The Broken Ten Commandments

My sister Susie keeps our family on the spiritual path by alerting us to which novena we should begin, the saint to whom we should pray, or the EWTN segment we should watch.

Several years ago she encouraged us to devote a day a week to sacrificial fasting as a way of uniting our prayer requests with the suffering of Jesus.  It made sense to offer up some tokens of deprivation if I expected God to always listen to (and hopefully answer!) my prayerful pleas. (Joel 2, 12-17; Isaiah 58, 1-12). I chose Wednesday as my ‘fasting’ day and try to abstain from eating sweets and iced tea on that day each week.

So I was a bit disappointed when her text came through recently to fast in honor of Our Lady of the Angels of Portiuncula. Susie suggested that we fast from something we enjoy while asking for the intercession of God’s angels in our prayer petitions. I called my sister in Ohio to complain about this second day of fasting as I begrudgingly passed Dunkin Donuts on my way to BJ’s.

I kept on the ‘fast track’ that day and even watched my daughter make an ice cream cake without dipping into the hot fudge sauce. I was so proud of my will power! But that evening, after my daughter’s friends retreated to the living room to begin watching a movie, I came face-to-face with the ice cream cake and remaining chocolate bars from the s’mores  she had served at the party.

Temptation! I wanted to be strong, knowing these goodies would still be available the next day…but then I crumbled and decided that I had done ‘good enough’ on this fast for the angels. Dessert please!!!....

After the guests had left, and unable to sleep due to my late-night chocolate feast, I got up to inquire about my daughter’s evening. Perfect, she responded, except that the Ten Commandments had been accidentally knocked from its stand and broke.  I had bought the stone plaque 11 years ago when the St. Martha Knights of Columbus sold them as a fundraiser to purchase their Ten Commandments and Beatitudes outdoor monument.

I suddenly felt like I belonged in the Book of Exodus when Moses broke the 10 Commandments tablet after descending from Mount Sinai and seeing how the people had disobeyed God.

I know that God doesn’t punish us for our decisions. He gives us free will and we get to forge our daily path. But when I looked at the broken plaque I was reminded that I had made a promise to God that day to fast for my prayer intentions, and I instead succumbed to personal weakness and made my own rules. As was said by St. Basil the Great: “Let us fast an acceptable and very pleasing fast to the Lord. True fast is the estrangement from evil, temperance of tongue, abstinence from anger, separation from desires, slander, falsehood, and perjury”.

Moses had to return to the Mount for a second edition of the Ten Commandments.  My ‘glued back together’ plaque will now be a reminder of the consequences of doing things my way instead of God’s. Sacrificing isn’t easy, but it will always be worth it to say “no” to earthly things so I can say “yes” to God.  I pray that the angels will help keep me on track next time!