THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

The parable of the Father, his Two Sons, and the Ten Monuments to reach the Treasure.   

          

     Jesus says: You can see that what I am telling you is the Decalogue.  The word of the Rabbi is always the Decalogue.  Because good, justice, glory consist in doing what the Decalogue teaches and orders us to do.  There is no other doctrine.  In days gone by it was given amid the flashes of lightning on Mount Sinai, now it is given in the refulgence of Mercy, but the doctrine is the same.  It does not change.  It cannot change.  Many in Israel will say, as an excuse, to justify their lack in holiness, even after the passage of the Savior on the Earth: "I did not have the possibility to follow and listen to Him."  But their excuse is of no value.  Because the Savior did not come to impose a new Law, but to confirm the first, the only Law, nay, to reconfirm it in its holy plainness, in its perfect simplicity.  To reconfirm with love and the promises of the assured love of God what previously was said with severity on one side and listened to with fear on the other.
     To make you understand properly what are the Ten Commandments and how important it is to abide by them, I will now tell you a parable.
     The father of a family had two sons.  He loved them both equally and wanted to be their benefactor impartially.  This father, in addition to the house in which he lived, owned some property in which great treasures were hidden.  The sons were aware of such treasures, but did not know the way to go there because the father, for reasons of his own, had not revealed the road which led there, and that had been the situation for many years.  But one day he called his sons and said: "The time has come when you ought to know where the treasures are, which I laid aside for you, so that you may go there when I tell you.  You had better know the road and the signals which I put on it, so that you may not go astray.  So listen to me.  The treasures are not in a plain where waters stagnate, where dog days scorch, where dust spoils everything, thorns and bramble suffocate, and where robbers can easily go and rob you.  The treasures are on top of that high rugged mountain.  I put them on top there and they are waiting for you up there.  There is more than one path on the mountain, in actual fact there are many.  But one only is the right one.  Of the others some end up in precipices, some in caves with no exit, some in ditches full of muddy water, some in nests of vipers, some in craters of burning sulphur, some against insurmountable walls.  The right road, instead is a difficult one, but it arrives at the top without any interruption of precipices or other obstacles.  In order to enable you to recognize it, I placed along it, at regular intervals, ten stone monuments, on each of which is carved these three identification words: 'Love, Obedience, Victory'.  Follow that path and you will reach the place of the treasure.  I will come along another road, which is known to me alone and I will open the doors to you, so that you may be happy."
     The two sons said goodbye to the father, who, as long as they could hear him, repeated: "Follow the path I told you.  Its for your own good.  Do not yield to the temptation to follow the others, even if they seem better to you. You would lose both the treasure and me."
     They arrive at the foot of the mountain.  The first monument was there, at the beginning of the path, which was in the middle of several paths radiating in different directions towards the mountain top.  The two brothers began to climb the good path.  At first is was very good, although there was not the least shade.  From the sky the sun darted down on it, flooding it with light and heat.  The white rock in which the path had been dug, the clear sky above them, the warm sun embracing their bodies: that is what the brothers saw and felt.  But still  animated by good will, by the remembrance of their father and by his advice, they climbed joyfully toward the top.  Then the second monument... and later the third one.  The path had become more and more difficult, solitary, warm.  They could not even see the other paths with grass, trees or clear waters, and above all, where the slope was more gentle, because it was not so steep and the tracks were laid on ground and not on rocks.
     "Our father wants us dead when we get there" said one of the sons on arriving at the fourth monument.  And he began to slacken his pace.  The other encouraged him to go on saying: "He loves us as his very own and even more because he saved the treasure for us in such a wonderful way.  He dug this path in the rock and it takes one from the foot of the mountain to its top without any risk of getting lost.  And he put these monuments to guide us.  Just consider that, my brother!  He did that all by himself, for our sake! To give it to us!  To ensure that we arrive there without the possibility of mistakes and without any danger."
     They continued to walk. But the paths they had left down in the valley reappeared now and again close to the track in the rock and they did so more and more frequently as the cone of the mountain became narrower near the top.  And how beautiful, shady and attractive they were!...
     "I think I will take one of those" said the discontented brother, when he arrived at the sixth monument.  "It goes to the top as well."
     "You cannot be sure of that...you cannot see whether it goes up or down..."
     "There it is, up there!"
     "You do not know whether it is this one.  In any case our father told us not to leave this good path..."
     The listless brother continued to climb against his will.  At the seventh monument he said: "Oh! I am definitely going away."
     "Don't brother."
     They went on their way up the path, which was now very difficult, but the top was now close at hand...
     They arrived at the eighth monument and very close to it was the flowery path.  "Oh! you can see that this one goes up as well, although not in a straight line!"
     "You don't know if it is the same one."
     "I do.  I recognize it."
     "You are mistaken."
     "No. I am going."
     "Don't.  Think of father, of the dangers, of the treasure."
     "They can all go to the dogs!  What am I going to do with the treasure if I will be as good as dead when I get there?  Which danger is greater than this path?  And which hatred is stronger than our father's, who fooled us with this track to let us die?  Goodbye.  I will arrive before you, and alive..."  and he jumped onto the adjacent path, and disappeared with a joyful exclamation behind the tree trunks shading it.
      His brother went his way sadly... Oh! the last part of the track was really dreadful!  The man was exhausted.  He felt worn out with fatigue and heat!  At the ninth monument he stopped, panting, leaning against the carved stone and reading the engraved words mechanically.  Nearby there was a shady path with water and flowers... "I almost ...No! it is written there, and it was my father who wrote it: 'Love, Obedience, Victory."  I must believe in his love, in his truthfulness, and I must obey to show my love...Let us go... May love support me..."  He is now at the tenth monument... Exhausted, burnt by the sun, he walked stooping, as if he were under a yoke... It was the loving holy yoke of faithfulness, which is love, obedience, strength, hope, justice, prudence, everything... Instead of leaning on the tenth monument he sat down in the narrow shade which it cast on the ground.  He felt that he was dying... From the nearby path came the gurgle of streams and the smell of forests... "Father, help me with your spirit, in this temptation... help me to be faithful until the end!"
     From afar the joyful voice of his brother shouted: "Come, I will wait for you.  Eden is here.. Come..."
     "And if I went?..." and shouting loud: "Does it really go to the top?"
     "Yes, come. There is a cool tunnel which takes one up. Come! I can already see the top beyond the tunnel, in the rock..."
    "Shall I go?  Shall I not?... Who will help me?... I will go..."  He pushed his hands on the ground to help himself get up and while doing so he noticed that the engraved words were not as clear as those on the first monument.  "At each monument the words were less distinct... as if my father, being exhausted, had found it difficult to engrave them.  And... look!... Here also is the dark red mark, which had been visible as from the fifth monument... The only difference is that here it fills the hollow of each letter and it has overflowed, furrowing the rock as if it were dark tears, tears... of blood..."  With a finger he scratched a blotch as large as two hands.  And the blotch crumbled into dust leaving uncovered and clear these words: "Thus have I loved you.  To the extent of shedding my blood to lead you to the Treasure."
   "Oh! oh! Father!  And I was thinking of not obeying your order?!  Forgive me, father.  Forgive me."  The son wept leaning on the rock, and the blood filling the words became fresh and as bright as a ruby, and the tears became food and drink and strength for the good son... He stood up... out of love he called his brother aloud... He waned to tell him of his discovery... of their father's love, and say to him: "Come back."  But no one replied.
    The young man resumed his way, almost on his knees on the hot rock, because his body was exhausted with fatigue, but his spirit was serene.  There was the top... and his father.

     "Father!"
     "My beloved son!"
     The young man threw himself on his father's breast and his father embraced him and kissed him fondly.
     "Are you alone?"
     "Yes, but my brother will soon be here..."
     "No. He will never arrive.  He left the way of the ten commandments.  He did not come back to it after the first warning disappointments.  Do you want to see him?  There he is.  In the abyss of fire... He persisted in his error.  I would have forgiven and awaited him if, after realizing his mistake, he had retraced his steps and, although late, he had passed where love had passed first, suffering to the extent of shedding the best part of his blood, the dearest part of himself for you."
   "He did not know..."
   "If he had looked with love at the words engraved in the ten monuments, he would have understood their true meaning.  You read it as from the fifth monument and you called his attention to it when you said: 'Our father must have injured himself here!' and you read it in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth... clearer and clearer, until by instinct you discovered what was under my blood.  Do you know the name of that instinct?  'Your true union with me.'  The fibers of your heart, blended with my fibers, startled and they said to you: 'You will have here the measure of how much your father loves you.'  Now, since you are affectionate, obedient, forever victorious, take possession of the Treasure and of me."
     That is the parable.
     The ten monuments are the ten commandments.  Your God engraved them and placed them on the path that takes to the eternal Treasure, and He suffered to lead you to that path.  Do you suffer?  God does, too.  Do you have to force yourselves?  God has, too.  Do you know to what extent?  Suffering to separate Himself from Himself and striving to know what it means to be a human being with all the miseries of mankind: to be born, to suffer from cold, starvation, fatigue, to suffer sarcasm, affronts, hatred, snares, and at the end to die, shedding all His Blood to give you the Treasure.  God, Who descended to save you, suffers all that.  God suffers that in Heaven, allowing Himself to suffer it.
     I solemnly tell you that no man, however laborious his path may be to reach Heaven, will ever follow a more laborious and sorrowful way than the one along which the Son of man has to go to come from Heaven to the Earth and from the Earth to the Sacrifice, to open the doors of the Treasure to you.  On the tablets of the Law there is already My Blood.  On the Way which I am tracing out for you there is My Blood.  It is the gush of My Blood that opens the door of the Treasure.  Your souls become pure and strong through the purification and nourishment of My Blood.  But to prevent it from being shed in vain, you must follow the immutable way of the ten commandments.