Worship, faith, hope, and love

Question 315

What is the first Commandment?

The first Commandment is: I am the Lord thy God: thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.

Question 316

How does the first Commandment help us to keep the great Commandment of the love of God?

The first Commandment helps us to keep the great Commandment of the love of God because it commands us to adore God alone.

Question 317

How do we adore God?

We adore God by faith, hope, and charity, by prayer and sacrifice.

Question 318

How may the first Commandment be broken?

The first Commandment may be broken by giving to a creature the honor which belongs to God alone; by false worship; and by attributing to a creature a perfection which belongs to God alone.

Question 319

Do those who make use of spells and charms, or who believe in dreams, in mediums, spiritists, fortune-tellers, and the like, sin against the first Commandment?

Those who make use of spells and charms, or who believe in dreams, in mediums, spiritists, fortunetellers and the like, sin against the first Commandment, because they attribute to creatures perfections which belong to God alone.

Question 320

Are sins against faith, hope and charity also sins against the first Commandment?

Sins against faith, hope, and charity are also sins against the first Commandment.

Question 321

How does a person sin against faith?

A person sins against faith: 1st, by not trying to know what God has taught; 2d, by refusing to believe all that God has taught; 3d, by neglecting to profess his belief in what God has taught.

Question 322

How do we fail to try to know what God has taught?

We fail to try to know what God has taught by neglecting to learn the Christian doctrine.

Question 323

Who are they who do not believe all that God has taught?

They who do not believe all that God has taught are the heretics and infidels.

Question 324

Who are they who neglect to profess their belief in what God has taught?

They who neglect to profess their belief in what God has taught are all those who fail to acknowledge the true Church in which they really believe.

Question 325

Can they who fail to profess their faith in the true Church in which they believe expect to be saved while in that state?

They who fail to profess their faith in the true Church in which they believe cannot expect to be saved while in that state, for Christ has said: "Whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven."

Question 326

Are we obliged to make open profession of our faith?

We are obliged to make open profession of our faith as often as God's honor, our neighbor's spiritual good, or our own requires it. "Whosoever," says Christ, "shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven."

Question 327

Which are the sins against hope?

The sins against hope are presumption and despair.

Question 328

What is presumption?

Presumption is a rash expectation of salvation without making proper use of the necessary means to obtain it.

Question 329

What is despair?

Despair is the loss of hope in God's mercy.

Question 330

How do we sin against the love of God?

We sin against the love of God by all sin, but particularly by mortal sin.

God alone, without superstition

Questions 315, 316, 317, 318, 319

Adoration belongs to God alone and is expressed through faith, hope, charity, prayer, and sacrifice. Divination, spiritism, charms, and attempts to control hidden powers contradict trust in providence. Ordinary dreams or cultural symbols are not automatically sinful; deliberate reliance on occult power is the issue.

Seeking and professing truth

Questions 320, 321, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326

Faith should seek understanding and be professed without coercion or contempt. The older labels in these answers belong to historical polemical vocabulary; culpability depends on knowledge and freedom, and the Church entrusts final judgment to God. Witness must respect religious freedom and never manipulate fear.

Hope between presumption and despair

Questions 327, 328, 329, 330

Presumption expects salvation without conversion or relies on oneself apart from grace; despair denies God's mercy or the possibility of help. Neither struggle, doubt, nor mental illness should be casually labeled a sin. Charity loves God above all and neighbor for God's sake.

Deuteronomy 6:4–9

Israel's confession of the one God joins love with remembrance, teaching, and daily life.

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: 5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

Matthew 4:8–11

Jesus refuses idolatrous power and answers that worship and service belong to God alone.

8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.