Part Three: Life in Christ › Section Two of Part Three: The Ten Commandments ›› CHAPTER 1: You Shall Love the Lord Your God with All Your Heart and with All Your Soul and with All Your Mind ››› Article 1: The First Commandment

› IN BRIEF

Questions and Answers

2136. What is the first commandment? (CCC 2084) The first commandment is: “You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.”
2137. Why does the first commandment embrace faith, hope and charity? (CCC 2086) The first commandment embraces faith, hope and charity, because by saying ‘God’ we confess:
1. a faithful being in whom we must have complete faith
2. an infinitely beneficent being in whom we can place our hope
3. the source of goodness who deserves our love.
2138. What is the principle and explanation of all moral deviation? (CCC 2087) The principle and explanation of all moral deviation is ignorance of God.
2139. What attitude toward the Faith does the first commandment require from us? (CCC 2088) The first commandment requires us:
1. to nourish our faith
2. to reject everything that is opposed to it.
2140. What are the main ways of sinning against faith? (CCC 2088-2089) The main ways of sinning against faith are:
1. voluntary and involuntary doubt
2. incredulity
3. heresy, apostasy and schism.
2141. What is a voluntary doubt about the Faith? (CCC 2088) A voluntary doubt about the Faith is a doubt that disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief.
2142. What is an involuntary doubt about the Faith? (CCC 2088) An involuntary doubt about the Faith is:
1. hesitation in believing
2. difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the Faith
3. anxiety aroused by the faith’s obscurity.
2143. What is incredulity? (CCC 2089) Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the wilful refusal to assent to it.
2144. What is heresy? (CCC 2089) Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or an obstinate doubt concerning the same.
2145. What is apostasy? (CCC 2089) Apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith.
2146. What is schism? (CCC 2089) Schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.
2147. Why does man need hope in his relation with God? (CCC 2090) Man needs hope in his relation with God, because he cannot fully respond to the divine love by his own powers and therefore must hope that God will give him the capacity to love Him.
2148. What does the theological virtue of hope fear? (CCC 2090) The theological virtue of hope fears to offend God’s love and to incur punishment.
2149. What are the two biggest sins against hope? (CCC 2091-2092) The two biggest sins against hope are despair and presumption.
2150. What is despair? (CCC 2091) Despair is the attitude by which man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins.
2151. Why is despair a sin? (CCC 2091) Despair is a sin, because it is contrary to God’s goodness, to His justice and to His mercy.
2152. What are the two kinds of presumption? (CCC 2092) The two kinds of presumption are:
1. man’s false trust upon his own capacities
2. man’s false trust in God’s almighty power or mercy.
2153. What does the first commandment enjoin us regarding God’s love? (CCC 2093) The first commandment enjoins us regarding God’s love:
1. to love God above everything
2. to love all creatures for Him and because of Him.
2154. In which five ways can one sin against God’s love? (CCC 2094) One can sin against God’s love by:
1. indifference
2. ingratitude
3. lukewarmness
4. acedia (spiritual sloth)
5. hatred of God.
2155. How can one sin against God’s love by indifference? (CCC 2094) One can sin against God’s love by indifference through the neglect or refusal to reflect on divine charity.
2156. How can one sin against God’s love by ingratitude? (CCC 2094) One can sin against God’s love by ingratitude through failing or refusing to acknowledge divine charity and to return Him love for love.
2157. How can one sin against God’s love by lukewarmness? (CCC 2094) One can sin against God’s love by lukewarmness through hesitation or negligence in responding to divine love.
2158. How can one sin against God’s love by acedia? (CCC 2094) One can sin against God’s love by acedia (spiritual sloth) by refusing the joy that comes from God and by being repelled by divine goodness.
2159. How does the hatred of God manifest itself? (CCC 2094) The hatred of God manifests itself by:
1. denying God’s goodness
2. cursing God as the one who forbids sins and inflicts punishment.
2160. What is the “virtue of religion”? (CCC 2095) The “virtue of religion” is what disposes us to render to God the worship that we owe to Him in all justice.
2161. What is the first act of the virtue of religion? (CCC 2096) The first act of the virtue of religion is adoration.
Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator.
2162. How are the acts of faith, hope and charity accomplished? (CCC 2098) The acts of faith, hope and charity are accomplished in prayer.
2163. What is a sacrifice according to St Augustine? (CCC 2099) According to St Augustine († 430) a sacrifice is an action done so as to cling to God in communion of holiness and thus achieve blessedness.
2164. For what purpose are sacrifices offered to God? (CCC 2099) Sacrifices are offered to God in order to express adoration, gratitude, supplication and communion.
2165. What is the only perfect sacrifice? (CCC 2100) The only perfect sacrifice is the one that Christ offered on the cross.
2166. What is a vow? (CCC 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.
2167. What are the most exemplary vows in the Church? (CCC 2103) The most exemplary vows in the Church are made by those who promise to practice the evangelical counsels.
2168. What is the duty of all men toward the truth? (CCC 2104) The duty of all men toward the truth is:
1. to seek it, especially in what concerns God and His Church
2. to embrace it
3. to hold on to it as they come to know it.
2169. How should those in error or ignorance with regard to the Faith be treated? (CCC 2104) Those in error or ignorance with regard to the Faith should be treated with love, prudence and patience.
2170. What is the “social duty of religion”? (CCC 2105) The “social duty of religion” is the obligation of offering God genuine worship which concerns man both individually and socially.
2171. What does the social duty of Christians require? (CCC 2105) The social duty of Christians requires:
1. to respect and awaken in each man the love of the true and the good
2. to make known the worship of the one true religion which is in the Church.
2172. Over what does the kingship of Christ extend? (CCC 2105) The kingship of Christ extends over:
1. all creation
2. human societies.
2173. Why may nobody be forced to act against his conscience in religious matters? (CCC 2106) Nobody may be forced to act against his conscience in religious matters because of the very nature of the human person, whose dignity enables him to assent freely to the divine truth.
2174. What does the right to religious liberty decree? (CCC 2108) The right to religious liberty decrees immunity, within just limits, from external constraint in religious matters by political authorities.
2175. With what should the right to religious liberty not be confused? (CCC 2108) The right to religious liberty should not be confused either with a moral license to adhere to error, or with a supposed right to error.
2176. How must the just limits inherent in the right to religious liberty be determined? (CCC 2109) The just limits inherent in the right to religious liberty must be determined by political prudence according to the requirements of the common good.
2177. What does the enjoinment “you shall have no other gods before me” forbid? (CCC 2110) The enjoinment “you shall have no other gods before me” forbids honouring gods other than the one Lord who has revealed Himself to His people.
2178. What is the sin of superstition? (CCC 2111) The sin of superstition is in some sense a perverse excess of religion and the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes.
Superstition is manifested in idolatry, as well as in various forms of divination and magic.
2179. What is the sin of polytheism? (CCC 2112) The sin of polytheism is the false believe in many divinities other than the one true God.
2180. What is the sin of idolatry? (CCC 2113) The sin of idolatry is the divinizing of what is not God and thus the honouring of a creature in place of God.
2181. What is the sin of divination? (CCC 2116) The sin of divination is an attempt to unveil the future by different practices, among them the recourse to Satan, other demons or to the dead.
2182. What is the sin of magic or sorcery? (CCC 2117) The sin of magic or sorcery is an attempt to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service.
2183. What are the main sins of irreligion? (CCC 2118) The main sins of irreligion are:
1. tempting God in words or deeds
2. sacrilege
3. simony.
2184. In what does tempting God consist? (CCC 2119) Tempting God consists in putting His goodness and almighty power to the test by word or deed.
2185. What is a sacrilege? (CCC 2120) A sacrilege is the profanation or unworthy treatment of the sacraments and other liturgical actions, as well as persons, things or places consecrated to God.
2186. What is simony? (CCC 2121) Simony is the buying or selling of spiritual things.
In Acts 8 Simon the Magician offers the apostles money in order to receive the power of the apostles.
2187. What is the sin of atheism? (CCC 2124) The sin of atheism is the rejection or denial of God.
2188. What is the sin of agnosticism? (CCC 2127) The sin of agnosticism is the belief either that God is incapable of revealing Himself or that it is impossible to prove or deny anything about Him.
2189. How does Deut 4 explain “you shall not make a graven image” of God? (CCC 2129) Deut 4 explains “you shall not make a graven image” of God with the fact that Moses saw no form when the Lord spoke to him on the mountain out of the midst of the fire.
2190. In the Old Testament what kind of images did God allow to be made? (CCC 2130) In the Old Testament, God allowed images to be made that pointed symbolically to salvation by the Incarnate Christ.
2191. What ecumenical council justified the veneration of icons? (CCC 2131) Nicaea II (AD 787) justified the veneration of icons.
2192. How does Nicaea II justify the veneration of icons? (CCC 2131) Nicaea II justifies the veneration of icons with the argument that by His Incarnation, Christ introduced a new economy of images.
2193. Why is the veneration of images not contrary to the first commandment? (CCC 2132) The veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment, because the honour rendered to an image passes to its prototype.