Why obey God's commands

Once a Jew was arguing with a Christian. "Your whole religion is based on ours," the Jew said. "Why, you even took the 10 commandments from us.

- FR. BEL SAN LUIS, SVD

"We may have taken them," said the Christian, "but you certainly can't say we've kept them."

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In this 6th Easter Sunday, Christ teaches that what's crucial is not just possessing or knowing the commandments but obeying them.

The Lord says, "Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them will be one who loves me" (Jn 14,23).

But many of us go to Sunday Mass because failure to do so means committing a mortal sin, and if we die, we will go to hell. We obey God's commandments out of fear of punishment.

There are different ways we view God's commandments. We can look on them as a burden or restriction to our freedom.