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ladyleona · 5 years ago

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The Hardest Commandment

I fall short on all the ten commandments, but the eighth one is the one that calls me out the most often. For all of you who don’t recite the ten commandments every morning (how dare you!), this is the one I’m speaking of: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16)

I first learned about the breadth of this commandment back when Allison Johnson – a former seminary intern at the Center – was creating a confirmation class for Adam and Amanda’s two girls who were in middle school at the time.

Essentially, this commandment is all about seeing and sharing the goodness in others rather than dishing out the dirt you just heard at a party. This means keeping yourself from spreading the rumors that are going around the office or not sharing the judgments you might have of someone with the people around you.

After being strongly convicted of this when Allison was putting her lesson together, some of us at the LC turned this commandment into a verb. “You just eighth commandment-ed him!” or “Wow, I am totally not eight commandment-ing today.” Making it a verb makes you very aware of how often you do indeed bear false witness.

There are naturally people who are better at following this commandment and I look up to them; I would even say I’m jealous of them. We have a student at the LC who is so good at eight commandment-ing, he even eighth commandment-ed a street preacher that was on campus this fall! Always seeing the goodness and divine within everyone, I look up to this student as my cynicism and judgment is reflected back to me.

I’ve thought about this a lot this past week because there have been two occasions where I’ve heard bad things about people or a rumor that’s spreading around campus and immediately wanted to share it with my colleagues. What is it about us that just loves sharing nasty things about others? Why are we so attracted to how people have failed and how they’re living their lives “worse” than we are? I gain nothing in my gossiping and judgment.

This fall, the LC staff is reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Life Together” in preparation for our living and learning community in the new building. In the chapter I read this week, he was highlighting the various ways we need to be ministers to each other. And one of them in particular called me out – the ministry of meekness.

In this ministry, we are called to sink all the way down to the depths of humility so that we might see the Christ in our neighbor. And to do this, we must see our own sin as the absolute worst. “If my sinfulness appears to me to be in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all. My sin is of necessity the worst, the most grievous, the most reprehensible. Brotherly love will find any number of extenuations for the sins of others; only for my sin is there no apology whatsoever. Therefore my sin is the worst.”

Pretty harsh, huh?

And when I read this, I immediately had those two people I’ve been judging come to mind. To think that my sin is worse than anything they have or have not done is a brutal accusation. There is no room for me to see my neighbor other than the beloved, child of God that they are. There is no room for me to see myself above them, better than them, more worthy of God’s love than them. And I think that’s the core of the eighth commandment and key to the Christian communities of which we are a part.

Bonhoeffer says, “God did not make this person as I would have made him. He did not give him to me as a brother for me to dominate and control, but in order that I might find above him the Creator.”

So may we eighth commandment our neighbors today and every day. The neighbors who may be in the midst of a scandal. The neighbors who we see panhandling every morning on our way to work. Even the neighbors who are in or campaigning to be in the White House. May we humble ourselves enough to see our own sin so that we can see the Christ within them.

#10commandments #bonhoeffer #eighthcommandment

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piouscatholic · 4 years ago

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#MyCatholicLife

#ExaminationofConscience

#HowtoGotoConfession

First, take a little time to pray quietly and read through the examination of conscience below.

Take as much time as necessary.

#IndividualExaminationofConscience-10 Commandments

(Or, for examination using the 7 Deadly Sins scroll down below)

#FirstCommandment: “I am the Lord your God, you shall not have strange gods before Me.”

Have I denied God?

Have I been ashamed of or denied my faith in front of others?

Have I ridiculed the teachings or practices of the Church?

Have I neglected my prayers?

Have I used witchcraft, Wicca, or other Occult practices?

Have I practiced various forms of superstition such as fortune tellers, mediums, ouija boards, tarot cards?

#SecondCommandment: “Do not take the name of the Lord in vain.”

Do I use God’s name carelessly, in anger, or in surprise?

Have I called down evil upon anyone or anything?

#ThirdCommandment: “Keep holy the Sabbath Day.”

Have I, through my own fault, failed to come to Mass each Sunday and every Holy Day of Obligation?

Do I arrive at Mass late or leave early without good reason?

Do I allow myself to be distracted at Mass?

#FourthCommandment: “Honor your father and mother.”

Have I disobeyed my parents or treated them with disrespect?

Am I disrespectful, impolite, or discourteous toward my family?

Have I neglected my work or my studies?

Have I been helpful in my home?

Have I failed to study seriously and with diligence?

Have I missed an exam at school because of laziness?

Am I disrespectful toward the elderly?

Am I disobedient to the civil law or to those in authority such as the police?

#FifthCommandment: “You shall not kill.”

Did I have an abortion or help another to have an abortion?

Have I mutilated my body or another’s body?

Did I attempt suicide or seriously consider thoughts of suicide?

Do I act violently by fighting or hitting others?

Have I had thoughts of hatred toward another?

Have I taken illegal drugs or abused prescription drugs?

Have I sold or distributed illegal drugs?

Do I neglect to take proper care of my body?

Do I eat too much, or sleep too much?

Do I drink beer or other alcoholic beverages in excess?

Have I allowed myself to become intoxicated?

Am I too concerned about my health or appearance?

Do I deliberately harbor unkind and revengeful thoughts about others?

Have I taken revenge?

Have I used harsh or abusive language toward another?

Do I act rudely, impolitely, or ridicule others?

Have I been guilty of the sin of racism?

Am I cruel to animals?

#Sixth&NinthCommandments: “Do not commit adultery.

Do not covet your neighbors wife.”

Have I desired or done impure things?

Have I taken pleasure in entertaining impure thoughts or desires?

Have I read impure material, listened to music with impure lyrics, or looked at impure images, whether in photos or on television or in movies or on the Internet?

Have I aroused sexual desire in myself or another by impure kissing, embracing, or touching?

Have I committed impure actions alone, i.e., masturbation?

Have I committed homosexual acts or other unnatural acts?

Do I use artificial contraception whether surgical, barrier or chemical methods?

Have I dressed immodestly or been too concerned with the way I look?

Do I use vulgar language or tell or listen to impure jokes or stories?

#Seventhandtenth Commandments: “You shall not steal.

Do not covet your neighbor’s goods.”

Have I taken anything that was not my own?

Have I damaged private or public property or defaced it by vandalism?

Have I been guilty of shop-lifting?

Have I accepted or bought stolen property or helped someone to steal?

Have I bribed someone?

Do I gamble excessively?

Have I borrowed something without the owner’s permission?

Have I failed to return something I borrowed?

Do I waste money or spend it extravagantly?

Have I harbored a greed for money or worldly possessions?

Have I made of money, or any possession, a false god?

Do I waste goods or food?

Have I cheated on tests or schoolwork?

Have I cheated in games or sports?

#EighthCommandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

Have I lied deliberately?

Have I sworn to do something sinful or illegal?

Have I slandered others by attributing to them sins they did not commit or of which I had no evidence?

Do I gossip about others or listen to gossip?

Have I told a secret I was asked to keep?

Have I betrayed someone’s trust?

Have I criticized anyone uncharitably?

Do I make rash judgments and harbor false suspicions about others?

Have I deliberately misled or deceived anyone?

Have I refused to forgive someone or held a grudge against him or her?

Have I failed to apologize or make amends to someone I offended?

#Otherconsiderations:

Am I greedy or selfish or do I indulge in self-pity?

Am I proud or vain or do I show off?

Am I superficial and worldly?

Do I desire to be praised by exaggerating my success?

Am I touchy and hypersensitive?

Do I magnify the least oversight or thoughtlessness into an insult or deliberate slight?

Have I been boastful?

Have I been arrogant with others?

Have I obstinately defended actions which are sinful, either my own or other’s?

Am I rebellious?

Have I spent useless time planted before the TV when I could be doing more constructive things?

Am I envious of someone’s possessions and do I inordinately desire them to be my own?

Do I take delight in the misfortunes of others?

#(Forexaminationon7DeadlySinsscrolldownbelow)

Once you have had time to reflect on your sins, simply go to the confessional and celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation in the following way:

Go into the confessional and say,

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Forgive me, father, for I have sinned.

It has been (how long?) since my last confession and these are my sins…(confess all your sins…be not afraid!).

Father will give you a penance and then ask you to pray the Act of Contrition.

Feel free to use this one:

#ACTOFCONTRITION

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended You, and I detest all my sins because of Your just punishments, but most of all because they offend You, my God, who are all-good and deserving of all my love.

I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.

The priest will then say the prayer of forgiveness (absolution).

If your penance was to say some prayers please immediately go back to your seat and say your prayers.

That’s it! You’re forgiven!

#IndividualExaminationofConscience – 7 Deadly Sins

#Pride: “Pride is an untrue opinion of ourselves, an untrue idea of what we are not.”

Have I a superior attitude in thinking, or speaking or acting?

Am I snobbish?

Have I offensive, haughty ways of acting or carrying myself?

Do I hold myself above others?

Do I demand recognition?

Do I desire to be always first?

Do I seek advice?

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