitude, and the ways of reaching it - through right conduct freely chosen, with the help of God's law and grace (Section One), and through conduct that fulfils the twofold commandment of Charity, specified in God's Ten Commandments (Section Two).

Fruit of the Spirit and fullness of the Law, Charity keeps the Commandments of God and his Christ: "Abide in my Love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love." 99

Sins can be distinguished according to their objects, as can every human act; or according to the virtues they oppose, by excess or defect; or according to the Commandments they violate. They can also be classed according to whether they concern God, neighbor, or oneself; they can be divided into spiritual and carnal sins, or again as sins in thought, word, deed, or omission. the root of sin is in the heart of man, in his free will, according to the teaching of the Lord: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a man." 128 But in the heart also resides Charity, the source of the good and pure works, which sin wounds.

Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: "Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and your mother." 132 The gravity of sins is more or less great: murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged: violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger.

Jesus acknowledged the Ten Commandments, but he also showed the power of the Spirit at work in

The Magisterium of the Pastors of the Church in moral matters is ordinarily exercised in catechesis and preaching, with the help of the works of theologians and spiritual authors. Thus from generation to generation, under the aegis and vigilance of the pastors, the "deposit" of Christian moral teaching has been handed on, a deposit composed of a characteristic body of rules, Commandments, and virtues proceeding from Faith in Christ and animated by Charity. Alongside the Creed and the Our Father, the basis for this catechesis has traditionally been the Decalogue which sets out the principles of moral life valid for all men.

Besides its precepts, the New Law also includes the evangelical counsels. the traditional distinction between God's Commandments and the evangelical counsels is drawn in relation to Charity, the perfection of Christian life. the precepts are intended to remove whatever is incompatible with charity. the aim of the counsels is to remove whatever might hinder the development of charity, even if it is not contrary to it. 32

The Law of the Gospel fulfills the Commandments of the Law. the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, far from abolishing or devaluing the moral prescriptions of the Old Law, releases their hidden potential and has new demands arise from them: it reveals their entire divine and human truth. It does not add new external precepts, but proceeds to reform the heart, the root of human acts, where man chooses between the pure and the impure, 22 where Faith, hope, and Charity are formed and with them the other virtues. the Gospel thus brings the Law to its fullness through imitation of the perfection of the heavenly Father, through forgiveness of enemies and Prayer for persecutors, in emulation of the divine generosity. 23

The Old Law is the first stage of revealed Law. Its moral prescriptions are summed up in the Ten Commandments. the precepts of the Decalogue lay the foundations for the vocation of man fashioned in the image of God; they prohibit what is contrary to the Love of God and neighbor and prescribe what is essential to it. the Decalogue is a light offered to the conscience of every man to make God's call and ways known to him and to protect him against evil:

The inversion of means and ends, 10 which results in giving the value of ultimate end to what is only a means for attaining it, or in viewing persons as mere means to that end, engenders unjust structures which "make Christian conduct in keeping with the Commandments of the divine Law-giver difficult and almost impossible." 11

The plan of this Catechism is inspired by the great tradition of catechisms which build catechesis on four pillars: the baptismal profession of Faith (the Creed), the sacraments of faith, the life of faith (the Commandments), and the Prayer of the believer (the Lord's Prayer).