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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.
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]
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 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 love of God, whose
goodness it denies, and whom it presumes to curse as the one who forbids
sins and inflicts punishments.
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: 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 promises[25]
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]
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.
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
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.
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