Catholic Accounting Practices

Counting the Ten Commandments

Exodus 20:1-17

In those days: God delivered all these commandments: “I, the LORD, am your God,  who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves  in the shape of anything in the sky above  or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth;  you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God,  inflicting punishment for their fathers’ wickedness  on the children of those who hate me,  down to the third and fourth generation;  but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation  on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.

            Did you know that Catholics and Protestants count differently?  Of course, we all use the same numbers, “1, 2, 3…” but we don’t use them the same way.  For example, we count church membership differently.  Protestants count by individual members but Catholics count by families.  We have over 1,800 families here at I.C., roughly 6,000 people, give or take a few.  Believe me, there are some I’d like to give or take.  Protestants and Catholics count our Sunday collections differently because Protestants actually have something to count.  Protestants use “cash basis accounting” while Catholics use “accrual accounting.”  That’s because Catholics have no cash.  Protestants count their babies, “one, two, three.”  Catholics count their babies by the half dozen or dozen!  Protestants count their blessings as they go to church.  Catholics count their sins as they go to confession!  I’m not saying one way is better than the other; I’m just saying they are different.

            But did you know that Catholics and Protestants even count the Ten Commandments differently?  That was our first reading from Exodus 20.  Now, how could you possibly count from one to ten differently?  Several years ago, a friend gave me the Ten Commandments that he had bought at a Protestant giftshop, and I noticed something odd about the enumeration.  What we Catholics consider the first commandment, the Protestants parse and divide into two commandments.  The first half of the first commandment is, “You shall have no gods besides me.”  And the second half says, “You shall not carve idols for yourselves.”  Well, this second half of the Catholic first commandment is actually the SECOND Commandment for Protestants.  Now, I’ll just give you one guess why Protestants make that prohibition of carving idols a whole commandment by itself.  Well, just look around at this church filled with carved images!  We Catholics are clearly in violation of the second commandment.

            Now, I’m not here to criticize how Protestants number the Ten Commandments, but I do want to explain our “Catholic accounting.”  You see, that Mosaic prohibition was valid but only for the Old Testament, where people could not see God and live, let alone utter his holy Name.  But all that changes in the New Testament, with the Incarnation, when God becomes a man.  That’s why Jesus explains to Philip, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).  We can see the Face of God and live, and we plaster (pun intended) that lovely Face we see in Jesus and in the saints all over our churches.  In other words, Jesus comes to tell us we can count the Ten Commandments differently.  Again, please don’t hear me criticizing, but only clarifying our Catholic accounting practices.

            You know, they say that numbers never lie, and that’s true.  But you can count numbers differently, even the numbers one through ten.  By the way, do you know who is the father of modern accounting?  It’s a fellow who lived in the 15th century named Luca Pacioli.  He was a Catholic monk.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!