Part II, The Commandments: The First Commandment of the Church

1. What are we commanded by the First Commandment of the Church?

By the First Commandment, Wc. are commanded, in the first place, to keep holy the Sundays and the Holydays which the Church has instituted in honor of our Lord and of His Saints, by resting from servile work.

As in the Old Law, on certain occasions — for instance, after the victory gained by the Jews over Holofernes (Judith xvi. 31), and over Aman (Esther ix.) — festivals were instituted in memory of the blessings received from God; so also has the Christian Church, in different times, most justly commanded that several Holydays or anniversaries should be celebrated in honor of Jesus Christ, of His glorious Mother, and of the Saints, His glorified friends.

2. For what purpose were the Feasts of Our Lord instituted?

They were instituted that we should, 1. Devoutly meditate on the mysteries of our Redemption; 2. Thank God for His graces; and 3. Renew our zeal in serving Him, and thus render ourselves worthy of the fruits of Redemption.

In the course of each Ecclesiastical Year, the whole life of Jesus Christ is so represented to us in its principal parts as if the mysteries which we commemorate were renewed before our eyes. Therefore it is the intention of the Church that we should every year contemplate with her the life of Christ from its beginning to its end. In Advent we should, by repentance and longing expectation, prepare the way for the coming of our Redeemer into our hearts; in Lent we should, by penance and mortification, participate in His sufferings, die to sin, and spiritually rise with Him to a new life at Easter. At the approach of the Feast of Pentecost we should ardently long for the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and then continually endeavor to co-operate with the graces received.

3. Why were the Feasts of the Saints instituted?

That we may, 1. Praise the Lord for the graces which He has bestowed upon them, and, through them, upon us also; 2. Represent to our mind their exemplary virtues upon earth and their eternal bliss in Heaven, and resolve to imitate them; and 3. Implore their intercession with God.

4. Can the Church also suppress Holydays?

As she has full power to institute Holydays, so she lias also a right to suppress them again, to transfer them, or to limit them to certain places, when time and circumstances require it.

The doctrine of the Church always is, and must be, one and the same, because it comes from God; but it is not so with her regulations and laws of discipline, which she makes after the lapse of ages, and must adapt to variety of times and places. Therefore, without detriment to the unity of her doctrine, there may be a difference in the celebration of her festivals.

Besides the Sundays, the following festivals are Holydays of obligation in the United States: The Circumcision of our Lord;. January 1; Ascension of our Lord; Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, August 15; All Saints, November 1; The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, the Patronal Festival of the American Church, December 8; and Christmas, or The Nativity of our Lord, December 25.

Application. Prepare yourself, in conformity with the spirit of the Church, as fervently for every chief festival of the year as if it were the last in your life. Beware of profaning the Holydays of obligation by servile work, by excesses, or sinful amusements.

5. What are we further commanded to do by the First Commandment of the Church?

By the First Commandment we are further commanded to assist, on all Sundays and Holydays of obligation, at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with due attention reverence, and devotion.

6. Why are we commanded especially to hear Mass on Sundays and Holydays of obUgation?

Because the Sacrifice of the Mass is the most holy and salutary of all Divine Services, and that in which the Most High is honored in the most worthy manner.

7. Who are obliged to hear Mass on Sundays and Holydays of obUgation?

All who are seven years of age and have attained the use of reason (Avhich is generally the case at that age)

are strictly bound to hear Mass, unless weighty reasons, as illness, nursing the sick, etc., excuse them from it.

8. When do we sin against this command of the Church?

I. When through our own fault we lose either the entire Mass or a great part of it ; and 2. When during Mass we give way to voluntary distractions, look about through curiosity, talk, laugh or otherwise behave so that we cannot follow the Mass.

9. Where should the faithful hear Mass on Sundays and Holydays?

In the parish church, when it is possible; also in any church or public oratory.

10. Why does the Church wish that the faithful should attend Divine Service especially in their parish church?

Because in the parish church the pastor preaches and offers the Sacrifice of the Mass principally for his parishioners.

11. Does this Commandment of the Church also command us to hear the sermon?

According to the letter it does not; but according to the spirit it certainly does; for the hearing of the word of God also belongs to the worthy celebration of the Sundays and Holydays, and is, in general, an essential duty of a Christian.

In the primitive Church the sermon was generally preached at Mass after the Gospel; therefore the Church, which commands us to hear Mass, had no occasion for giving a particular and express commandment to hear the sermon.

12. Why are all Christians bound to hear the word of <>od?

1. Because the word of God is for all a most powerful means of sanctification, ordained by God Himself; 2. Because it is indispensable to all to be repeatedly reminded of the truths of Edition, and to be admonished

to live up to them ; and 3. Because all are obliged to mutual edification, by setting one another an example of Christian piety.

'He that is of God, heareth the words of God; therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God' (John viii. 47). It is therefore a bad sign when people neglect to hear the word of God.

13. How should we hear the word of God?

We should, 1. Listen to it with earnest attention, and with an ardent desire of working out our salvation ; and 2. We should reflect well upon it, apply it to ourselves, and faithfully follow it.

'Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it' (Luke xi. 28; comp. Luke viii. 5-15).

Application. Make it a rule to assist with devotion on Sundays and Holydays at the Divine Service in the morning and in the afternoon, and to prefer your parish church to any other.

Missions, retreats and Lenten courses of instructions are seasons of special grace and mercy, particularly for those who have been leading irregular lives: to neglect these opportunities is to despise the mercy of God.