Lord, you have the words of everlasting life. Today’s response to the Responsorial Psalm sums up the content of the First Reading: the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue, were given by God to the sons and daughters of Israel through Moses as part of the covenant that the Lord was making with them. The covenant itself was meant to define/seal the special relationship that God had formed with the nation of Israel. Having successfully made the journey from Egypt where they had been enslaved, it was now time for the community to re-organize and re-establish themselves as a people who had the Lord God as their companion and guide (for although the Lord God had in the past made covenants with their ancestors and promised to walk with them always, their sojourn in Egypt might have caused some “confusion” regarding their identity as the Lord’s elect. The sojourn in Egypt might have even sowed seeds of doubt and uncertainty on their relationship with God). It was time for a new beginning. The sons and daughters of Israel had risen from the ashes of their slavery in Egypt and the desert of Sinai was going to become their new birthplace. At the center of this new rebirth was the Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments played a central role in the reconfiguration of the people of Israel because of what they are (or at least what they were made out to be). For although they are referred to as Commandments, they are not merely a set of laws that serve to permit or prohibit certain actions/behaviors. Even though the Ten Commandments contain DOs and DON’Ts, they are not, and should not be seen as a set of regulations that restrict an individual’s “freedom” by dictating his/her actions. The Ten Commandments are introduced as the WORDS that issued forth from the mouth of the Lord (cf. Exodus 20:1, New Jerusalem Bible). The Ten Commandments are the WORDS through which God communicated to the people of Israel in order to reveal to them their identity. The Ten Commandments defined who the Israelites were, and revealed to them what kind of a relationship they needed to have with the Lord God as well as amongst themselves. In other words, the Ten Commandments became both the foundation and soul of the new Israel.
The single most important aspect of the people of Israel that the Ten Commandments reveal to us is that they are a people in relationship. They are in relationship with God and with one another. As such, the Ten Commandments were given them as the effective means of staying in this relationship. The first three commandments are devoted to the relationship between God and the community. The Lord introduces himself to the people not only as their Creator but also as their partner and companion. The Lord is a God who has been with them in the past, is with them in the present, and will be with them in the future. As a partner with them in their journey, the Lord is a God who is interested in the endurance of this relationship. In the remaining seven commandments, the Lord presents the community with what it needs to thrive as a people of God. They were considered God’s people as long as they remained a unit, for the covenant that God was making was with a community. Their endurance as a people of God was dependent on them staying as a people for only thus was God’s blessing upon the community guaranteed.
The Ten Commandments were given as words of life because they served as the foundation upon which the community gathered that day at the foot of Mount Sinai anchored their new life. The Ten Commandments were meant to help the community stay on course as they marched towards the Promised Land. They were not to be received as a list of prohibitions by the community but rather as prescriptions for a life-giving relationship with God and among the people themselves. While the people were at liberty to hearken to the words of God, the Lord “hoped” that they would hold fast to them since only then were they assured of fullness of life.