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Á¦¸ñ Impossible to Fulfill All Commandments? - Fr. Laisney
ÀÛ¼ºÀÚ °ü¸®ÀÚ ÀÛ¼ºÀÏ 2016-03-06


          Impossible to Fulfill All Commandments? - Fr. Laisney


Q The Law of God commands us: ¡°Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind: and thy neighbour as thyself¡± (Lk. 10:27). Is it really possible to obey the Law and to fulfil this? If it is not possible, then we are all big sinners; no one can obey the law ; the Law is impossible to obey: hence the Church is wrong in claiming that obedience to the Law is required in order to go to Heaven. (Protestant objection¡¦)

 

A This is the first and greatest commandment, which is equivalent to that commandment of our Lord in his sermon on the Mount: ¡°Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect¡± (Mt. 5:48). The same (false) reasoning could be construed from these words in St Matthew, claiming that Our Lord was imposing something impossible.

 

St Thomas Aquinas solves this question in his Summa Theologica (IIa IIae q. 24 a. 8): Can charity be perfect? ¡°A man¡¯s charity is perfect, when he loves as much as he can. This happens in three ways. First, so that a man's whole heart is ALWAYS ACTUALLY borne towards God: this is the perfection of the CHARITY OF HEAVEN, and is not possible in this life, wherein, by reason of the weakness of human life, it is impossible to think always actually of God, and to be moved by love towards Him. Secondly, so that man makes an earnest endeavour to give his time to God and Divine things, while scorning other things except in so far as the needs of the present life demand. This is the perfection of charity that is possible to a wayfarer; but is not common to all who have charity. Thirdly, so that a man gives his whole heart to God habitually, viz. by neither thinking nor desiring anything contrary to the love of God; and this perfection is common to all who have charity.¡±

 

In other words: there are three degrees of perfection (RELATIVE for man: in the same answer he says that TOP, ABSOLUTE perfection belongs only to God, Who alone can love God [himself] as much as God deserves to be loved!).

 

For creatures (men and angels), the top level of perfection of charity is in Heaven; there, and only there, we attain that perfection of the Gospel to the full. Here below we are ¡°on the way¡± towards Heaven, we have ¡°not yet attained¡±, as St Paul says for his own self: ¡°Not as though I has already attained, or were already perfect; but I follow after, if I may by any means apprehend, wherein I am also apprehended by Christ Jesus¡± (Phil. 3:12).

 

The second level of perfection of charity is that of the Saints on earth: it consists loving God as our ultimate end above all other things, and any other thing ONLY for God¡¯s sake, only in as much as it helps us towards God, and ¡°scorning¡± it in as much as it does not help us. In other words, detaching our heart from any other love but the Love of God, yet loving all things IN God, in as much as it pleases God that we love them (hence of course, loving our neighbour, but only for God¡¯s sake). To put it simply, it consists in being detached from any deliberate venial sin. It consists in not only rejecting that which is incompatible with the love of God (mortal sin), but also anything that could slow down our love for him (venial sin); having but ONE love, the Love of God (which is all-encompassing). Note for this second degree that saints on earth can avoid any ¡°deliberate¡± venial sin, yet only our Lady ALWAYS avoided all of them: she is therefore above all of the other saints.

 

The third degree is the minimum required, which is to be detached from all mortal sin: not to put anything before God. This is already a great degree of perfection, that establishes us as children of God, living of the life of sanctifying grace, Christ living in us! It does require to say a deliberate, systematic and perseverant NO to any mortal sin.


Those who say that the commandments of God are impossible do not have faith in the power of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.