Part II, The Commandments: The First Commandment of God

§ 1. The Honor and Worship of God

'1 am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me; thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing to adore it.'

6. What are we commanded by the First Commandment?

By the First Commandment we are commanded to pay to Almighty God due honor and adoration.

7. How many kinds'of honor do we owe to God?

We owe to God two kinds of honor — namely, interior and exterior honor.

8. How do we honor God ' interiorly ' ?

We honor God interiorly, 1. By faith, hope, and charity; 2. By reverence and adoration; 3. By thanksgiving for all His blessings; 4. By zeal for His honor; and 5. By obedience and resignation to His holy will.

9. How do we sin against faith?

1. By infidelity, heresy, and scepticism; 2. By impious and profane language, or by wilfully listening to it; likewise by reading or spreading irreligious books and writings; and 3. By indifference in matters of faith, or by actually denying it.

Many popular novels and other books which are commonly found in public libraries are dangerous to faith and morals. All, especially young persons, ought to seek competent advice regarding the selection of books to read.

10. When do people become guilty of indifference in matters of faith?

1. When they do not care for any religion, or when they consider all religions as equally good; 2. When they stand in need of being instructed, and neglect to attend the Catechism or Christian doctrine; and 3. When parents or guardians allow their children to be brought up in an erroneous belief.

11. How do we sin against hope?

1. By despair or by distrust of God; and 2. By presumption or by false confidence.

12. When do we sin by despair or by distrust?

When we either do not hope at all for that which we ought to hope for from God, or when we do not hope for it with confidence in Him.-

Examples: Cain and Judas; -Moses and the Israelites in the desert.

13. What are we to hope for from God?

We are, above all, to hope for life everlasting, and for whatever is necessary and conducive to it — that is, the forgiveness of our sins and the grace of God.

14. On what grounds are we to hope for these things? Because God, who is infinitely powerful, merciful, and

faithful, has promised them to us_, and Jesus Christ has merited them for us.

15. What, then, is Christian hope?

Christian hope is a virtue infused into our souls, by which we most confidently expect all the things which God has promised us through the merits of Jesus Christ.

16. May every sinner hope for pardon?

Yes, every sinner, even the greatest, may and ought to hope for pardon, provided he will be converted with all his heart, and do penance.

'If the wicked do penance for all Ms sins which he has committed, and keep all my Commandments, living he shall live, and shall not die' (Ez. xviii, 21). — Examples: The Ninivites, Mary Magdalen, the Thief on the Cross, and others. Parable of the Lost Sheep and of the Prodigal Son (Luke xv.).

17. How far may we also expect temporal goods from God?

As far as they help us, or at least do not hinder us, to obtain eternal salvation.

18. When do we sin by presumption and false conj&dence?

1. When, relying on the mercy of God, we continue to sin without fear, or delay our repentance to the end of our life; 2. When we rashly expose ourselves to a danger from which we confidently expect God will extricate us.

19. Is Christian hope also consistent with fear?

Confidence in God does not exclude diffidence in ourselves ; therefore, we should neither be excessively timid about our salvation, nor should we throw off all sense of fear and solicitude for it.

'' Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall' (1 Cor. x. 12). '1 am not conscious to myself of anything, yet I am not hereby justified; but he that judgeth me is the Lord' (1 Cor. iv. 4). ' Justify not thyself before God, for He knoweth the heart' (Ecclus. vii. 5). 'With fear and trembling work out your salvation' (Phili. ii. 12). 'I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection; lest perhaps when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway' (1 Cor. ix. 27).

20. What sins are chiefly opposed to the love of God?

In general, all mortal sins; but in particular, 1. Indifference and aversion to God and divine things; and 2. Hatred and repugnance to Him and His paternal dispensations.

21. How do we honor God also ' exteriorly'?

We honor God also exteriorly when we manifest our interior respectful sentiments towards Him by exterior actions ; as by our uniting with others in the public services of religion or in prayer, in common with others, by kneeling, and generally by our reverent demeanor during religious exercises.

22. Why are we also commanded to honor God exteriorly?

1. Because the body has been created by God as well as the soul, and, therefore, both should pay Him honor and homage; 2. Because it is quite natural to man to manifest his interior worship of God also exteriorly; 3. Because the interior worship is intensified by exterior worship; and 4. Because exterior worship is conducive and necessary for our mutual edification, for fortifying ourselves in our faith, and for preserving and propagating our Religion.

Example: Daniel, who chose to be cast into the den of the lions rather than to give up the exterior adoration of God a3 prescribed by the Law (Dan. vi.).

23. How do we sin against the exterior worship of God?

By neglecting to attend divine service, or by behaving irreverently when we are present.

Punishment of the men at Bethsames because they approached the Ark of the Lord in an irreverent manner (1 Kings vi. 19).

24. May we sin in any other way against the reverence due to God?

Yes, we sin also against it by idolatry, superstition, witchcraft, sacrilege, and simony.

25. When does a person commit idolatry?

He commits idolatry (worship of- images) when he pays divine honor to any creature or thing, as the heathens did.

26. When do we sin by superstition?

1. When we honor God or the Saints in a manner contrary to the doctrine or practice of the Church; 2. When we attribute to things a certain power which they cannot have, either by nature, or by the prayers of the Church, or by virtue of Divine dispensation.

For instance: When we consult fortune-tellers and make them tell us our fortunes by cutting cards or by inspecting our hands; or when we have recourse to the interpretation of dreams, or to vain and foolish signs and practices, in order to know hidden things, or to obtain luck or health; still more, when for that purpose we abuse even holy names and blessed things.

27. Is such superstition a grievous sin?

It is generally a very grievous sin, because he who practises such things mostly expects the assistance of the evil spirit, if not openly, at least secretly ; but, at all events, puts that confidence in idle or delusive things which he ought to place in God alone.

28. Is it also superstitious to wear on our persons images (medals) of the Saints, or blessed things?

On the contrary, it is praiseworthy, if it is done with a pious intention — that is to say, with confidence in God, in the intercession of the Saints, or in the prayer and blessing of the Church.

29. How do people become guilty of witchcraft?

When they try, with the help of the evil spirits, to find hidden treasures, to injure others, or to work wonderful things.

Thus one day that wicked one, Antichrist, will do, 'Whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all [deluding] power, and signs, and lying wonders, and in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish' (2 Thess. ii. 9, 10). This God will

permit for the just punishment of those who rejected the Christian truth and the Divine miracles.

30. What is to be thought of consulting spiritistic mediums, engaging in spiritistic meetings, evoking the spirits of the dead, and other such practices?

Such practices are forbidden by the First Commandment, and are highly sinful and dangerous (Deut. xviii.).

31. What is sacrilege?

Sacrilege is a profanation of holy things, holy persons, or holy places; for instance, the unworthy receiving of a Sacrament, the ill-treatment of an ecclesiastic, the desecration of a church or of sacred vessels, etc.

Examples: Punishment of King Baltassar (Dan. v.), of Heliodorus (2 Mac. iii.). How Christ cast the sellers out of the Temple, see John ii. 15.

32. When does a person commit simony?

When he buys or sells spiritual things, preferments, and the like, for money or money's worth; as Simon, the Magician, intended to do (Acts viii.). This sin has been forbidden by the Church under the most severe penalties, even under pain of excommunication.

Application. Make every day Acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and never neglect to say your Morning and Evening Prayers. At church behave with reverence, and pray with attention, on your knees, and with your hands joined. Kever use forbidden or suspicious means, in order to cure diseases or to discover hidden things. Are you in doubt whether the use of certain things is permitted or not, ask the Priest or your Confessor.

§ 2. The Veneration and Invocation of the Saints

33. What does the Catholic Church teach respecting the veneration and invocation of the Saints?

She teaches that it is right and available to salvation to honor and invoke the Saints.

34. But is not the honor which we pay to the Saints against the First Commandment?

By no means; for 1. We pay no Divine honor to the Saints; and 2. We honor and praise in the Saints God Himself, who has shown Himself so powerful and merciful in them.

35. What is the difference between the honor which we show to God and that which we show to the Saints?

1. We honor and adore God alone as our Sovereign Lord and the Author of all good things; but we honor the Saints only as His faithful servants and friends. 2. We honor God for His own sake, or on account of the infinite perfections which He has of Himself; but we honor the Saints on account of the gifts and advantages which they have received from God.

36. But do we not kneel down when we honor the Saints? Do we not build churches and altars, and offer the Sacrifice of the Mass to them, as to God Himself?

We kneel down, it is true; but we do not adore the Saints any more than a courtier adores his king when on his knees he asks a favor of him. We consecrate churches and altars, and offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God alone, although, at the same time, we honor the memory of the Saints, and implore their intercession.

From the most ancient times the Church has approved and cherished such veneration, has instituted festivals, built churches and altars in commemoration of the Saints, and implored their intercession at the Holy Sacrifice; and God often confirmed such devotion by extraordinary graces. Churches are not consecrated to the Saints whose names they bear, but to God, under the invocation of the Saints.

37. What should we have principally in view when we venerate the Saints?

We should imitate their virtues, and strive to become

like them, that we may also one day share in their eternal happiness.

38. In what does our praying to God differ from otir praying to the Saints?

We pray to God that He may help ns by His Omnipotence ; but we pray to the Saints that they may help "US by interceding with God for us.

39. Is it, then, in the power of the Saints in Heaven to obtain anything from God in our behalf?

It was in their power when they were living on earth ; <nuch more must it be so now that they are in Heaven; for death does not dissolve the communion between them and us. (See the Ninth Article of the Creed.)

'Pray one for another, that you may be saved; for the continual prayer of a just man availeth much' (James v. 16). — No one but a most obstinate infidel can deny the miracles which ■were, and are still, wrought by the intercession of the Saints (Proceedings of the Church at a Beatification or Canonization).

40. Does the Holy Scripture also testify that the Saints in Heaven pray for us?

Yes, the Holy Scripture says, 1. That the Angels pray for man; 2. That the Prophet Jeremias, long after his death, praveth much for the people, and for all the holy city' (2 Mac. xv. 14) ; and 3. That the four-andtwenty Ancients incessantly offer up the prayers of the Saints at the throne of the Most High (Apoc. v. 8).

' And the Angel of the Lord answered, and said : O Lord of Hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on the cities of Juda?' (Zach. i. 12). 'When thou didst pray with tears, I offered thy prayer to the Lord, ' said the Angel Raphael to Tobias (Tob. xii. 12).

41. Do, then, the Saints in Heaven know anything of us?

If they did not know anything of us, the Archangel Raphael could not have offered the prayer of Tobias to God, nor could there be joy before the Angels of God

upon one sinner doing penance, as. the Gospel testifies (Luke XV. 10).

42. But is it not a mark of distrust in Jesus Christ when we address ourselves to the Saints?

No; for 1. We expect grace and salvation from God alone through the merits of Jesus Christ; and 2. If it were a mark of distrust, St. Paul would not have applied to the faithful, saying : ' I beseech you, brethren, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that you may help me in your prayers for me to God' (Eom. xv. 30).

43. Why does God grant us many graces through tha intercession of the Saints?

Because it is the will of God that we should acknowledge our own unworthiness and the merits of His faithful servants. Therefore He Himself, in former times, commanded the friends of Job, saying : ' Go to my servant Job, . . . and my servant Job shall pray for you ' (Job xlii. 8).

44. Whom should we in particular honor and invokeabove all the Angels and Saints?

Mary, the Blessed Virgin and Mother of God.

45. Why should we particularly honor and invoke Mary?

1. Because she is the Mother of God, and thereforefar surpasses all the Angels and Saints in grace and glory; 2. Because, for that very reason, her intercession with God is most powerful.

46. Should we also honor the images of Jesus Christ and of the Saints?

Yes, certainly; for if even a child honors the likenesses of his parents, and a subject the image of his prince, so much the more must we honor the images of our Lord and of His Saints.

How strictly the veneration of holy images was at all timess observed in the Church, was shown in the eighth century, wheoi the heretics called Iconoclasts [image-breakers], acose. They?'

were supported hj the Greek Emperor, and they raged most obstinately and furiously against the images and those who revered them. But they were not able to abolish the pious practice. The faithftil firmly sutfered all imaginable ill-treatment, even torture and death; and in the year 787 the new heresy was solemnly condemned by the Seventh General Council.

47. But does not the Scripture say : ' You shall not make to yourselves any idol or graven thing ' ?

True ; but it is also immediately added : ' To adore it' (Levit. xxvi. 1), as the heathens did. But we Catholics detest the adoration of images.

God Himself commanded Moses to 'make two cherubim of beaten gold on the two sides of the oracle' (Exod. xxv. 18), and also to 'make a brazen serpent, and set it up for a sign' (Num. xxi. 8), which was a figure of our Crucified Redeemer.

48. But is it not superstitious to pray before images?

Not at all; for when we pray jjefore the images of Jesus Christ and His Saints, we pray, not to the images, but to Jesus Christ and to the Saints, whom they represent.

49. Does it not prove that we put our trust in images when we go on pilgrimages to them?

Xo; for we do not visit holy places because we trust in the images that are honored there, but because we know that God has been pleased to bestow many graces and benefits in such places, and therefore feel ourselves animated to pray there with greater fervor and confidence.

50. What is the use of placing images of Christ and of the Saints in our churches?

They instruct and strengthen us in our faith, and incite us to live in conformity to it, whilst they represent before our eyes the mysteries of our Religion, the history of our Redemption, and the holy lives of the Saints.

51. Why do we honor the relics of the Saints?

Because their bodies were living members of Jesu8 Christ, and temples of the Holy Ghost, and will one day rise again from the dead to eternal glory.

At all times relics have been kept in honor in the Church. A"§ early as in the second century, the Christians in Antioch and Smyrna, as they testified themselves, honored the relics of their holy bishops, Ignatius and Polycarp, who had suffered death for Jesus Christ.

52. Whence do we know for certain that the veneration of relics is pleasing to God?

From this: that God has frequently been pleased to work great miracles through their means, as we read in the Holy Scripture and in the history of the Church.

'When the man [whom they were burying] had touched the bones of Eliseus, he came to life, and stood upon his feet' (4 Kings xiii. 21). 'And God wrought by the hand of Paul more than common miracles; so that even there were brought from his body to the sick, handkerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the wicked spirits went out of them' (Acts xix. 11, 12). St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, and others, give us an account of the miracles which were wrought at the graves of St, Stephen, St. Felix of Nola, St. Gervasius, and of many other Saints.

The authenticity of a relic which is exposed to the veneration of the faithful is not a matter of faith, but rests simply on human, but nevertheless credible, testimonies.

Application. Honor the Blessed Saints in Heaven with great devotion, especially the Most Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, and your Patron Saint. Diligently read their lives, and faithfully imitate their examples. Keep in your dwellings no immodest pictures, but have, by all means, holy images, and, above all, an image of your Crucified Redeemer. Do not help to circulate unauthorized prayers, or aid unauthorized persons to promote what are called chain prayers, as abuses may easily arise from these practices. (Feast of All Saints.)