359. God wills us to be holy as He, Himself, is holy.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 359

Ave Maria series

The Second Commandment: You Shall Not Take the Name of the Lord Your God in Vain.

Why does God want us to “hallow” his name (that is, keep it holy)?

To tell someone your name is a sign of trust.  Since God has told us his name, he makes himself recognizable and grants us access to him through this name.  God is absolute truth.  Someone who calls Truth himself by his name but uses it to testify to a lie sins seriously. [2142-2155, 2160-2164]

Madonna of the people by Federico Barocci, 1579.….. 359

One must not pronounce the name of God irreverently.  For we know him only because he has entrusted himself to us.  The Holy Name, after all, is the key to the heart of the Almighty. Therefore it is a terrible offense to blaspheme God, to curse using God’s name, or to make false promises in his name.  The Second Commandment is therefore also a commandment that protects “holiness” in general. Places, things, names, and people who have been touched by God are “holy”.  Sensitivity to what is holy is called reverence.

“Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore!”  Psalm 133:2

“Reverence is the pole on which the world turns.”  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832, German poet)

 [2142-2155, 2160-2164]

THE NAME OF THE LORD IS HOLY

2142 The second commandment prescribes respect for the Lord's name. Like the first commandment, it belongs to the virtue of religion and more particularly it governs our use of speech in sacred matters. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

2143 Among all the words of Revelation, there is one which is unique: the revealed name of God. God confides his name to those who believe in him; he reveals himself to them in his personal mystery. The gift of a name belongs to the order of trust and intimacy. "The Lord's name is holy." For this reason man must not abuse it. He must keep it in mind in silent, loving adoration. He will not introduce it into his own speech except to bless, praise, and glorify it.(Compare Zechariah 2:13; Psalm 29:2; Ps 96:2; Ps 113:1-2.)⁷⁴  --CCC

2144 Respect for his name is an expression of the respect owed to the mystery of God himself and to the whole sacred reality it evokes. The sense of the sacred is part of the virtue of religion: --CCC

Are these feelings of fear and awe Christian feelings or not? . . . I say this, then, which I think no one can reasonably dispute. They are the class of feelings we should have - yes, have to an intense degree - if we literally had the sight of Almighty God; therefore they are the class of feelings which we shall have, if we realize His presence. In proportion as we believe that He is present, we shall have them; and not to have them, is not to realize, not to believe that He is present.( John Henry Cardinal Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons V,2 (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1907) 21-22.)⁷⁵--CCC

2145 The faithful should bear witness to the Lord's name by confessing the faith without giving way to fear.(Compare Matthew 10:32; 1 Timothy 6:12.)⁷⁶ Preaching and catechizing should be permeated with adoration and respect for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. --CCC

2146 The second commandment forbids the abuse of God's name, i.e., every improper use of the names of God, Jesus Christ, but also of the Virgin Mary and all the saints. --CCC

2147 Promises made to others in God's name engage the divine honor, fidelity, truthfulness, and authority. They must be respected in justice. To be unfaithful to them is to misuse God's name and in some way to make God out to be a liar.(Compare 1 John 1:10.)⁷⁷–CCC

2148 Blasphemy is directly opposed to the second commandment. It consists in uttering against God - inwardly or outwardly - words of hatred, reproach, or defiance; in speaking ill of God; in failing in respect toward him in one's speech; in misusing God's name. St. James condemns those "who blaspheme that honorable name [of Jesus] by which you are called."(James 2:7.)⁷⁸ The prohibition of blasphemy extends to language against Christ's Church, the saints, and sacred things. It is also blasphemous to make use of God's name to cover up criminal practices, to reduce peoples to servitude, to torture persons or put them to death. The misuse of God's name to commit a crime can provoke others to repudiate religion. –CCC

Blasphemy is contrary to the respect due God and his holy name. It is in itself a grave sin.(Compare Codex Iuris Canonici, can. 1369.)⁷⁹--CCC

2149 Oaths which misuse God's name, though without the intention of blasphemy, show lack of respect for the Lord. The second commandment also forbids magical use of the divine name. –CCC

[God's] name is great when spoken with respect for the greatness of his majesty. God's name is holy when said with veneration and fear of offending him.( St. Augustine, De serm. Dom. in monte 2,5,19:Patrologia Latina 34,1278.)⁸⁰--CCC

TAKING THE NAME OF THE LORD IN VAIN

2150 The second commandment forbids false oaths. Taking an oath or swearing is to take God as witness to what one affirms. It is to invoke the divine truthfulness as a pledge of one's own truthfulness. An oath engages the Lord's name. "You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve him, and swear by his name."(Deuteronomy 6:13.)⁸¹ --CCC

2151 Rejection of false oaths is a duty toward God. As Creator and Lord, God is the norm of all truth. Human speech is either in accord with or in opposition to God who is Truth itself. When it is truthful and legitimate, an oath highlights the relationship of human speech with God's truth. A false oath calls on God to be witness to a lie. --CCC

2152 A person commits perjury when he makes a promise under oath with no intention of keeping it, or when after promising on oath he does not keep it. Perjury is a grave lack of respect for the Lord of all speech. Pledging oneself by oath to commit an evil deed is contrary to the holiness of the divine name. --CCC

2153 In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explained the second commandment: "You have heard that it was said to the men of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' But I say to you, Do not swear at all. . . . Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from the evil one."(Matthew 5:33-34,37; Compare James 5:12.)⁸² Jesus teaches that every oath involves a reference to God and that God's presence and his truth must be honored in all speech. Discretion in calling upon God is allied with a respectful awareness of his presence, which all our assertions either witness to or mock. --CCC

2154 Following St. Paul,(Compare 2 Corinthians 1:23; Galatians 1:20.)⁸³ the tradition of the Church has understood Jesus' words as not excluding oaths made for grave and right reasons (for example, in court). "An oath, that is the invocation of the divine name as a witness to truth, cannot be taken unless in truth, in judgment, and in justice."(Codex Iuris Canonici, can. 1199 § 1.)⁸⁴--CCC

2155 The holiness of the divine name demands that we neither use it for trivial matters, nor take an oath which on the basis of the circumstances could be interpreted as approval of an authority unjustly requiring it. When an oath is required by illegitimate civil authorities, it may be refused. It must be refused when it is required for purposes contrary to the dignity of persons or to ecclesial communion. --CCC

IN BRIEF

2160 "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth" (Psalm 8:2)!--CCC

2161 The second commandment enjoins respect for the Lord's name. The name of the Lord is holy. --CCC

2162 The second commandment forbids every improper use of God's name. Blasphemy is the use of the name of God, of Jesus Christ, of the Virgin Mary, and of the saints in an offensive way. --CCC

2163 False oaths call on God to be witness to a lie. Perjury is a grave offence against the Lord who is always faithful to his promises. --CCC

2164 "Do not swear whether by the Creator, or any creature, except truthfully, of necessity, and with reverence" (St. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, 38). –CCC

Saint  Mary Madonna of the people

358. The Holy Face of Jesus

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 358

Ave Maria series

Why does the Old Testament forbid images of God, and why do we Christians no longer keep that commandment?

In order to protect the mystery of God and to set the people of Israel apart from the idolatrous practices of the pagans, the First Commandment said, “You shall not make for yourself a graven image” (Exodus 20:4).  However, since God himself acquired a human face in Jesus Christ, the prohibition against images was repealed in Christianity; in the Eastern Church, icons are even regarded as sacred.  [2129-2132, 2141]

A reverse image of the Shroud of Turin.…358

The origins of the Shroud of Turin and its image are the subject of intense debate among theologians, historians and researchers. Scientific and popular publications have presented diverse arguments for both authenticity and possible methods of forgery. A variety of scientific theories regarding the shroud have since been proposed, based on disciplines ranging from chemistry to biology and medical forensics to optical image analysis. The Shroud of Turin is respected by Christians of several traditions, including Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Orthodox, Pentecostals, and Presbyterians.  The Catholic Church has neither formally endorsed nor rejected the shroud, but in 1958 Pope Pius XII approved of the image in association with the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.  More recently, Pope Francis and his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI have both described the Shroud of Turin as "an icon" and Pope Saint John Paul II called the Shroud "a mirror of the Gospel". --Wikipedia

The knowledge of the patriarchs of Israel that God surpasses everything (transcendence) and is much greater than anything in the world (still) lives on today in Judaism as (it does) in Islam, where no image of God is or ever was allowed.  In Christianity, in light of Christ’s life on earth, the prohibition against images was mitigated from the fourth century on and was abolished at the Second Council of Nicaea (787 a.d.).  By his Incarnation, God is no longer absolutely unimaginable; after Jesus we can picture what he is like: “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).  9

Transcendent (from Latin transcendere=to go beyond): surpassing sensory experience; other-worldly.

Icon (from Greek ikona=image): An icon is a sacred image in the Eastern Church that is painted according to venerable patterns by an artist  who is praying and fasting; it is supposed to produce a mystical union between the observer and what is depicted (Christ, angels, saints).

[2129-2132, 2141]

"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. . . . "(Deuteronomy 4:15-16.)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."(Sirach 43:27-28.)⁶⁷ He is "the author of beauty."(Wisdom 13:3.)⁶⁸–Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

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.(Compare Numbers 21:4-9; Wisdom 16:5-14; John 3:14-15; Exodus 25:10-22; 1 Kings 6:23-28; 1 Kings7:23-26.)⁶⁹–CCC

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. –CCC

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."(St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto 18,45:Patrologia Graeca 32,149C; Council of Nicaea II: Denzinger-Schonmetzer 601; compare Council of Trent: DS 1821-1825; Vatican Council II: Sacrosanctum Concilium 126; Lumen Gentium 67.)⁷⁰ The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone: --CCC

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.(St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II,81,3 ad 3.)⁷¹–CCC

IN BRIEF

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. –CCC

JP Shroud of Turin

The Incredulity of Thomas the Apostle by Caravaggio.

Second Sunday of Easter
(Or Sunday of Divine Mercy), April 28, 2019
Lectionary: 45

Reading 1   ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 5:12-16

Many signs and wonders were done among the peopleat the hands of the apostles. They were all together in Solomon's portico.  None of the others dared to join them, but the people esteemed them.  Yet more than ever, believers in the Lord,great numbers of men and women, were added to them.  Thus they even carried the sick out into the streetsand laid them on cots and matsso that when Peter came by,at least his shadow might fall on one or another of them. A large number of people from the townsin the vicinity of Jerusalem also gathered,bringing the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits,and they were all cured.

Responsorial  PSALM 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-2

R. (1) Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.

Let the house of Israel say,
"His mercy endures forever."
Let the house of Aaron say,
"His mercy endures forever."
Let those who fear the LORD say,
"His mercy endures forever."

R. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.

I was hard pressed and was falling,
but the LORD helped me.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just:

R. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.

The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.

R. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.

Reading 2   REVELATION 1:9-11A, 12-13, 17-19

I, John, your brother, who share with you the distress, the kingdom, and the endurance we have in Jesus,
found myself on the island called Patmosbecause I proclaimed God's word and gave testimony to Jesus.
I was caught up in spirit on the Lord's dayand heard behind me a voice as loud as a trumpet, which said,
"Write on a scroll what you see."  Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me,and when I turned, I saw seven gold lampstandsand in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man,wearing an ankle-length robe, with a gold sash around his chest.
When I caught sight of him, I fell down at his feet as though dead.  He touched me with his right hand and said, "Do not be afraid.  I am the first and the last, the one who lives.  Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I hold the keys to death and the netherworld.  Write down, therefore, what you have seen,and what is happening, and what will happen afterwards."

Alleluia   JOHN 20:29

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
You believe in me, Thomas, because you have seen me, says the Lord;
blessed are those who have not seen me, but still believe!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel   JOHN 20:19-31

On the evening of that first day of the week,when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,for fear of the Jews,Jesus came and stood in their midstand said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.  The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."  And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,"Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained."
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,was not with them when Jesus came.  So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord."  But he said to them,"Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarksand put my hand into his side, I will not believe."
Now a week later his disciples were again insideand Thomas was with them.  Jesus came, although the doors were locked,and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."  Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands,and bring your hand and put it into my side,and do not be unbelieving, but believe."Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me?Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciplesthat are not written in this book.  But these are written that you may come to believethat Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,and that through this belief you may have life in his name.

Apostle  Thomas Doubting Thomas  Caravaggio

357. Atheism

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 357

Ave Maria series

Is atheism always a sin against the First Commandment?

Atheism is not a sin if a person has learned nothing about God or has examined the question about God’s existence conscientiously and cannot believe.  [2127-2128]

Jesus before Pilate by Nikolai Ge (1890).…..357

So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king.   For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”--John 18:37-38

The line between being unable to believe and being unwilling to believe is not clear.  The attitude that simply dismisses faith as unimportant, without having examined it more closely, is often worse than well-considered atheism.  5

Atheism (Greek theos=God): the view that God does not exist.  A general term for various forms of denying God’s existence in theory or in practice.

Agnosticism (Greek gnosus=knowledge): the view that God cannot be known.  A general  term for a position that leaves open the question about God’s existence because it supposedly cannot be decided or because God cannot be known with certainty.

[2127-2128]

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. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

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. –CCC

JP  Pilate Nikolai Ge