Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Deut 5, 6 I, the LORD, am your God

(Deut 5, 6) I, the LORD, am your God

[6] I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.

(CCC 431) In the history of salvation God was not content to deliver Israel "out of the house of bondage" (Dt 5:6) by bringing them out of Egypt. He also saves them from their sin. Because sin is always an offence against God, only he can forgive it (Cf. Ps 51:4, 12). For this reason Israel, becoming more and more aware of the universality of sin, will no longer be able to seek salvation except by invoking the name of the Redeemer God (Cf. Ps 79:9). (CCC 2061) The Commandments take on their full meaning within the covenant. According to Scripture, man's moral life has all its meaning in and through the covenant. The first of the "ten words" recalls that God loved his people first: Since there was a passing from the paradise of freedom to the slavery of this world, in punishment for sin, the first phrase of the Decalogue, the first word of God's commandments, bears on freedom "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" (Origen, Hom. in Ex. 8,1: PG 12, 350; cf. Ex 20:2; Deut 5:6).

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