Saturday, March 9, 2013
445. What does God prohibit by his command, “You shall not have other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2)? (part 2 continuation)
(Comp 445 repetition) This commandment
forbids: * Polytheism and idolatry, which divinizes creatures, power, money, or
even demons. * Superstition which is a departure from the worship due to the
true God and which also expresses itself in various forms of divination, magic,
sorcery and spiritism. * Irreligion which is evidenced: in tempting God by word
or deed; in sacrilege, which profanes sacred persons or sacred things, above
all the Eucharist; and in simony, which involves the buying or selling of
spiritual things. * Atheism which rejects the existence of God, founded often
on a false conception of human autonomy. * Agnosticism which affirms that
nothing can be known about God, and involves indifferentism and practical
atheism.
“In brief”
(CCC 2139) Tempting God in words
or deeds, sacrilege, and simony are sins of irreligion forbidden by the first
commandment. (CCC 2140) Since it rejects or
denies the existence of God, atheism is a sin against the first
commandment.
To deepen and
explain
(CCC 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" (Mt 6:24). Many martyrs died for not adoring
"the Beast" (Cf. Rev 13-14) refusing even to simulate such worship.
Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with
communion with God (Cf. Gal 5:20; Eph
5:5).
Reflection
(CCC 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" (Origen, Contra Celsum 2, 40: PG 11, 861). [IT CONTINUES]
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