Ark Of The Covenant

By Patrick Madrid

His face stiffened, and his eyes narrowed to slits. Until now the Calvary Chapel pastor had been calm as he "shared the gospel" with me, but when I mentioned my belief in Mary’s Immaculate Conception, his attitude changed.  

"The problem with you Roman Catholics," he said, thin forefinger stabbing the air a few inches from my face, "is that you’ve added extra baggage to the gospel. How can you call yourselves Christians when you cling to unbiblical traditions like the Immaculate Conception? It’s not in the Bible--it was invented by the Roman Catholic system in 1854. Besides, Mary couldn’t have been sinless, only God is sinless. If she were without sin she would be God!"  

At least the minister got the date right, 1854 being the year Pope Pius IX infallibly defined the doctrine of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, but that’s as far as his accuracy went. His reaction was typical of Evangelicals. He was adamant that the Catholic emphasis on Mary’s sinlessness was an unbearable affront to the unique holiness of God, especially as manifested in Jesus Christ. 

After we’d examined the biblical evidence for the doctrine, the anti-Marianism he’d shown became muted, but it was clear that, at least emotionally if not biblically, Mary was a stumbling block for him. Like most Christians (Catholic and Protestant) the minister was unaware of the biblical support for the Church’s teaching on the Immaculate Conception. But sometimes even knowledge of these passages isn’t enough. Many former Evangelicals who have converted to the Catholic Church relate how hard it was for them to put aside prejudices and embrace Marian doctrines even after they’d thoroughly satisfied themselves through prayer and Scripture study that such teachings were indeed biblical. 

For Evangelicals who have investigated the issue and discovered, to their astonishment, the biblical support for Marian doctrines, there often lingers the suspicion that somehow, in a way they can’t quite identify, the Catholic emphasis on Mary’s sinlessness undermines the unique sinlessness of Christ. 

To alleviate such suspicions, one must understand what the Church means (and doesn’t mean) by the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Pope Pius IX, in his constitution Ineffabilis Deus (issued December 8, 1854), taught that Mary, "from the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin." The doctrine includes the assertion that Mary was perpetually free from all actual sin (willful disobedience of God, either venial or mortal). 

Several objections are raised by Protestants.  First, if only God is sinless, Mary couldn’t have been sinless or she would have been God. 

Second, if Mary was sinless, why did she say, "My spirit rejoices in God my savior" (Luke 1:47)? If only sinners need a savior, why would Mary, if free from sin, include herself in the category of sinners? If she were sinless, she would have had no need of a savior, and her statement in Luke 1 would be incoherent. 

Third, Paul says in Romans 3:10-12, 23, "There is no one just [righteous], not one, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God, all have gone astray; all alike are worthless; there is not one who does good, not even one. . . . all have sinned and are deprived [fallen short] of the glory of God." In Romans 5:12 he says, "Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned . . . ." These verses seem to rule out any possibility that Mary was sinless. 

The Immaculate Conception emphasizes four truths: (1) Mary did need a savior; (2) her savior was Jesus Christ; (3) Mary’s salvation was accomplished by Jesus through his work on the Cross; and (4) Mary was saved from sin, but in a different and more glorious way than the rest of us are. Let’s consider the first and easiest of the three objections. 

The notion that God is the only being without sin is quite false--and even Protestants think so. Adam and Eve, before the fall, were free from sin, and they weren’t gods, the serpent’s assertions to the contrary notwithstanding. (One must remember that Mary was not the first immaculate human being, even if she was the first to be conceived immaculately.) 

The angels in heaven are not gods, but they were created sinless and have remained so ever since. The saints in heaven are not gods, although each of them is now completely sinless (Rev. 14:5; 21:27). 

The second and third arguments are related. Mary needed Jesus as her savior. His death on the Cross saved her, as it saves us, but its saving effects were applied to her (unlike to us) at the moment of her conception. (Keep in mind that the Crucifixion is an eternal event and that the appropriation of salvation through Christ’s death isn’t impeded by time or space).

Medieval theologians developed an analogy to explain how and why Mary needed Jesus as her savior. A man (each of us) is walking along a forest path, unaware of a large pit a few paces directly ahead of him. He falls headlong into the pit and is immersed in the mud (original sin) it contains. He cries out for help, and his rescuer (the Lord Jesus) lowers a rope down to him and hauls him back up to safety. The man says to his rescuer, "Thank you for saving me," recalling the words of the psalmist: The Lord "stooped toward me and heard my cry. He drew me out of the pit of destruction, out of the mud of the swamp; he set my feet upon a crag" (Psalm 40:2-4). 

A woman (Mary), approaches the same pit, but as she began to fall into the pit her rescuer reaches out and stops her from falling in. She cries out, "Thank you for saving me" (Luke 1:47). Like this woman, Mary was no less "saved" than any other human being has been saved. She was just saved anticipatorily, before contracting original sin. Each of us is permitted to become dirtied with original sin, but she was not. God hates sin, so this was a far better way. 

Paul’s statements in Romans chapters 3 and 5 (no one is righteous; no one seeks God; no one does good; all have sinned) should not be taken in a crassly literal and universal sense--if they are, irreconcilable contradictions will arise. Consider Luke 1:6. Common sense tells us whole groups of people are exempt from Paul’s statement that "all have sinned." Aborted infants cannot sin, nor can young children or severely retarded people. But Paul didn’t mention such obvious exceptions. He was writing to adults in our state of life. 

If certain groups are exempt from the "all have sinned" rubric, then these verses can’t be used to argue against Mary’s Immaculate Conception, since hers would be an exceptional case too, one not needing mention given the purpose of Paul’s discussion and his intended audience. 

Now let’s consider what the Bible has to say in favor of the Catholic position. It’s important to recognize that neither the words "Immaculate Conception" nor the precise formula adopted by the Church to enunciate this truth are found in the Bible. This doesn’t mean the doctrine isn’t biblical, only that the truth of the Immaculate Conception, like the truths of the Trinity and Jesus’ hypostatic union (that Jesus was incarnated as God and man, possessing completely and simultaneously two natures, divine and human, in one divine person), is mentioned either in other words or only indirectly. 

Look first at two passages in Luke 1. In verse 28, the angel Gabriel greets Mary as "kecharitomene" ("full of grace" or "highly favored"). This is a recognition of her sinless state. In verse 42 Elizabeth greets Mary as "blessed among women." The original import of this phrase is lost in English translation. Since neither the Hebrew nor Aramaic languages have superlatives (best, highest, tallest, holiest), a speaker of those languages would have say, "You are tall among men" or "You are wealthy among men" to mean "You are the tallest" or "You are the wealthiest." Elizabeth’s words mean Mary was the holiest of all women. 

The Church understands Mary to be the fulfillment of three Old Testament types: the cosmos, Eve, and the ark of the covenant. A type is a person, event, or thing in the Old Testament which foreshadows or symbolizes some future reality God brings to pass. (See these verses for Old Testament types fulfilled in the New Testament: Col. 2:17, Heb. 1:1, 9:9, 9:24, 10:1; 1 Cor. 15:45-49; Gal. 4:24-25.) 

Some specific examples of types: Adam was a type of Christ (Rom. 5:14); Noah’s Ark and the Flood were types of the Church and baptism (1 Peter 3:19-21); Moses, who delivered Israel from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, was a type of Christ, who saves us from the bondage of slavery to sin and death; circumcision foreshadowed baptism; the slain passover lamb in Exodus 12: 21-28 was a symbol of Jesus, the Lamb of God, being slain on the Cross to save sinners. The important thing to understand about a type is that its fulfillment is always more glorious, more profound, more "real" than the type itself. 

Mary’s Immaculate Conception is foreshadowed in Genesis 1, where God creates the universe in an immaculate state, free from any blemish or stain of sin or imperfection. This is borne out by the repeated mention in Genesis 1 of God beholding his creations and saying they were "very good." Out of pristine matter the Lord created Adam, the first immaculately created human being, forming him from the "womb" of the Earth. The immaculate elements from which the first Adam received his substance foreshadowed the immaculate mother from whom the second Adam (Romans 5:14) took his human substance. 

The second foreshadowing of Mary is Eve, the physical mother of our race, just as Mary is our spiritual mother through our membership in the Body of Christ (Rev. 12:17). What Eve spoiled through disobedience and lack of faith (Genesis 3), Mary set aright through faith and obedience (Luke 1:38). 

We see a crucial statement in Genesis 3:15: "I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman, between your seed and her seed; he will crush your head, and you will strike at his heel." This passage is especially significant in that it refers to the "seed of the woman," a singular usage. The Bible, following normal biology, otherwise only refers to the seed of the man, the seed of the father, but never to the seed of the woman. Who is the woman mentioned here? The only possibility is Mary, the only woman to give birth to a child without the aid of a human father, a fact prophesied in Isaiah 7:14. 

If Mary were not completely sinless this prophesy becomes untenable. Why is that? The passage points to Mary’s Immaculate Conception because it mentions a complete enmity between the woman and Satan. Such an enmity would have been impossible if Mary were tainted by sin, original or actual (see 2 Corinthians 6:14). This line of thinking rules out Eve as the woman, since she clearly was under the influence of Satan in Genesis 3. 

The third and most compelling type of Mary’s Immaculate Conception is the ark of the covenant. In Exodus 20 Moses is given the Ten Commandments. In chapters 25 through 30 the Lord gives Moses a detailed plan for the construction of the ark, the special container which would carry the Commandments. The surprising thing is that five chapters later, staring in chapter 35 and continuing to chapter 40, Moses repeats word for word each of the details of the ark’s construction. 

Why? It was a way of emphasizing how crucial it was for the Lord’s exact specifications to be met (Ex. 25:9, 39:42-43). God wanted the ark to be as perfect and unblemished as humanly possible so it would be worthy of the honor of bearing the written Word of God. How much more so would God want Mary, the ark of the new covenant, to be perfect and unblemished since she would carry within her womb the Word of God in flesh. 

When the ark was completed, "the cloud covered the meeting tent and the glory of the Lord filled the dwelling. Moses could not enter the meeting tent, because the cloud settled down upon it and the glory of the Lord filled the dwelling" (Ex. 40:34-38). Compare this with the words of Gabriel to Mary in Luke 1:35. 

There’s another striking foreshadowing of Mary as the new ark of the covenant in 2 Samuel 6. The Israelites had lost the ark in a battle with their enemies, the Philistines, and had recently recaptured it. King David sees the ark being brought to him and, in his joy and awe, says "Who am I that the ark of the Lord should come to me?" (1 Sam. 6:9). 

Compare this with Elizabeth’s nearly identical words in Luke 1:43. Just as David leapt for joy before the ark when it was brought into Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6:14-16), so John the Baptist leapt for joy in Elizabeth’s womb when Mary, the ark of the new covenant, came into her presence (Luke 1:44). John’s leap was for precisely the same reason as David’s--not primarily because of the ark itself, but because of what the ark contained, the Word of God. 

Another parallel may be found in 2 Samuel 6:10-12 where we read that David ordered the ark diverted up into the hill country of Judea to remain with the household of Obededom for three months. This parallels the three-month visit Mary made at Elizabeth’s home in the hill country of Judea (Luke 1:39-45, 65). While the ark remained with Obededom it "blessed his household." This is an Old Testament way of saying the fertility of women, crops, and livestock was increased. Notice that God worked this same miracle for Elizabeth and Zachariah in their old age as a prelude to the greater miracle he would work in Mary. 

The Mary/ark imagery appears again in Revelation 11:19 and 12:1-17, where she is called the mother of all "those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus" (verse 17). The ark symbolism found in Luke 1 and Revelation 11 and 12 was not lost on the early Christians. They could see the parallels between the Old Testament’s description of the ark and the New Testament’s discussion of Mary’s role. 

Granted, none of these verses "proves" Mary’s Immaculate Conception, but they all point to it. After all, the Bible nowhere says Mary committed any sin or languished under original sin. As far as explicit statements are concerned, the Bible is silent on most of the issue, yet all the biblical evidence supports the Catholic teaching. 

A last thought. If you could have created your own mother, wouldn’t you have made her the most beautiful, virtuous, perfect woman possible? Jesus, being God, did create his own mother (Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2), and he did just that--he created her immaculate and, in his mercy and generosity, kept her that way.

Why Saints And Sinners (SS)?

Many people might wonder we use the name Saints and Sinners (SS) as the identity of the group. Why not use some very catchy names like Jesus' Army (JA),  Jesus' Evangelist (JE) or Heaven's Army (HA) or it's equivalent-like? Why not find something in mainstream line that appeals to the youths and the young ones? I felt compelled to write this reflection based on some feedback from friends, asking why we name our beloved group is such an astounding way. Some find it quite amusing and others...well, not so amusing, I guess. 

So, to start it all off...why Saints and Sinners? I will start off with  a passage from Romans 1:16-17 where Paul exclaimed "...we are saved by our faith, whether Jews or Greeks in the saving justice of God: a justice based on faith and addressed to faith. " A closer inspection on this passage gives us the answer we are looking for: That we all need God to attain salvation and only through God alone. Grace and blessings are the privilege bestowed by God to everyone and not based on merit or favoritism. Everyone is born equal in terms of his or her capabilities to reach out to God in faith and love. Now, why do we need grace in the first place? Because all of us are sinners to begin with. Everyone, with the exception of the Blessed Mother were born in the bondage of sin and death. Yes, and that also includes everyone, from Saint Peter, Mother Teresa or to any of the well-known saints throughout our history. Therein lies the first answer: We are all still capable of committing sin and worthy of the title sinner.  

In each of us, there is a seed of goodness and truth that has been sown in us. Our first parents, though deceived by the wiles of the Evil One, somehow still manage to retain the goodness that is so resplendent in our God and Creator. We all inherit that potential to respond to the Second Adam, the coming Christ, to escape and free ourselves from the dominion of sin. So, we all have the 'potential' to become saints or holy people. Interestingly, the word saint actually comes from the Latin word "Sanctus" which means people who are called to holiness.  That said, we can choose to remain in our status quo as sinners and reject the Spirit's gentle tugging at our hearts. And there you have the second answer: We all are called to aspire to holiness, as Scripture says 'Be holy, just like I am holy" (1 Pt: 1-16).

So, the Saints and Sinners tag signifies our desires to fly and unite with God, while being aware of our own weaknesses and needs for the Lord's loving care. It is not meant to denigrade the good qualities in us, but as a very good reminder that all of us are still struggling and in the journey towards home to our Father. And just as the Father is holy, so we aspire to become just like Him, who is our Father and our God. 

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Note: As per article that was published in sscircle Yahoo! group on 4th July 2009.

Q&A On The First Commandment

Q: Do Catholics worship statues?

God forbade the worship of statues, but he did not forbid the religious use of statues. Instead, he actually commanded their use in religious contexts!

People who oppose religious statuary forget about the many passages where the Lord commands the making of statues. For example: "And you shall make two cherubim of gold [i.e., two gold statues of angels]; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece of the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be" (Ex. 25:18–20).

David gave Solomon the plan "for the altar of incense made of refined gold, and its weight; also his plan for the golden chariot of the cherubim that spread their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the Lord. All this he made clear by the writing of the hand of the Lord concerning it all, all the work to be done according to the plan" (1 Chr. 28:18–19). David’s plan for the temple, which the biblical author tells us was "by the writing of the hand of the Lord concerning it all," included statues of angels.

Similarly Ezekiel 41:17–18 describes graven (carved) images in the idealized temple he was shown in a vision, for he writes, "On the walls round about in the inner room and [on] the nave were carved likenesses of cherubim."

During a plague of serpents sent to punish the Israelites during the exodus, God told Moses to "make [a statue of] a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it shall live. So, Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live" (Num. 21:8–9).

One had to look at the bronze statue of the serpent to be healed, which shows that statues could be used ritually, not merely as religious decorations.

Catholics use statues, paintings, and other artistic devices to recall the person or thing depicted. Just as it helps to remember one’s mother by looking at her photograph, so it helps to recall the example of the saints by looking at pictures of them.

God forbids the worship of images as gods, but he doesn’t ban the making of images. If he had, religious movies, videos, photographs, paintings, and all similar things would be banned. But, as the case of the bronze serpent shows, God does not even forbid the ritual use of religious images.

It is when people begin to adore a statue as a god that the Lord becomes angry. Thus when people did start to worship the bronze serpent as a snake-god (whom they named "Nehushtan"), the righteous king Hezekiah had it destroyed (2 Kgs. 18:4).

Sometimes anti-Catholics cite Deuteronomy 5:9, where God said concerning idols, "You shall not bow down to them." Since many Catholics sometimes bow or kneel in front of statues of Jesus and the saints, anti-Catholics confuse the legitimate veneration of a sacred image with the sin of idolatry.

Though bowing can be used as a posture in worship, not all bowing is worship. Similarly, a person can kneel before a king without worshipping him as a god

Q: I understand that chain prayers would fall under the category of superstitious practices, but I receive some e-mails with beautiful prayers that ask the recipient to pass them along. Why is this breaking the First Commandment?

A: There is nothing wrong with receiving e-mails with beautiful prayers, nor is there anything wrong with passing good prayers on. But many of these e-mail prayers are not so harmless. Some chain prayers are modeled after secular chain letters, in which superstitious language is used to suggest to the recipient that the promised "blessing" will only be given if the message is passed on. Those with a more sensitive conscience could fall into superstition. Thus, electronic chain prayers (or letters) can become an occasion of sin (CCC 2111, 1 Cor 8:13). 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says about the First Commandment: "Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary" (CCC 2111).

Q: What is the difference between talking to a saint and talking to a ghost? In both cases the saint and ghost have passed on; therefore, they both are a spirit. So what difference does it make if one spirit is in heaven and the other is in my house?

A: By forbidding occult contact with the supernatural realm, what the Church is forbidding are the methods and techniques generally used to "summon up" departed human beings or other spirits (e.g., ouija boards, crystal balls, séances, mediums, etc.). It is not forbidding "conversation," so to speak, between those in this life and those in the next; it is only forbidding attempts to manipulate the supernatural realm to obtain forbidden power or knowledge (CCC 2116).

Take, for example, Saul’s attempt to speak with the dead prophet, Samuel, through the medium of Endor (1 Sam. 28:7-20). It was not Saul’s desire to speak with Samuel that was his sin but the forbidden means by which he accomplished it. It would have been perfectly fine for Saul to have prayed to Samuel, asking Samuel for his intercession, but instead Saul had a medium "conjure" Samuel. The text gives us no reason to think that the person with whom Saul spoke was not Samuel—demonstrating that God may allow such contact to occasionally "work" to bring good out of evil (in this case, allowing Samuel to issue the warning to Saul that he would soon die)—but that does not make the forbidden methods lawful.

Prayer to saints, on the other hand, is entirely different. There is no attempt to conjure up spirits, no attempt to seek forbidden knowledge. All that is done is that the petitioner honors God’s friend and asks the saint for prayer.

Q: I had an argument with a priest about horoscopes. He said they are fine, and I said that horoscopes go against the first commandment. Who is right?   

A:  Here is what the Catechism says:

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 all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone. (CCC 2116, emphasis added).

While some people who check out "what the stars say" may not really believe in astrology, it is at the very least an imprudent practice that can weaken faith in God and trust in his providence. To the extent that the predictions are believed and followed, it can constitute grave matter. Full knowledge and free consent of the will are required in addition to grave matter to constitute a mortal sin. 

"Do not turn to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek defilement among them" (Lev. 19:31).

"The soul who turns to mediums and to familiar spirits to go whoring after them, I will set my face against that soul and cut him off from the midst of his people" (Lev. 20:6).

"The man or the woman who becomes a medium or a familiar spirit will surely die; they will cast stones at them; their blood will be on themselves" (Lev. 20:27).

"Let there not be found among you one who makes his son or his daughter pass through fire, a diviner of divinations, an occultist, a charmer, an enchanter, one who casts spells, or one who questions mediums or familiar spirits, or one who seeks the dead" (Deut. 18:10-11)

All in all, one should refrain from reading astrology columns and definitely should never consult an astrologer.

Q: Why did God did not reveal himself as Three Persons in the Old Testament?

A: Just as Jesus did not stand up in the manger and announce his divinity, God did not stand on Mt. Sinai and give a theological exposition of the three distinct Persons who exist consubstantially and eternally. God is like a good teacher, who reveals his truth gradually, planting seeds, and evoking the truth of the conclusions from his students. We see Jesus doing this with his apostles in Matthew 16, when he asks them who he is.

In the Old Testament God needed to establish monotheism for the Jews to make them stand apart from all the polytheistic religions that abounded. Monotheism was almost unheard of, and if Yahweh had tried announcing that he is three Persons the people of the day might have misunderstood it as Tritheism, which is a heresy.

Today, we have enough trouble trying to get people to believe in the one true God, let alone many. Thus the New Testament was a better time for God to have revealed His true nature, now that the danger of a polytheistic misunderstanding had been eliminated.

The 10 Commandments: The First Commandment

THE 10 COMMANDMENTS IN BRIEF.

After the escape from Egypt, Moses appoints leaders and judges over the people of Israel on the advice of his father-in-law, Jethro (Ex. 18: 1-27).

From the very beginning, the Israelites were shown to be a “stiff-necked people” (so says the Lord c.f. Ex. 32:9), beginning from the grumbling about food which resulted in God sending the manna and quails from heavens (Ex. 16: 1-36) to the incident in Massah, where the people rebel because of thirst. So, Moses had a big headache with the people of Israel. And so, God gave him TWO TABLETS as cure (God indeed is the first physician ever to prescribe such a cure). God gave Moses two tablets of stone inscribed by the His finger (Ex.31: 18). On it were written the Decalogue, or the 10 Commandments given by the Lord to the people of Israel. Int happened on the 3^rd month after they left Egypt, when they arrived on the Desert of Sinai. Moses went up the mountain and received the command from the Lord.

Meanwhile, after Moses went to the mountains, the people were impatient, because he was taking so long in coming down from the mountain. So, they went to Aaron and asked him to make for them ‘gods’ for them to worship. So, Aaron asked them to bring the earrings of their wives, sons and daughters were wearing and from there, he fashioned for them a golden calf (Ex.32: 2-4). And they prayed and burnt offerings to the idol, saying “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of Egypt.”

God was very angry at them and wanted to destroy the Israelites and make a great nation out of Moses instead. But Moses pleaded with the Lord and the Lord relented from the disaster that he had threatened.

Moses then went down with the two tablets of the Testimony with God’s writing on it. He saw the Israelites were enjoying themselves in revelry and saw the calf and dancing. He was angry and threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them. He, then took the calf, burnt it in the fire, ground it, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

After that, the Lord asked him to bring two tablets of stone for the Lord to inscribe the 10 Commandments again.

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

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; cf. Deut 5:6-9.)

It is written: "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." (Deut. 6:13 and Luke 4:8 – The temptation of Jesus)

The peoples of the ancient world had all *sorts* of gods - gods of the sun, gods of the sea, gods of fire, darkness, death, health, wealth, beauty, wisdom and knowledge, war and destruction, lightning and thunder. God wanted the People of Israel to keep an identity AS *HIS* PEOPLE, not as just another silly little people with other silly little gods.

The core of the command is obvious - and so simple we constantly let it elude us. YOU MUST LET *GOD* BE GOD. You must not set yourself up as God. You must not try to determine for yourself what YOU would do if you were God - you must seek to understand what it is that God Himself has SAID He wished done.

The central value it holds is that of WORSHIP - not of terror, not of fear, not of submission (or even of "obedience" in the sense that obedience is so often conceived in Western life, a form of grudging submission).

Give God, your Father, His place at the center of your life. Live in a world in which God *really* IS your Father. Open your heart, as well as your mind, to God, your Father in Heaven.

For most of us, our OWN "gods" are those twins of comfort and of pleasure. Self-gratification. As instantly as possible. Isn't it true that whatever it is in your life that is MOST important for you IS your god? Truly was it said by Our Lord: "Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be."

The First Commandment in fact DEALS with absolutes. An absolute is, by definition, "something which comes before anything and everything else." It is something "before which every other thing must be made to yield." It is that measure by which we measure everything else.

II. "HIM ONLY SHALL YOU SERVE"

To adore God is to acknowledge him as God, as the Creator and Savior, the Lord and Master of everything that exists, as infinite and merciful Love. "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve," says Jesus, citing Deuteronomy.

Lifting up the mind toward God is an expression of our adoration of God: prayer of praise and thanksgiving, intercession and petition. Prayer is an indispensable condition for being able to obey God's commandments. "[We] ought always to pray and not lose heart."

HOW ABOUT SUPERSTITION, DIVINATION, MAGIC AND IRRELIGION?

Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g. when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary.

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." Many martyrs died for not adoring "the Beast" refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with 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 all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity.

God's first commandment condemns the main sins of irreligion: tempting God, in words or deeds, sacrilege, and simony. (showing no respect to God and his commandments)

Tempting God consists in putting his goodness and almighty power to the test by word or deed. Thus Satan tried to induce Jesus to throw himself down from the Temple and, by this gesture, force God to act. Jesus opposed Satan with the word of God: "You shall not put the LORD your God to the test."

Sacrilege consists in profaning or treating unworthily the sacraments and other liturgical actions, as well as persons, things, or places consecrated to God. Sacrilege is a grave sin especially when committed against the Eucharist, for in this sacrament the true Body of Christ is made substantially present for us.

Simony is defined as the buying or selling of spiritual things. To Simon the magician, who wanted to buy the spiritual power he saw at work in the apostles, St. Peter responded: "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God's gift with money!" Peter thus held to the words of Jesus: "You received without pay, give without pay." The minister should ask nothing for the administration of the sacraments beyond the offerings defined by the competent authority, always being careful that the needy are not deprived of the help of the sacraments because of their poverty."