Catechism index

2111 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" 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 …
2112 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" 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 …
2113 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" 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 …
2114 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" 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 …
2115 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" 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, …
2116 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" 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, …
2117 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" 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 …
2118 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" God's first commandment condemns the main sins of irreligion: tempting God, in words or deeds, sacrilege, and simony.
2119 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" 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 …
2120 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" 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 …
2121 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" 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 …
2122 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" 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 …
2123 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" "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 …
2124 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" 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 …
2125 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" 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 …
2126 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" 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 …
2127 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" 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 …
2128 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" 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 …
2129 IV. "You Shall Not Make For Yourself a Graven Image . . ." 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 …
2130 IV. "You Shall Not Make For Yourself a Graven Image . . ." 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 …