"whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest "

"Therefore, I teach you the statutes and decrees as the LORD, my God, has commanded me, that you may observe them..." Dt 4:1, 5-9
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill." Mt 5:17-19

"The Ten Commandments belong to God's revelation. At the same time they teach us the true humanity of man. They bring to light the essential duties, and therefore, indirectly, the fundamental rights inherent in the nature of the human person. The Decalogue contains a privileged expression of the natural law:

"From the beginning, God had implanted in the heart of man the precepts of the natural law. Then he was content to remind him of them. This was the Decalogue." (CCC 2070)

"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.' 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." (CCC 1858)

"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, 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." (CCC 1968)

Click here for the sacred Scriptures for holy Mass of Wednesday of the third week of Lent.

(Art: Giotto di Bondone, Moses on Mount Sinai, 1304-06, fresco, Cappella Scrovegni, Padua.)