Christopher Wendt: Good evening, everyone. Good evening, Your Excellency. I greet all of you members of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Fatima and all our guests. I am very excited tonight, it is April 13th, and His Excellency is going to give us a catechism lesson on the first commandment of God. Before we get started, Your Excellency, could you lead us in a prayer?
His Excellency: In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
Christopher Wendt: Just a couple of announcements. This is the fifth anniversary of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Fatima. It is the fruit of praying the consecration to Our Lady according to Saint Louis de Montfort. We are in the middle of it, there are over a thousand of us worldwide, all consecrating ourselves to Our Lady. The consecration will end on May 13th, and it is not too late to join. Even if you miss the prayers, that is fine, just reach out if you need help or a book. We are happy to assist you in making the consecration so you can give Our Lady everything you have on May 13th, the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. Also, if you have not gotten a copy of the book Credo, I am always going to promote it. It is a great beacon of light, a wonderful expression of our true faith, the ancient faith that is always new. I encourage you to get a copy for your family and keep it on your shelf to learn the true faith. Without further ado, I will hand the lesson over to His Excellency about the first commandment.
His Excellency: The first commandment of God. The Holy Scripture says, “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not adore them nor serve them. I am the Lord thy God.” So when the text says, “Thou shalt not have strange gods before me,” it is equivalent to saying, “Thou shalt worship Me alone, the true God. Thou shalt not worship strange gods. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.” This commandment adds the negative part not because it is not sufficiently expressed in the affirmative part of this precept, which means, “Thou shalt worship Me the only God,” for He is God, the only God, but also because of the blindness of many who profess to worship the true God and yet at the same time adore a multitude of gods or other symbols and objects, like Mother Earth or other goddesses. The importance of this commandment is that it is the first and principal commandment, not only in order but also in nature, dignity, and excellence. God is entitled to infinitely greater love and obedience from us than any creature or king because He created us and governs us.
He nurtured us even in the womb, brought us into this world, created us, and supplied us with all the necessary things for life and maintenance. Now, let us look at the sins against this commandment. Sins against this commandment are all those of people who lack faith, hope, and charity. Such sinners are very numerous, for they include all who fall into heresy. They have no faith, so they cannot truly worship God. Those who reject what the Holy Mother Church professes for our belief, those who despair of salvation, those who do not trust in the goodness of God, and those who rely solely on wealth, health, or bodily strength, making these their gods. Let us consider another aspect: the veneration and invocation of saints and angels. This is not forbidden by this commandment. The veneration and invocation of the saints and angels who now enjoy glory in heaven, as well as the honor which the Catholic Church has always paid even to the bodily relics of the saints, is not forbidden by this commandment. If a king ordered that no one else should set himself up as king or accept the honors due to the royal person, who would be so foolish as to infer that the sovereign was unwilling for suitable honor and respect to be paid to his servants, his magistrates, and his representatives? Likewise, Christians do not give to the saints and angels the honor that is due to God alone.
If we sometimes read in Holy Scripture that angels refused to be worshiped by man, we are to understand that they did so because the worship they refused was the honor due to God alone. Yet it is lawful to honor and invoke the saints and the angels. The Holy Scripture and the Holy Spirit, who says honor and glory to God alone, also commands us to honor our parents and elders. The holy men who adored one God alone are also said in Holy Scripture to have supplicated and venerated kings. If then kings, by whose agency God governs the world, are so highly honored, shall it be deemed unlawful to honor those angelic spirits whom God has been pleased to constitute as his ministers? Their services are used not only in the government of his church but also of the universe. By their aid, we see that we are delivered every day from the great dangers of our soul and body. Are they not worthy of far greater honor since their dignity so far surpasses the earthly dignity of kings?
Add to this their love toward us, which, as we easily see from Holy Scripture, prompts them to pour out their prayers for those countries over which they are placed, as well as for us, whose guardians they are the guardian angels, and whose prayers and tears they present before the throne of God. Our prayers and our tears, the angels present before the throne of God. Hence, our Lord admonishes us in the Gospel not to offend the little ones, because their angels in heaven always see the face of their Father who is in heaven. Their intercession, therefore, we ought to invoke, because they always see the face of God and are constituted by Him the willing advocates of our salvation. So Job and Jacob, here in the Old Testament, treated the angel to bless him, and he even compelled him, declaring that he would not let him go until he had blessed him. There are many praises which God Himself pronounced even on some of the saints. If then Holy Scripture celebrates the good works of the saints, why should not men show them singular honor? A strong claim that the saints have to be honored and invoked is that they constantly pray for our salvation and obtain for us, by their merits and influence, many blessings from God, if there is joy in heaven over the conversion of one sinner.
Will not the citizens of heaven assist those who repent, and when they are invoked, will they not obtain for us the pardon of sins and the grace of God? There are some objections, especially from Protestants, against the veneration of saints. Should it then be said, as some claim, that the patronage of the saints is unnecessary because God hears our prayers without the intervention or mediation of saints? This assertion is easily answered by the observation of Saint Augustine, who said there are many things which God does not grant without a mediator and an intercessor. This is confirmed by well-known examples in Holy Scripture, such as Abimelech and the friends of Job, who were pardoned only through the prayers of Abraham and Job. Should it be alleged that to seek the patronage and intercession of the saints is a weakness of faith, what will the objectors say about the Centurion in the Gospel, whose faith was highly praised by the Lord Himself, despite the fact that he sent mediators the elders of the Jews to intercede for his sick servant? It is true that there is only one Mediator, Christ our Lord, who alone has reconciled us to God the Father through his precious blood and suffering, and who, having obtained eternal redemption and having entered once into heaven, ceases not to intercede for us, as it says in the Letter to the Hebrews. But it by no means follows that it is therefore unlawful to have recourse to the intercession of the saints. If, because we have one Mediator, Jesus Christ, it were unlawful to ask for the intercession of the saints, then this practice would be impossible.
The Apostle would never have recommended himself with so much earnestness to the prayers of his brethren on earth if the prayers of the living would lessen the glory and dignity of Christ’s mediation, no less than the intercession of the saints in heaven. Therefore, these arguments against the invocation and mediation of the saints are not valid. The honor and invocation of saints is even approved by miracles. We have many miracles in the process of beatification and canonization. For example, in the past, Ambrose and Augustine declared in their writings that they and many others not only read about miracles but saw them with their own eyes. They mentioned that the clothes, handkerchiefs, and even the very shadows of the saints, while still on earth, banished disease and restored health. Who would have the hardihood to deny that God can still work the same wonders through the holy bones and relics of the saints? This is a very valid argument, as Ambrose and Augustine mentioned. The Lord commanded in the Old Testament, “Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or of anything in the waters under the earth.”
Thou shalt not adore nor serve them. These words do not forbid holy images. Holy Scripture informs us that God Himself commanded the making of images of the angels, cherubim, and also the brazen serpent. The interpretation we must arrive at is that images are prohibited only insofar as they are used as deities, as idols, or as symbols to receive adoration and thus endure the true worship of God. They forbid idols and representations of other deities. Regarding this commandment, it is clear that there are two chief ways in which God’s majesty can be seriously outraged. The first is by worshiping idols and images as God, or believing that they possess any divinity or virtue entitling them to our worship. The other is by attempting to form a representation of deity as if it were visible to mortal eyes or could be reproduced by figures. As Saint John of Damascus, a saint of the eighth century and great theologian, says, who can represent God, invisible, incorporeal, limitless, and incapable of being reproduced under any shape?
Rightly then did the Apostle say that the pagans changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things, for they worshiped all these things as God, seeing that they made images of the things to represent Him. Hence, the Israelites exclaimed before the image of the golden calf, “These are thy gods, O Israel, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt.” They are denounced as idolaters because they changed the glory of God into the likeness of a calf. When, therefore, the Lord forbade the worship of strange gods, He also forbade making images of the deity of false gods. However, representing the person of the Holy Trinity by certain forms under which they appeared in the Old and New Testaments should not be deemed contrary to the law of God because these only express some attribute or action ascribed to God.
Thus, from the description of Daniel, God is painted as the Ancient of Days, seated on a throne with the books opened before Him; this represents the eternity of God and the infinite wisdom by which He sees and judges all the thoughts and actions of men. Angels are also represented in human form with wings to help us understand that they are actuated by benevolent feelings toward mankind and are always prepared to obey the Lord’s commands, for they are ministering spirits sent to minister for those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation. The attributes of the Holy Ghost are represented under the forms of a dove and tongues of fire, as we read in the Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles.
Therefore, to make and honor the images of Christ our Lord, His Holy Mother, and the saints all of whom were clothed with human nature and appeared in human form is not only not forbidden by this commandment but is confirmed by the constant tradition of the Church and the writings of many of the Fathers of the Church. There is also the usefulness of these sacred images of Our Lord, Our Lady, and the saints whom we know and whom the Church knows.
The use of images is also intended to instruct in the history of Holy Scripture, both of the Old Testament and the New Testament, and to revive from time to time their memory so that, moved by the contemplation of heavenly things, we may be more urgently inflamed to adore and love God Himself. The images of the saints are placed in churches not only to be honored but also to admonish us by their examples to imitate their lives and virtues.
St. Thomas Aquinas gives us the following synthesis of the first commandment, saying that the entire law of Christ depends upon charity, and charity depends on two precepts, one concerning the love of God and the other concerning loving our neighbor. The first commandment, which relates to the love of God, is “Thou shalt not have strange gods.” To understand this commandment, one must know how it was violated of old, because some worshiped even demons. All the gods of the pagans are devils, says Holy Scripture. This is the greatest and most detestable of all sins. Even now, there are many who transgress the first commandment, such as those who practice divination and fortune telling.
Some worship the heavenly bodies and believe the stars to be gods. Into this error also fall those who wrongly use the things of this earth and love them too much. Some men even worship the earth itself and their ancestors as gods. Our Lord says, “Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.” The first commandment forbids us to worship anyone other than the one true God, and we shall consider this for five reasons because of God’s dignity.
The first reason is the dignity of God, which, if belittled in any way, would be an injury to God. We see something similar in human customs, reverence is due to every degree of dignity. Thus, a traitor to the king is one who robs him of what he ought to maintain. Such is also the conduct of some toward God because they change the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of a corruptible man. This is highly displeasing to God because He says, “I will not give my glory and honor to another, nor my praise to graven things.”
The second reason is God’s goodness. We receive every good from God, and this is also the dignity of God that He is the maker and giver of all good things.
And this is implied in the name of God, namely Deus, in Latin, which is said to be the distributor, the giver, datur in Latin, of all things, because He fills all things with His goodness. You are indeed ungrateful if you do not appreciate what you have received from God. Furthermore, you make for yourself another god, a false god, just as the sons of Israel made an idol after they had been brought out of Egypt. One does this also when one puts too much trust in someone other than God, and this occurs when one seeks help from another. As Holy Scripture says, “Blessed is the man whose hope is in the name of the Lord.” The Apostle says, “Now that you have known God, why do you turn again to the weak and needy elements of this earth to worship them? You observe days and months and times and years and worship them.”
The third reason is the strength of the promise that God gives. This is the third reason for the solemn promise, for we have renounced the devil, and we have promised fidelity to God alone. This is a promise which we cannot break.
A man who makes void the law of Moses dies without mercy, even on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more do you think he deserves punishment who has trodden under foot the Son of God, who has esteemed the blood of the covenant unclean by which he was sanctified by the blood of Christ, and has insulted the Spirit of grace, as the Epistle to the Hebrews says, chapter 10.
The next reason is that this commandment protects us against the service of the devil. The first reason is because of the great burden imposed by idolatry, the service of the devil. As Holy Scripture says, “You shall serve strange gods day and night, who will give you no rest.” The devil is not satisfied with leading one into sin; he tries to lead one into other sins and into slavery.
The fifth reason for this commandment, says Thomas Aquinas, is taken from the greatness of the reward. In no law are such rewards promised as in the law of Christ. This is our reward to serve God alone. The Lord said, as St. Peter said to Christ, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.”
The worship we pay to God consists in acknowledging, both in our hearts and by the actions of our bodies, that He is our Lord and we are His creatures and servants. To worship God is to recognize our own misery and His greatness. He who worships God says with David, “My substance is nothing before thee,” as the psalm says. Our adoration of God first manifests itself by interior worship and reverence, and then also by external signs. We call those who worship God in truth, both interiorly and exteriorly, pious persons.
The interior worship of God is done by acts of faith, hope, and charity. Saint Augustine says that the worship of God necessarily begins with a correct knowledge of God. It is impossible to know Him without venerating Him. Who, knowing the omnipotence of God and His benefits towards mankind, can do otherwise than place hope in Him? Who, being conscious of the many benefits God has given, can fail to love Him? It is impossible for a creature to know God without loving Him. Reverence for God and worship of God are inseparable from the love of God, for we adore what we love.
Love and adoration are as closely connected as fire and flame, says Saint Francis de Sales. The worship of God consists of three things: first, the interior worship of faith, hope, and charity; second, the acts of these virtues; and third, the expression of our reverence for Him. Exterior worship is nothing more or less than the outward expression of faith, hope, and charity.
We adore God exteriorly by vocal prayers, sacrifice, and the acts of our body, such as gestures like genuflections, prostrations, folding of hands, striking the breast, and so on. By sacrifice, we attest our belief that God is the author of all being, the supreme Lord of all, to whom we owe our service and adoration. The offering of visible objects is a sign of the interior spiritual sacrifice whereby the soul surrenders herself to God as her final and blissful end.
By kneeling or prostrating oneself, as Christ did even in the Garden of Gethsemane, we acknowledge our own insignificance before God. Clasping the hands signifies that we are fettered and helpless. Striking the heart, like the sinner in the temple, signifies that we are deserving of chastisement. These are signs of humility before God.
Therefore, we ought never to render external adoration to God without first awakening within ourselves the corresponding interior sentiments of devotion. He who kneels down, clasps his hands, or strikes his breast without thinking of what he is doing is little better than a hypocrite.
How many people go through the usual ceremonies in the house of God merely from habit, without thinking of what they are doing? We must not act like acquaintances who, meeting casually, repeat a formula of greeting without meaning a word of what they say. The ceremonies we observe when we worship God ought to faithfully express the feelings of our hearts. Christ said to the Samaritan woman that God must be adored in spirit and in truth. That is, exterior worship ought to be the expression of our spiritual worship and correspond faithfully to the feelings of our heart and to our belief.
Persons who make a pretense of piety may be detected by their ostentatious display of devotion and their utter lack of charity. Piety that is simply external does not last because it is not the outcome of interior devotion. Saint Francis de Sales says planets and comets are both luminous heavenly bodies, and they closely resemble each other, but the comets soon disappear, whereas the planets shine on throughout time. So it is with real and unreal devotion, true and false devotion: false devotion disappears, and true devotion remains.
We ought to avoid all exaggeration in devotion and never omit the duties of our state in life. True piety does not consist in a gloomy demeanor, downcast looks, or a melancholy manner. True piety is cheerful. The soul that rejoices in the possession of God and is rich in virtue produces a pleasant impression on others. This joyfulness must also be modest and humble, not a display of oneself or immoderation, as seen in some charismatic forms.
It is also a mistake to burden oneself with a great variety of religious practices and neglect the duties of one’s state in life. We should aim for simplicity in our devotions, both interior and exterior. The duties of our state ought never to be neglected for the sake of prayer, for nothing is more pleasing to God than the right fulfillment of the duties of our state. Piety that is incompatible with the duties of one’s state is false piety, says Saint Francis de Sales. True piety adapts itself to the duties of every state and calling, just as a fluid takes the form of the vessel into which it is poured.
In conclusion, we must pay supreme worship to God alone, for He alone is the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, of our life, and of every moment of our life. Our Lord said to the devil when He was tempted, “It is written, The Lord thy God shalt thou adore and Him alone shalt thou serve.”
Christopher Wendt: Thank you, Your Excellency. I have a quick question. A few years ago in St. Peter’s, they brought out the Pachamama in front of some of the leaders of the Church. Would you say that’s a form of idolatry?
His Excellency: Yes, it was evident because we could see in a video that real gestures of true worship were performed. People bowed down and prostrated themselves before the idol. The image of Pachamama was circled by people who truly bowed down. They stretched out their hands in prayer toward this object and even burned incense. This is undeniable to any person of common sense, undeniable signs and gestures of worship. This is not permitted by the first commandment of God. It was clear that this was a representation, and it was explained as venerating or honoring the so-called Mother Earth, as the tribes in Latin America did before they became Christians.
Christopher Wendt: If a holy place is defiled by idolatry, what, in theory, should be done in the future?
His Excellency: When an act of grievous sin is committed in a sacred place, like a church or other sacred location, it is an outrage and a grave sin against the first commandment of God. This happened in the Vatican Gardens. Then the same idol was brought into the Basilica of St. Peter and another nearby church, where it was even exposed with candles burning before it for several weeks. Therefore, these places, especially consecrated places like churches, must be cleansed and purified by a special rite. This is found in the Roman Ritual, in the old rite called the reconciliation of a profaned church. This must be done. Such acts of worship also serve as acts of reparation and expiation.
Christopher Wendt: Thank you, Your Excellency. So we can help by doing acts of reparation for that idolatry. One more question: when it is said that there are many paths to God, like God wills the diversity of religions, is there a little bit of idolatry in that as well?
His Excellency: Of course, it is not only a little bit. Idolatry is contained in that statement because when it is said that God likes the diversity or plurality of religions, logically this expression includes religions that practice the adoration of idols or recognize other gods besides the true God. Therefore, this expression is directly against the first commandment of God.
Christopher Wendt: Thank you, Your Excellency. I have many more questions, but we are running out of time. I just want to really thank you for your lesson today on the first commandment. Could you close us in a prayer?
His Excellency: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Kyrie Eleison! Christe Eleison! Kyrie Eleison! Lord Jesus Christ,
You are the Good Shepherd! With Your almighty hand, You guide Your pilgrim Church through the storms of each age.
Adorn the Holy See with holy popes who neither fear the powerful of this world nor compromise with the spirit of the age, but preserve, strengthen, and defend the Catholic Faith unto the shedding of their blood, and observe, protect, and hand on the venerable liturgy of the Roman Church.
O Lord, return to us through holy popes who, inflamed with the zeal of the Apostles, proclaim to the whole world: “Salvation is found in no other than in Jesus Christ. For there is no other name under heaven given to men by which they should be saved” (see Acts 4:10-12).
Through an era of holy popes, may the Holy See, which is home to all who promote the Catholic and Apostolic Faith, always shine as the cathedra of truth for the whole world. Hear us, O Lord, and through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of the Church, grant us holy Popes, grant us many holy Popes! Have mercy on us and hear us! Amen.
Dominus vobiscum.
Christopher Wendt: Et cum spiritu tuo.
His Excellency: Et benedictio Dei Omnipotentis: Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, descendat super vos et maneat semper. Amen.
Praise be Jesus Christ!
Christopher Wendt: Now and forever!
Thank you, Your Excellency. Our next meeting will be on May 13th. We will actually be celebrating our consecration that day. It will be a really happy day, the culmination of the preparation for total consecration to Jesus through Mary. It will be our fifth anniversary of doing the consecration and the fifth anniversary of the Confraternity itself. We are really looking forward to that. It will be a question-and-answer session, so you can start sending your questions as soon as you like. That is all for this evening. I wish you all a blessed Holy Week. God bless you all.
