3rd Sunday of Lent
Exo 20:1-17
1 Cor 1:22-25
Jn 2:13-25
For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
Why did God give us the 10 commandments? I believe there are three reasons. To show that we need a saviour, to restrain our concupiscent behaviour (the tendency to sin) and to guide and protect us while we live our lives here on earth.
Up until Primary 6 (junior high school), I could recite from memory all the commandments in their correct order. Sadly, at age 59 now, I only remember one well. The 6th commandment — Thou Shall Not Kill. I do know some of the others, but not in the correct order. I admit my forgetfulness is due to their lack of perceived relevance in today’s secular culture. The one exception is this 6th commandment.
In 2018, I did a backpacking trip to Amman and Jerusalem with a friend. We did several local tours and learnt immensely. Of these, the most amazing lesson I remember was about this commandment. We were on the ‘Sabbath Day/Wailing Wall’ walking tour with a modern Rabbi/tour guide. His bombshell statement was that God permitted us to kill. He forbade us to murder. Therefore the 6th commandment is only Thou Shall Not Murder. He then cited the example of Saul and David.
Saul was punished for not killing enough! He was supposed to wipe out the entire Amalekites (including livestock), but he spared many. On the other hand, David was severely punished for the murder of one person Uriah the Hittite. The rabbi/guide ended this topic by asking us one question: Is there such a thing as righteous killing? Personally, I do not know this answer and will leave it as that. What I do know is that if we murder or kill today, we will face severe consequences. Therefore this 6th commandment is made relevant by criminal law. No choice!
In contrast, the 4th commandment appears to be the most neglected, even by Catholics. The actual bible verse is ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work.’
This year, my wife got me a really nice birthday present. It was a paid annual subscription to catholicproductions.com. The website is helmed by renowned bible scholar, Dr Brian Pitre, and has a wealth of videos and blogs on all aspects of the Catholic faith. Happily for me, there is a great video discussion on the 10 commandments. I thought Dr Pitre’s analysis of this 4th commandment was the best and would like to share it here.
Why must we keep holy the Sabbath? This commandment is special as it shows the sanctity of time. In other words, Time is Holy. It is set apart for God. Time is not secular. Unfortunately, most of us today treat it as such. We use most of our time for worldly pursuits that are finite and only temporal.
Brothers and sisters, God gives us the Sabbath Rest as a holy day to be in His presence. It is a foretaste of the eternal time which is waiting for all of us when our limited life on this earth ends. After that, where will we spend eternity?
(Today’s OXYGEN by Andrew Sia)
Prayer: Lord, for our lenten journey, help us to spend as much time with you now to prepare for eternity with you.
Thanksgiving: Thank you Lord, for the gift of faith and hope.
OXYGEN 
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