POP QUIZ! Name all Ten Commandments, in order. As you gather your thoughts, its key to remember how monumental these laws are to our Western Civilization. God famously gave them to Moses on Mt. Sinai as the foundational moral code for his new people. Through these laws, God wanted his followers to behave differently than everyone else. Fidelity to them would bring great blessing; flouting them would bring disaster. Now back to the quiz. How did you do? When I asked a show of hands of the people who could recite all ten during the weekend masses, only a sprinkling of hands went up. When I asked how many of you have broken the vast majority of these Commandments, almost the entire church raised their hands, myself included. We are all sinners and need of God's divine mercy. Is it hard to be faithful to the Ten? Absolutely, especially in our day when objective morality has been replaced by "My truth and your truth." To live the Ten Commandments is to walk the narrow way, to climb the high mountain, to feel alone, and to even be cast aside like a leper. Yet, I dare say, it is worth it.