RCIA Class 14 Commandments 1-3: Love of God

1. RCIA Class 14Commandments 1-3: Love of God

2. Welcome Back! • Christmas and New Year’s break is complete • Looking ahead: • Prayer to learn this week and next: • Grace before Meals, Thanksgiving after meals • Weekly Rosary (optional for those who want to learn at 11 AM) • Christmas gifts for candidates and catechumens

3. Grace before Meals! • Grace before Meals -Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts; which we are about to receive from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen • Thanksgiving prayer after Meals - We give Thee thanks for all Thy benefits, O Almighty God, who lives and reignes world without end. Amen. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen

4. Matthew 3:13-17 • Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. • John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, • and yet you are coming to me?” • Jesus said to him in reply, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us • to fulfill all righteousness.” • Then he allowed him. After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. • And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

5. Overview of today’s class… • We will look at the overview of the Ten Commandments • We will focus on the first Three Commandments • 1. I am the Lord your God, you shall not have strange God’s before me. • 2. Thou shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain • 3. Keep Holy the Sabbath Day • All 3 of these have to do with our love for God.

6. A broad overview and break up of the 10 Commandments • Let us start by looking at how the Commandments are divided up, • The first Three Commandments have to do with our love of God; • The Fourth and Fifth Commandments have to do with our respect for others; • The Sixth and Ninth Commandments deal with our gift of sexuality. • Commandments Seven, Eight, and Ten deal with our love and relationship with our neighbor.

7. The Commandments of love of God • The way that God worked it out is the commandments that deal with God come first. • 1. The First Commandment is, “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.” • That means we only worship the One, True God. • 2. The Second Commandment is, “Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.” • 3. The Third Commandment is, “Keep holy the Lord’s Day.” • We will dissect these in a bit!

8. Our relationship with God must be a priority! • The first Three Commandments are important, because they deal with our relationship with God • It is even more important than our relationship with our parents, our spouse or neighbors. • God revealed these Ten Commandments in this order, to show: • The order of importance of loving God above everything • Why we should Honor Him • Why it is Necessary to Worship Him alone • Why we should Reverence and Respect His holy Name • Why the Lord’s Day is the Center of our Worship

9. After we first worship God, then… • We have the bridge between God and the rest of the world, God, and neighbor; that is our parents, and our respect for others. • Our parents represent God to us when we’re little, • They promised to God that they would raise us in the ways of the faith. • They have promised to form us in the ways of God, and not of the world. • They are God’s baby sitters and should raise the children to the best of their ability, because we are God’s adopted children.

10. Love of neighbor… • Commandments Five through Ten have to do with our relationship with our neighbor. • Number Five, “Thou shalt not kill” • Number Six, “Thou shall not commit adultery” • Number Seven, “Thou shalt not steal” • Number Eight, “Thou shalt not bear false witness” • Number Nine, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife” • Number Ten, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods”

11. Mount Sinai • Here is a picture of where Moses received the 10 Commandments – a very beautiful holy spot

12. Ten Commandments were given to Moses • We know that the Ten Commandments were given to us by God on Mt. Sinai, • The Commandments were given to Moses • Moses then brought the Commandments down the mountain to the people of God. • This is given to us in Exodus 19:20-25

13. Other words for the Ten Commandments • The Lord spoke to Moses in Exodus 24:12 • “Come up to me on the mountain and, while you are there, I will give you the stone tablets on which I have written the commandments intended for their instruction.” • God had written these commandments on the two tablets of stone. • Sometimes these are called the Decalogue, which means • “The Ten Words of God,” • “The Ten Teachings of God.”

14. Catholic Bible vs. Protestant Bible • If we compare the Catholic Bibles version of the Ten Commandments with the Protestant translation, there’s going to be a slight difference. • What happens in the Protestant translation of the Scriptures is combine commandments Number Nine and Ten: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s property or spouse.” • That’s considered the one commandment of Number Ten.

15. Protestant version of the Ten Commandments are different! • In the First Commandment, in the Protestant Bible, it divides up, • “I am the Lord thy God, you should not have strange gods before Me,” • Their Second Commandment is “You shall not worship graven images.” • Our first commandment entails both their first and second commandment. • Our first commandment = their first and second commandment • Their tenth commandment = our ninth and tenth commandment

16. A closer look… • The First Commandment in the Catholic Bible is, “I am the Lord your God. Do not have false gods before Me.” • That includes the forbidding of worshiping of graven images; • Whereas, in the Protestant Bible, this is Number One, and this is Number Two. • All the other Commandments get bumped. This becomes the Third Commandment; the Fourth; the Fifth; the Sixth; the Seventh; the Eighth; the Ninth; and then, the Tenth is combined from Number Nine and Number Ten. • Sometimes, people look in the Bible and they say, “This doesn’t make sense.” Our enumeration is different • We cannot talk to them about our 4th Commandment because theirs will be different. That is why we need to be direct in our understanding.

17. Why is their a difference? • The Catholic system is based on the Hebrew text, principally on the enumeration made by St. Augustine. • This was adopted by the church at the Council of Trent: (Trent – a response to the reformation) • Which states, “The First Commandment contains everything relating to the worship of false gods. The ten-fold division is safeguarded by dividing the last precept into coveting spouse and coveting property.” • St. Augustine – the one who gave us our numbering system.

18. What about the Protestant numbering system? • The English Protestant enumeration is based upon Origen. • Origen was one of the early Christian writers. • By it, the worship of graven images is numbered as the First and Second Commandment. To safeguard the ten-fold division, the last two Commandments are grouped together as the Tenth. • Hopefully, this makes sense to you. • It’s really the same Ten Commandments. The only difference is that these two are combined in the Protestant text, and those two are combined in the First Commandment for us.

19. Either way… • We are obliged to obey the Ten Commandments. • These were given to us by God. • You might notice, they’re not called the “Ten Suggestions!” They actually are given to us as Commandments by God. • Suggestion vs. command are different • 600+ Jewish laws = only ten commands

20. The first three commandments • Let’s delve into the first Three Commandments – and all that come underneath these Commandments. • Ex. 20:2-5 – “I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall now bow down before them or worship them.” • From this we get our first commandment…

21. 1st Commandment • The First Commandment, “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shall not have strange gods before Me.” • By this Commandment, we’re commanded to offer to God alone, the supreme worship that is due to Him, and not set up any false gods.

22. Then and now… • In the olden days of the Old Testament, they would have a golden calf, that some people would worship. • In our society, people have a lot of false gods. • For some people, it’s sports. • For some, it’s money, computers, technology, property, possessions - any number of things. • For some, it could be drugs. It could be alcohol. • Bottom line - We live in a society that has a lot of false gods that people put ahead of the One, True God. • When God is absent, chaos abounds!

23. 1st Commandment mandate • This Commandment requires us to worship and adore God alone. • He is one who receives our adoration. • Because God is three Divine Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), we worship the Triune God. • We know there’s only One God, and yet, God is revealed to us as three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). • We worship the Father; • We worship the Son; • We worship the Holy Spirit.

24. Worship God alone • Since the Eucharist is Jesus Christ, the true Son of God, we worship Him in the Eucharist. • We use that word latria, which is “worship.” • That is a word only used for God alone: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as well as Christ in the Blessed Sacrament – the worship of God. • Matthew 4:10, Jesus says, “It is written: The Lord thy God shall you worship. Him alone shall you serve.”

25. Different ways of worship… • There are different ways in which we worship God. • First of all, there’s public worship, in which we adore Him. • There’s also private worship, which we call prayer. • The public worship that we render to God, what is due to Him, is called the Mass. • It’s at the Mass that we worship the One, True God.

26. As long as we are on this topic of worship… • We should again refresh your memory about how we honor the saints, because we do not give them latria (worship). • Worship is given to God alone. • We worship God, but we honor the saints! • The Latin word that we use for the saints and the Angels is dulia, which means “veneration.” • Latria is “worship” or “adoration;” • Dulia is “respect,” what’s called “veneration.”

27. A quick refresher… • There is a difference between worship and honor. • This First Commandment forbids us to worship Mary, the Angels, the saints, images, or statues. • That’s all condemned in this First Commandment. • We’re only allowed to worship God alone: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. • What we do though, is that we give respect and veneration to Angels and saints, like our holy Guardian Angel that’s with us all the time, to Mary, to the other saints in Heaven. We pay them respect and honor, because of their place in Heaven, because of God’s grace, what God’s grace has done for them.

28. In our society… • We honor great sports athletes. • We honor people at the Oscars, or the Grammy Awards. • We honor people who are great musicians, or great actors. • We show them respect and honor. We do this, of course, with great military figures as well, of the past. That’s why we have things like Gettysburg, where we remember those who have gone before us, and who died for our country. People of World War I, Korea, or Vietnam, are United States soldiers who died for their country; we pay them respect and honor at the monuments in Washington. • We don’t worship them; we don’t worship anybody, except for God alone.

29. We respect and honor, not worship them… • We respect the President, the Pope; • we even call judges “Your Honor.” • It’s that idea of showing respect. • What about Mary? • Mary has a special place of honor, which is called hyperdulia. • Hyperdulia is special honor, because she alone is the Mother of God. • She is the only one who ever bore God within her body. • We give her special love and devotion; but again, it’s not worship. • That would be a terrible sin, to worship anyone but God alone.

30. Holy people are canonized • When a person passes away, and the person had lived a very holy life, the Church then will open up their cause for canonization or sainthood. • There are different stages of the process of somebody becoming a saint. • For example, Blessed John Paul II is now beatified. • Beatificationmeans they’re “on their way to canonization.” • Usually, after a number of years, if the Church has examined their life, and studied their life, and their writings, they can call them blessed, which is the same as beatified. • Right now, Pope John Paul II is “Blessed John Paul”

31. What does it take… • To be beatified or canonized, • it takes one miracle for beatification, • and then another one for canonization. • Some of you have heard of Padre Pio, the holy priest who had the wounds of Christ in his hands and feet for 50 years. • He’s now canonized. • He went through the process.

32. What is the process? • The first process, actually, • when a person’s cause is introduced, the person is called a Servant of God. • Servant of God means their cause has been, or is being, examined by Rome. • Second, if their life is investigated, they can’t actually open up a cause for canonization until five years after the person dies. • Normally, they wait five years, and then they start looking into the person’s life, to see if they can be declared a saint.

33. The process continued… • Third, once the cause is opened they become venerable. • Venerable means that they examined their life, and their life was one of virtue. • They have a life that can be emulated, and one can follow their good example. • In order for them to move from venerable to beatified, a miracle has to occur on Earth through that saint’s intercession from Heaven.

34. An example… • Let’s say, for example, we had somebody dying of cancer in the parish, and Mother Teresa, let’s say, had just died, and we asked God to work a miracle through Mother Teresa’s intercession. • Let’s say, we gave out a holy card to everyone in the parish, and everybody prayed that prayer that God would miraculously heal somebody of cancer through Mother Teresa’s intercession. • Now, Let’s say, for example, on a particular day, the person went to the doctor, and they had gone the month before and they were filled with cancer. They went back; they had more tests, and all the cancer was gone. This has happened on many occasions.

35. Rome investigates… • That case would then be sent to Rome, who’d have medical examiners that would have to look at the previous medical records. The doctors would have to see that there was no cancer, and that it was a complete miracle. If that was the case, then that would be approved, that God was letting the Church know that Mother Teresa was in Heaven, that she could be beatified

36. Miracles are needed • It takes one miracle now, to have somebody beatified, • It takes one additional miracle to have them canonized. • Right now, Blessed John Paul II is at this stage, where he’s blessed, and there are, I’m sure, many people praying that he’ll be canonized.

37. Canon – includes saints • The word canon means “a measuring rod.” • The Canon at the Mass is the Eucharistic Prayer #1 that the priest reads, which includes the names of the saints. • When a person was canonized, their names were put in the official book of the Mass. • Now, there are over 2,500 canonized saints, so obviously, we can’t read all those names at every Mass – we’d be there for five hours. • So, the Church canonizes them, but their names are not said at every Mass.

38. Why do we honor the saints… • We do honor the saints, because God gave them incredible graces. • We can follow their good example. • They were role models. • Many of them were ordinary moms and dads. • Many of them were doctors, or lawyers, or politicians. • We can emulate the saints. We can follow their good example. • We can imitate their virtues. • We can also ask them to pray for us, because we know that they’re in Heaven, and they can pray for us

39. The intercession of the saints… • We know that the Bible talks about how the saints in Heaven are interceding for us on Earth. • It’s found in a few different passages in Scripture. • In the Book of Hebrews, and the Book of Revelation, talks about the intercession of the saints.

40. Relics and holy images… • As long as we are on this topic, let us explore another thing that falls under the First Commandment, • relics and sacred images. • Relics are mementos that were used by a particular saint. It might have been some of the clothing that the saint wore. It might even be a lock of their hair, or a piece of bone from their body. These are the different saint’s relics. These relics are not worshipped, of course.

41. Relics are not worshipped • That would be a terrible sin. • They are respected and venerated just like the graves of our loved ones. • When we go visit the graves of our loved ones, we might place flowers there out of respect. • That’s a good thing, to venerate their bodies, because their bodies were the vehicles by which they lived in this world.

42. Relics in Scripture • Relics were used in Scripture, in a couple of different places. • Acts of the Apostles 19, “God worked more than the usual miracles by the hand of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons were carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out.” • This is something that God can use, the relics of the saints – things that the saints themselves used. • In the Old Testament, Aaron’s rod, Moses’ rod, split open the Red Sea. • We know that when the Lord healed somebody, He made like a mud paste and smeared the mud on their eyes, and they were cured. • So, God uses material things often to work great miracles.

43. Another example… • In the Book of Kings, 13:21 • It says, “When it had touched the bones of Elijah, the man came back to life.” • The Bible is filled with examples of how the relics of the Saints, the bones of the saints, or things that were used by the saints were respected by the early Christians

44. What about relics of Mary? • There are no first class relics of Mary. • For example, we don’t have any of her bones, because she was taken up into Heaven, body and soul. • We call that the Assumption of Our Lady. • Whereas, if you go to Rome, you can actually see the remains of many of the saints. • For example, underneath St. Peter’s, are the bones of St. Peter. • Underneath the Church of St. Paul’s, outside the city walls of Rome, are the remains of St. Paul. • When the saint died, the early Christians respected those remains of the saints, and they placed them in the catacombs or in sacred tombs. • These then were venerated, or shown respect.

45. Things we honor do not break the first commandment • We have things we honor in our own society. • If a President dies: Kennedy, Lincoln, or Washington, we have their tombs; and we show them respect. • We even show respect to our flag. We don’t let the flag get trampled on, or fall to the ground, because it represents our country. • These things are not idols. • We do not adore these things. • It’s not the sin of idolatry. • It’s actually showing respect for sacred things.

46. Respect for the sacred! • We have examples of the Crucifix, the Bible; these are all holy things that remind us of greater realities. • If somebody took a Bible, and then tore it to shreds, that would be sacrilegious; because this is the Word of God, and we need to always respect that. • The same is true with Crucifixes – sometimes people in black masses, or the Satanists, will try to take a Crucifix, and they’ll stomp on it. • Many saints actually died, because they were told to stamp on and walk across the Crucifix, and they said they would not. • Many Christians in the early church were put to death, because they would not trample upon a Crucifix.

47. The sacred deserves respect! • Would it hurt Christ if they walked on the Crucifix? No, because it’s just a symbol, just a reminder of God’s love. • But, because it was a holy thing and perhaps blessed, that Crucifix should be respected, just like the American flag. • You wouldn’t want to burn the flag, or trample on the flag, because it represents something higher. • It’s the same thing with the relics of the saints, the Crucifix, or the Bible – it represents those that we should honor and pay respect to.

48. What are some of the sins against the 1st commandment • First Commandment, “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have any false gods before Me,” • There are some sins against this First Commandment. • Let’s just spend a moment looking at some of these: • Superstition, • Sins against the virtue of Faith: • Infidelity • Apostasy • Heresy • Indifferentism

49. Under this Commandment comes the worship of God • Infidelity, apostasy, heresy, and indifferentism are four sins that are contrary to the virtue of Faith. • Indifferentism - says that all religions are equally good, and that it doesn’t matter what religion you are; • they’re all equal; • they’re all the same. • Many will say this when they’re not willing to take the effort to look into the differences between the religions.

50. Are all religions the same? NO! • Of course, as you know, there are many different religions. • You have Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran, and Methodist. • You have all of the non-Christian religions. You have Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. • Then, you have other religions, even things like Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, and Seventh Day Adventists. • There are even religions such as the Salvation Army (believe it or not, it’s a religion), and Satanism is a religion. • If somebody said all religions were equal, or the same, that would be incorrect. • Obviously, there’s a huge difference between, for example, Christianity and Islam; or Christianity and Judaism; or Buddhism and Hinduism versus Catholicism; or to an extreme, Satanism versus Christianity. • Obviously, all religions are not the same.