Pope at General Audience: English Summary

Dear brothers and sisters: In our catechesis on the commandments, we have seen that Jesus, God’s incarnate Word, came not to abolish but to fulfil the Law.  God’s commandments are part of his ongoing covenantal dialogue with his people; indeed, in Hebrew, the ten commandments are called God’s ten “words”.  As “words”, they are not so much orders to be obeyed but an invitation to shape our lives in a loving relationship with the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit.  God is not – as the Tempter would have us believe – a despot demanding blind obedience, but a Father concerned for the welfare of his children.  Thanks to the gift of the Spirit, we are able freely to accept and obey God’s law as the path to authentic human fulfilment.  In our lives as Christians, we are called to pass from the letter of the Law to the freedom of the Spirit.  In all our words and actions, may we show that obedience to the law of Christ is no mere legalism, but a response of filial love for God and confident trust in his saving plan for our world.