WHY DO WE OBEY?

  A REFLECTION FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF CORPUS CHRISTI

When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, he did not tell the Hebrews anything they didn’t already know.  The Jews back then were the same human beings created by God as the human beings who exist in the world today.  We all have had the same human nature since God created Adam and Eve, or at least since they took a bite out of that famous apple.  Our human nature follows the laws of nature.  Just as surely as we know we can’t levitate off the ground in defiance of the law of gravity, so too do we instinctively know we shouldn’t murder or lie or steal, or any of the other things forbidden by the Ten Commandments.

The conscience within us is the result of the biting of the apple by Adam and Eve.  They chose to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.  From that point on, they knew the difference, and their misuse of that knowledge, the choosing of evil over good, would forever haunt the conscience of them and their descendants.  Our conscience therefore helps us avoid evil—if we want to be free from guilt and the psychological challenges it causes, we try to stay on the straight and narrow.  In other words, we’re ultimately happier if we do what’s right and avoid what’s wrong.

This is a reason why we try to be good, but is it really a good reason?  Any reason for being good is a good reason, but the self-centered focus on our own well-being is hardly the best reason!  It’s actually no more elevated a motivation than our attempts to avoid the loss of heaven and the pains of hell.  When we’re sorry for acting badly for these reasons, it’s what we call “imperfect contrition”—sufficient for the absolution we receive in the Sacrament of Penance, and yet “imperfect”.  Like our contrition for sins already committed, our resolution to avoid falling into future sins can also be based on such “imperfect” motives.

God’s laws have one reason for existing: they are to protect us from doing harm to ourselves and others.  They do so by reminding us what is God’s will in the various categories they cover.  Even though it’s sufficient to just “love God with our whole heart and mind and strength”, it’s good to have these reminders of how exactly this love should be practiced.  By obeying these laws in their entirety we are protected from the evil that would ensue from breaking them, namely, eternal damnation if the sin is sufficiently grave.  Damnation is not what God wills for us.

God loves us.  The gift of his Blessed Sacrament is the ultimate manifestation of that love, as it is the fruit of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, itself the continuation of the love he showed us at Calvary.  Even more than the laws of God, this Sacrament of Union, Communion, with God is our greatest reminder of how much God loves us, and our frequent and devout reception of the Holy Eucharist is the best way in which we can show God that we love him in return.  O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine!