Can I Have My Own Ten Commandments?

‘My Own Ten Commandments’ by Ticklebug

You Can But You May Not

17 March – The pastoral text of Fr Reuter is this: On Calvary, Our Lord said to Dismas with all His heart: ‘This day thou shall be with me in paradise!’ He will say that to you.

Dismas is someone I hardly know. According to Terry Jones, whose website is Catholic Community Forum (catholic-forum.com/), Dismas is known as The Good Thief as well as The Penitent Thief. Dismas means dying. He became one of the Catholic saints, the patron of condemned prisoners, criminals, death-row prisoners, reformed thieves. Which tells me it’s never too late to be good, it’s never too late to be sorry.

Writes TJ:

An old legend from an Arabic infancy gospel says that when the Holy Family were running to Egypt, they were set upon by a band of thieves including Dismas and Gestas. One of the highwaymen realized there was something different, something special about them, and ordered his fellow bandits to leave them alone; this thief was Dismas.

Dismas had said to Jesus: ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom.’ The reply was instantaneous: ‘Yes!’ Hannah Shively writes (illustratedword.gospelcom.net/): ‘All the world’s religions, with the exception of Christianity, have one thing in common: none of them guarantees salvation to their followers.’ Only Jesus guarantees salvation to the repentant sinner.

Now then, does that mean it’s okay to live a life of sin and then repent when you know that the end is near in order to be saved? No because in this life you may not know when the end is coming. No because in this life a life of sin is a life of sin, without the sanctifying grace. A sin against someone is a sin against God. No because life on earth was not meant to be a pleasure for you to the discomfort of others. No because you may not enjoy this life to the unease of your neighbor. No because in this life you may amass wealth but not at the expense of others. No because the Ten Commandments are for this life, not the next.

To live the life of Dismas would be to have your cake and eat it too, to have your own Ten Commandments and follow them as you wish, to be your own God. I love Ticklebug’s inspiring, instructive, original ‘My Own Ten Commandments’ because it reminds me that I cannot have my own ten commandments apart from God’s. You can’t follow all the ten commandments once and then leave them alone for the rest of your life.