CHAPTER
ONE: "YOU
SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND
WITH ALL YOUR MIND"
2083
Jesus summed up man's duties toward God in this saying: "You shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your mind."1 This immediately echoes the solemn call: "Hear, O
Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD."2
God
has loved us first. the love of the One God is recalled in the first of the
"ten words." the commandments then make explicit the response of love
that man is called to give to his God.
THE
FIRST COMMANDMENT
I
am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make
for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the
earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them.3
It
is written: "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you
serve."4
I.
"You Shall Worship the Lord Your God and Him Only Shall You Serve"
2084
God makes himself known by recalling his all-powerful loving and liberating
action in the history of the one he addresses: "I brought you out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." the first word contains the
first commandment of the Law: "You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall
serve him.... You shall not go after other gods."5 God's first call and
just demand is that man accept him and worship him.
2085
The one and true God first reveals his glory to Israel.6 The revelation of the
vocation and truth of man is linked to the revelation of God. Man's vocation is
to make God manifest by acting in conformity with his creation "in the
image and likeness of God":
There
will never be another God, Trypho, and there has been no other since the world
began . . . than he who made and ordered the universe. We do not think that our
God is different from yours. He is the same who brought your fathers out of
Egypt "by his powerful hand and his outstretched arm." We do not
place our hope in some other god, for there is none, but in the same God as you
do: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.7
2086
"The first commandment embraces faith, hope, and charity. When we say
'God' we confess a constant, unchangeable being, always the same, faithful and
just, without any evil. It follows that we must necessarily accept his words
and have complete faith in him and acknowledge his authority. He is almighty,
merciful, and infinitely beneficent. Who could not place all hope in him? Who
could not love him when contemplating the treasures of goodness and love he has
poured out on us? Hence the formula God employs in the Scripture at the
beginning and end of his commandments: 'I am the LORD.'"8
Faith
2087
Our moral life has its source in faith in God who reveals his love to us. St.
Paul speaks of the "obedience of faith"9 as our first obligation. He
shows that "ignorance of God" is the principle and explanation of all
moral deviations.10 Our duty toward God is to believe in him and to bear
witness to him.
2088
The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with
prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it. There
are various ways of sinning against faith:
Voluntary
doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has
revealed and the Church proposes for belief. Involuntary doubt refers to
hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the
faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated
doubt can lead to spiritual blindness.
2089
Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent
to it. "Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which
must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate
doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian
faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion
with the members of the Church subject to him."11
Hope
2090
When God reveals Himself and calls him, man cannot fully respond to the divine
love by his own powers. He must hope that God will give him the capacity to
love Him in return and to act in conformity with the commandments of charity.
Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing and the beatific vision of
God; it is also the fear of offending God's love and of incurring punishment.
2091
The first commandment is also concerned with sins against hope, namely, despair
and presumption:
By
despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in
attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God's
goodness, to his justice - for the Lord is faithful to his promises - and to
his mercy.
2092
There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own
capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high), or
he presumes upon God's almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his
forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit).
Charity
2093
Faith in God's love encompasses the call and the obligation to respond with
sincere love to divine charity. the first commandment enjoins us to love God
above everything and all creatures for him and because of him.12
2094
One can sin against God's love in various ways:
-
indifference neglects or refuses to reflect on divine charity; it fails to
consider its prevenient goodness and denies its power.
-
ingratitude fails or refuses to acknowledge divine charity and to return him a love for love.
-
lukewarmness is hesitation or negligence in responding to divine love; it can
imply refusal to give oneself over to the prompting of charity.
-
acedia or spiritual sloth goes so far as to refuse the joy that comes from God
and to be repelled by divine goodness.
-
hatred of God comes from pride. It is contrary to the love of God, whose goodness
it denies, and whom it presumes to curse as the one who forbids sins and
inflicts punishments.
II.
"Him Only Shall You Serve"
2095
The theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity inform and give life to the
moral virtues. Thus charity leads us to render to God what we as creatures owe
him in all justice. the virtue of religion disposes us to have this attitude.
Adoration
2096
Adoration is the first act of the virtue of religion. To adore God is to
acknowledge him as God, as the Creator and Savior, the Lord and Master of
everything that exists, as infinite and merciful Love. "You shall worship
the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve," says Jesus, citing
Deuteronomy.13
2097
To adore God is to acknowledge, in respect and absolute submission, the
"nothingness of the creature" who would not exist but for God. To
adore God is to praise and exalt him and to humble oneself, as Mary did in the
Magnificat, confessing with gratitude that he has done great things and holy is
his name.14 The worship of the one God sets man free from turning in on
himself, from the slavery of sin and the idolatry of the world.
Prayer
2098
The acts of faith, hope, and charity enjoined by the first commandment are
accomplished in prayer. Lifting up the mind toward God is an expression of our
adoration of God: the prayer of praise and thanksgiving, intercession and petition.
Prayer is an indispensable condition for being able to obey God's commandments.
" (We) ought always to pray and not lose heart."15
Sacrifice
2099
It is right to offer sacrifice to God as a sign of adoration and gratitude,
supplication and communion: "Every action done so as to cling to God in
communion of holiness, and thus achieve blessedness, is a true
sacrifice."16
2100
Outward sacrifice, to be genuine, must be the expression of spiritual
sacrifice: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit...."17
The prophets of the Old Covenant often denounced sacrifices that were not from
the heart or not coupled with love of neighbor.18 Jesus recalls the words of
the prophet Hosea: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice."19 The only
perfect sacrifice is the one that Christ offered on the cross as a total
offering to the Father's love and for our salvation.20 By uniting ourselves
with his sacrifice we can make our lives a sacrifice to God.
Promises
and vows
2101
In many circumstances, the Christian is called to make promises to God. Baptism
and Confirmation, Matrimony and Holy Orders always entail promises. Out of
personal devotion, the Christian may also promise to God this action, that
prayer, this alms-giving, that pilgrimage, and so forth. Fidelity to promises
made to God is a sign of the respect owed to the divine majesty and of love for
a faithful God.
2102
"A vow is a deliberate and free promise made to God concerning a possible
and better good which must be fulfilled by reason of the virtue of
religion,"21 A vow is an act of devotion in which the Christian dedicates
himself to God or promises him some good work. By fulfilling his vows he renders
to God what has been promised and consecrated to Him. the Acts of the Apostles
shows us St. Paul concerned to fulfill the vows he had made.22
2103
The Church recognizes an exemplary value in the vows to practice the
evangelical counsels:23
Mother
Church rejoices that she has within herself many men and women who pursue the
Savior's self-emptying more closely and show it forth more clearly, by
undertaking poverty with the freedom of the children of God, and renouncing
their own will: they submit themselves to man for the sake of God, thus going
beyond what is of precept in the matter of perfection, so as to conform
themselves more fully to the obedient Christ.24
The
Church can, in certain cases and for proportionate reasons, dispense from vows
and promises25
The
social duty of religion and the right to religious freedom
2104
"All men are bound to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and
his Church, and to embrace it and hold on to it as they come to know
it."26 This duty derives from "the very dignity of the human
person."27 It does not contradict a "sincere respect" for
different religions which frequently "reflect a ray of that truth which
enlightens all men,"28 nor the requirement of charity, which urges
Christians "to treat with love, prudence and patience those who are in
error or ignorance with regard to the faith."29
2105
The duty of offering God genuine worship concerns man both individually and
socially. This is "the traditional Catholic teaching on the moral duty of
individuals and societies toward the true religion and the one Church of
Christ."30 By constantly evangelizing men, the Church works toward
enabling them "to infuse the Christian spirit into the mentality and
mores, laws and structures of the communities in which [they] live."31 The
social duty of Christians is to respect and awaken in each man the love of the
true and the good. It requires them to make known the worship of the one true
religion which subsists in the Catholic and apostolic Church.32 Christians are
called to be the light of the world. Thus, the Church shows forth the kingship
of Christ over all creation and in particular over human societies.33
2106
"Nobody may be forced to act against his convictions, nor is anyone to be
restrained from acting in accordance with his conscience in religious matters
in private or in public, alone or in association with others, within due
limits."34 This right is based on the very nature of the human person,
whose dignity enables him freely to assent to the divine truth which transcends
the temporal order. For this reason it "continues to exist even in those
who do not live up to their obligation of seeking the truth and adhering to
it."35
2107
"If because of the circumstances of a particular people special civil
recognition is given to one religious community in the constitutional
organization of a state, the right of all citizens and religious communities to
religious freedom must be recognized and respected as well."36
2108
The right to religious liberty is neither a moral license to adhere to error,
nor a supposed right to error,37 but rather a natural right of the human person
to civil liberty, i.e., immunity, within just limits, from external constraint
in religious matters by political authorities. This natural right ought to be
acknowledged in the juridical order of society in such a way that it
constitutes a civil right.38
2109
The right to religious liberty can of itself be neither unlimited nor limited
only by a "public order" conceived in a positivist or naturalist manner.39
The "due limits" which are inherent in it must be determined for each
social situation by political prudence, according to the requirements of the
common good, and ratified by the civil authority in accordance with "legal
principles which are in conformity with the objective moral order."40
III.
"You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me"
2110
The first commandment forbids honoring gods other than the one Lord who has
revealed himself to his people. It proscribes superstition and irreligion.
Superstition in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion; irreligion
is the vice contrary by defect to the virtue of religion.
Superstition
2111
Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this
feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g.,
when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices
otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of
sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior
dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.41
Idolatry
2112
The first commandment condemns polytheism. It requires man neither to believe
in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the one true God. Scripture
constantly recalls this rejection of "idols, (of) silver and gold, the
work of men's hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see."
These empty idols make their worshippers empty: "Those who make them are
like them; so are all who trust in them."42 God, however, is the
"living God"43 who gives life and intervenes in history.
2113
Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant
temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man
commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God,
whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race,
ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and
mammon."44 Many martyrs died for not adoring "the Beast"45
refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of
God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.46
2114
Human life finds its unity in the adoration of the one God. the commandment to
worship the Lord alone integrates man and saves him from an endless
disintegration. Idolatry is a perversion of man's innate religious sense. An
idolater is someone who "transfers his indestructible notion of God to
anything other than God."47
Divination
and magic
2115
God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound
Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of
Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy
curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of
responsibility.
2116
All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons,
conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil"
the future.48 Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of
omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all
conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other
human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict
the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.
2117
All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers,
so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others
- even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely
contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be
condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they
have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also
reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the
Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called
traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the
exploitation of another's credulity.
Irreligion
2118
God's first commandment condemns the main sins of irreligion: tempting God, in
words or deeds, sacrilege, and simony.
2119
Tempting God consists in putting his goodness and almighty power to the test by
word or deed. Thus Satan tried to induce Jesus to throw himself down from the
Temple and, by this gesture, force God to act.49 Jesus opposed Satan with the
word of God: "You shall not put the LORD your God to the test." 50
The challenge contained in such tempting of God wounds the respect and trust we
owe our Creator and Lord. It always harbors doubt about his love, his
providence, and his power.51
2120
Sacrilege consists in profaning or treating unworthily the sacraments and other
liturgical actions, as well as persons, things, or places consecrated to God.
Sacrilege is a grave sin especially when committed against the Eucharist, for
in this sacrament, the true Body of Christ is made substantially present for
us.52
2121
Simony is defined as the buying or selling of spiritual things.53 To Simon the
magician, who wanted to buy the spiritual power he saw at work in the apostles,
St. Peter responded: "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you
could obtain God's gift with money!"54 Peter thus held to the words of
Jesus: "You received without pay, give without pay."55 It is
impossible to appropriate to oneself spiritual goods and behave toward them as
their owner or master, for they have their source in God. One can receive them
only from him, without payment.
2122
The minister should ask nothing for the administration of the sacraments beyond
the offerings defined by the competent authority, always being careful that the
needy are not deprived of the help of the sacraments because of their
poverty."56 The competent authority determines these "offerings"
in accordance with the principle that the Christian people ought to contribute
to the support of the Church's ministers. "The laborer deserves his
food."57
Atheism
2123
"Many . . . of our contemporaries either do not at all perceive or
explicitly reject, this intimate and vital bond of man to God. Atheism must , therefore, be regarded as one of the most serious problems of our time."58
2124
The name "atheism" covers many very different phenomena. One common
form is the practical materialism which restricts its needs and aspirations to
space and time. Atheistic humanism falsely considers man to be "an end to
himself, and the sole maker, with supreme control, of his own history."59
Another form of contemporary atheism looks for the liberation of man through
economic and social liberation. "It holds that religion, of its very
nature, thwarts such emancipation by raising man's hopes in a future life, thus
both deceiving him and discouraging him from working for a better form of life
on earth."60
2125
Since it rejects or denies the existence of God, atheism is a sin against the
virtue of religion.61 The imputability of this offense can be significantly
diminished in virtue of the intentions and the circumstances. "Believers
can have more than a little to do with the rise of atheism. To the extent that
they are careless about their instruction in the faith, or present its teaching
falsely, or even fail in their religious, moral, or social life, they must be
said to conceal rather than to reveal the true nature of God and of
religion."62
2126
Atheism is often based on a false conception of human autonomy, exaggerated to
the point of refusing any dependence on God.63 Yet, "to acknowledge God is
in no way to oppose the dignity of man since such dignity is grounded and
brought to perfection in God...."64 "For the Church knows full well
that her message is in harmony with the most secret desires of the human heart."65
Agnosticism
2127
Agnosticism assumes a number of forms. In certain cases the agnostic refrains
from denying God; instead he postulates the existence of a transcendent being
which is incapable of revealing itself, and about which nothing can be said. In
other cases, the agnostic makes no judgment about God's existence, declaring it
impossible to prove, or even to affirm or deny.
2128
Agnosticism can sometimes include a certain search for God, but it can equally
express indifferentism, a flight from the ultimate question of existence, and a
sluggish moral conscience. Agnosticism is all too often equivalent to practical
atheism.
IV.
"You Shall Not Make For Yourself a Graven Image . . ."
2129
The divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God
by the hand of man. Deuteronomy explains: "Since you saw no form on the
day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware
lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of
any figure...."66 It is the absolutely transcendent God who revealed
himself to Israel. "He is the all," but at the same time "he is
greater than all his works."67 He is "the author of beauty."68
2130
Nevertheless, already in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the
making of images that pointed symbolically toward salvation by the incarnate
Word: so it was with the bronze serpent, the ark of the covenant, and the
cherubim.69
2131
Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word, the seventh ecumenical
council at Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of
icons - of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels, and all the
saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new
"economy" of images.
2132
The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment
which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an image passes to
its prototype," and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person
portrayed in it."70 The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful
veneration," not the adoration due to God alone:
Religious
worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but
under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. the
movement toward the image does not terminate in it as an image, but tends toward
that whose image it is.71
IN
BRIEF
2133
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your
soul and with all your strength" (⇒
Deut 6:5).
2134
The first commandment summons man to believe in God, to hope in him, and to
love him above all else.
2135
"You shall worship the Lord your God" (⇒ Mt 4:10). Adoring God, praying to him,
offering him the worship that belongs to him, fulfilling the promises and vows
made to him are acts of the virtue of religion which fall under obedience to
the first commandment.
2136
The duty to offer God authentic worship concerns man both as an individual and
as a social being.
2137
"Men of the present day want to profess their religion freely in private
and in public" (DH 15).
2138
Superstition is a departure from the worship that we give to the true God. It
is manifested in idolatry, as well as in various forms of divination and magic.
2139
Tempting God in words or deeds, sacrilege, and simony are sins of irreligion
forbidden by the first commandment.
2140
Since it rejects or denies the existence of God, atheism is a sin against the
first commandment.
2141
The veneration of sacred images is based on the mystery of the Incarnation of
the Word of God. It is not contrary to the first commandment.
GO TO:
SECTION TWO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
CHAPTER ONE YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND
PART THREE LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION TWO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
SECTION TWO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Copyright © 2020 by Ekklesia Katholos (Acts 9:31)
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