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 The
First Commandment - YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND HIM ONLY SHALL YOU SERVE - 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. (Ex. 20:2-5)
Ways of sinning against this Commandment:
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. 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 to the authority of the Pope or to the communion with
the members of the Catholic Church.
Despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation
from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his
sins. Presumption. Either man presumes upon his own
capacities, hoping to obtain glory without merit.
Indifference neglects or refuses the presence of God in our
personal life. Ingratitude fails or refuses to acknowledge God’s
love. Lukewarmness is hesitation or negligence in
responding to divine love. Acedia or spiritual sloth.
Hatred of God denies and presumes to curse as the one who
forbids sins and inflicts punishments. Superstition 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.
Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. 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. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm
reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of
clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums. They contradict the
honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.
YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD
AND HIM ONLY
SHALL YOU SERVE |