(Daddy Bob) If they were not praying to idols and
candles, what were they doing kneeling down towards the idols and candles and
crossing themselves?”
(Cristoiglesia) I apologize in advance for pointing out
the absurdity of your claims. I do not do this to embarrass you but to instruct
you and to save you from making such ridiculous errors in the future. Catholics
do not pray to candles or idols. There are no idols in Catholic Churches or
Catholic homes. Idolatry is strictly prohibited not only in the Decalogue but
in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The first is the Word of God and the
second is God’s inspired teaching to the Church. Since I suspect you will not deny
the teaching of Scripture I will not post the prohibition against idolatry but
it also states that it is prohibited as the Catechism.
First of all crossing oneself is a form of prayer where
we direct our prayers to the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We often begin and end our prayers by this action. I suppose that you are
saying that praying in the proximity of candles and religious art that you seem
to think are idols even though they do not meet any criteria for idols. An idol
is something that is worshiped as God. Catholics are forbidden from such
practices or beliefs and to do so results in an immediate self-excommunication
of the participant.
Let me give you an example….I often bow beside my bed
after awakening in the morning and pray. Since I am in close proximity of my
bed following your logic, I am worshiping my bed. You would obviously declare
that my bed is an idol to be consistent in your accusation. Are you sure you
want to continue with such ridiculous analogies?
Here is what the
Catechism says about your accusation:
“ PART THREE
LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION TWO
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
CHAPTER ONE
"YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR
HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND"
ARTICLE 1
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.3
It is written:
"You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve."4
I. "YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND HIM ONLY
SHALL YOU SERVE"
2084 God makes himself known by recalling his
all-powerful loving, and liberating action in the history of the one he
addresses: "I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage." The first word contains the first commandment of the Law:
"You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve him. . . . You shall
not go after other gods."5 God's first call and just demand is that man
accept him and worship him.
2085 The one and true God first reveals his glory to
Israel.6 The revelation of the vocation and truth of man is linked to the
revelation of God. Man's vocation is to make God manifest by acting in
conformity with his creation "in the image and likeness of God":
There will
never be another God, Trypho, and there has been no other since the world began
. . . than he who made and ordered the universe. We do not think that our God
is different from yours. He is the same who brought your fathers out of Egypt
"by his powerful hand and his outstretched arm." We do not place our
hope in some other god, for there is none, but in the same God as you do: the
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.7
2086 "The first commandment embraces faith, hope,
and charity. When we say 'God' we confess a constant, unchangeable being,
always the same, faithful and just, without any evil. It follows that we must
necessarily accept his words and have complete faith in him and acknowledge his
authority. He is almighty, merciful, and infinitely beneficent. Who could not
place all hope in him? Who could not love him when contemplating the treasures
of goodness and love he has poured out on us? Hence the formula God employs in
the Scripture at the beginning and end of his commandments: 'I am the
LORD.'"8
Faith
2087 Our moral life has its source in faith in God who
reveals his love to us. St. Paul speaks of the "obedience of faith"9
as our first obligation. He shows that "ignorance of God" is the
principle and explanation of all moral deviations.10 Our duty toward God is to
believe in him and to bear witness to him.
2088 The first commandment requires us to nourish and
protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is
opposed to it. There are various ways of sinning against faith:
Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to
hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief.
Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming
objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity.
If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness.
2089 Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the
willful refusal to assent to it. "Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal
denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or
it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total
repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the
Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to
him."11
* Hope
2090 When God reveals Himself and calls him, man cannot
fully respond to the divine love by his own powers. He must hope that God will
give him the capacity to love Him in return and to act in conformity with the
commandments of charity. Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing
and the beatific vision of God; it is also the fear of offending God's love and
of incurring punishment.
2091 The first commandment is also concerned with sins
against hope, namely, despair and presumption:
By despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation
from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair
is contrary to God's goodness, to his justice - for the Lord is faithful to his
promises - and to his mercy.
2092 There are two kinds of presumption. Either man
presumes upon his own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without
help from on high), or he presumes upon God's almighty power or his mercy
(hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit).
* Charity
2093 Faith in God's love encompasses the call and the
obligation to respond with sincere love to divine charity. The first
commandment enjoins us to love God above everything and all creatures for him
and because of him.12
2094 One can sin against God's love in various ways:
- indifference neglects or refuses to reflect on divine
charity; it fails to consider its prevenient goodness and denies its power.
- ingratitude fails or refuses to acknowledge divine
charity and to return him love for love.
- lukewarmness is hesitation or negligence in responding
to divine love; it can imply refusal to give oneself over to the prompting of
charity.
- acedia or spiritual sloth goes so far as to refuse the
joy that comes from God and to be repelled by divine goodness.
- hatred of God comes from pride. It is contrary to love
of God, whose goodness it denies, and whom it presumes to curse as the one who
forbids sins and inflicts punishments.
II. "HIM ONLY SHALL YOU SERVE"
2095 The theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity
inform and give life to the moral virtues. Thus charity leads us to render to
God what we as creatures owe him in all justice. The virtue of religion
disposes us to have this attitude.
* Adoration
2096 Adoration is the first act of the virtue of
religion. 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.13
2097 To adore God is to acknowledge, in respect and
absolute submission, the "nothingness of the creature" who would not
exist but for God. To adore God is to praise and exalt him and to humble
oneself, as Mary did in the Magnificat, confessing with gratitude that he has
done great things and holy is his name.14 The worship of the one God sets man
free from turning in on himself, from the slavery of sin and the idolatry of
the world.
* Prayer
2098 The acts of faith, hope, and charity enjoined by the
first commandment are accomplished in prayer. 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."15
Sacrifice
2099 It is right to offer sacrifice to God as a sign of
adoration and gratitude, supplication and communion: "Every action done so
as to cling to God in communion of holiness, and thus achieve blessedness, is a
true sacrifice."16
2100 Outward sacrifice, to be genuine, must be the
expression of spiritual sacrifice: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a
broken spirit. . . . "17 The prophets of the Old Covenant often denounced
sacrifices that were not from the heart or not coupled with love of neighbor.18
Jesus recalls the words of the prophet Hosea: "I desire mercy, and not
sacrifice."19 The only perfect sacrifice is the one that Christ offered on
the cross as a total offering to the Father's love and for our salvation.20 By
uniting ourselves with his sacrifice we can make our lives a sacrifice to God.
Promises and vows
2101 In many circumstances, the Christian is called to
make promises to God. Baptism and Confirmation, Matrimony and Holy Orders
always entail promises. Out of personal devotion, the Christian may also
promise to God this action, that prayer, this alms-giving, that pilgrimage, and
so forth. Fidelity to promises made to God is a sign of the respect owed to the
divine majesty and of love for a faithful God.
2102 "A vow is a deliberate and free promise made to
God concerning a possible and better good which must be fulfilled by reason of
the virtue of religion,"21 A vow is an act of devotion in which the
Christian dedicates himself to God or promises him some good work. By
fulfilling his vows he renders to God what has been promised and consecrated to
Him. The Acts of the Apostles shows us St. Paul concerned to fulfill the vows
he had made.22
2103 The Church recognizes an exemplary value in the vows
to practice the evangelical counsels:23
Mother Church
rejoices that she has within herself many men and women who pursue the Savior's
self-emptying more closely and show it forth more clearly, by undertaking
poverty with the freedom of the children of God, and renouncing their own will:
they submit themselves to man for the sake of God, thus going beyond what is of
precept in the matter of perfection, so as to conform themselves more fully to
the obedient Christ.24
The Church can, in certain cases and for proportionate
reasons, dispense from vows and promises25
The social duty of religion and the right to religious
freedom
2104 "All men are bound to seek the truth,
especially in what concerns God and his Church, and to embrace it and hold on
to it as they come to know it."26 This duty derives from "the very
dignity of the human person."27 It does not contradict a "sincere respect"
for different religions which frequently "reflect a ray of that truth
which enlightens all men,"28 nor the requirement of charity, which urges
Christians "to treat with love, prudence and patience those who are in
error or ignorance with regard to the faith."29
2105 The duty of offering God genuine worship concerns
man both individually and socially. This is "the traditional Catholic
teaching on the moral duty of individuals and societies toward the true
religion and the one Church of Christ."30 By constantly evangelizing men,
the Church works toward enabling them "to infuse the Christian spirit into
the mentality and mores, laws and structures of the communities in which [they]
live."31 The social duty of Christians is to respect and awaken in each man
the love of the true and the good. It requires them to make known the worship
of the one true religion which subsists in the Catholic and apostolic Church.32
Christians are called to be the light of the world. Thus, the Church shows
forth the kingship of Christ over all creation and in particular over human
societies.33
2106 "Nobody may be forced to act against his
convictions, nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his
conscience in religious matters in private or in public, alone or in
association with others, within due limits."34 This right is based on the
very nature of the human person, whose dignity enables him freely to assent to
the divine truth which transcends the temporal order. For this reason it
"continues to exist even in those who do not live up to their obligation
of seeking the truth and adhering to it."35
2107 "If because of the circumstances of a
particular people special civil recognition is given to one religious community
in the constitutional organization of a state, the right of all citizens and
religious communities to religious freedom must be recognized and respected as
well."36
2108 The right to religious liberty is neither a moral
license to adhere to error, nor a supposed right to error,37 but rather a
natural right of the human person to civil liberty, i.e., immunity, within just
limits, from external constraint in religious matters by political authorities.
This natural right ought to be acknowledged in the juridical order of society
in such a way that it constitutes a civil right.38
2109 The right to religious liberty can of itself be
neither unlimited nor limited only by a "public order" conceived in a
positivist or naturalist manner.39 The "due limits" which are
inherent in it must be determined for each social situation by political
prudence, according to the requirements of the common good, and ratified by the
civil authority in accordance with "legal principles which are in
conformity with the objective moral order."40
III. "YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME"
2110 The first commandment forbids honoring gods other
than the one Lord who has revealed himself to his people. It proscribes
superstition and irreligion. Superstition in some sense represents a perverse
excess of religion; irreligion is the vice contrary by defect to the virtue of
religion.
Superstition
2111 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. To attribute the efficacy
of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart
from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.41
Idolatry
2112 The first commandment condemns polytheism. It
requires man neither to believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the
one true God. Scripture constantly recalls this rejection of "idols, [of]
silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see." These empty idols make their worshippers empty:
"Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them."42
God, however, is the "living God"43 who gives life and intervenes in
history.
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."44 Many martyrs died for not adoring "the
Beast"45 refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique
Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.46
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."47
Divination and magic
2115 God can reveal the future to his prophets or to
other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself
confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and
giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can
constitute a lack of responsibility.
2116 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.48 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.
2117 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.
Irreligion
2118 God's first commandment condemns the main sins of
irreligion: tempting God, in words or deeds, sacrilege, and simony.
2119 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.49
Jesus opposed Satan with the word of God: "You shall not put the LORD your
God to the test."50 The challenge contained in such tempting of God wounds
the respect and trust we owe our Creator and Lord. It always harbors doubt
about his love, his providence, and his power.51
2120 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.52
2121 Simony is defined as the buying or selling of
spiritual things.53 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!"54 Peter thus held to the words of Jesus: "You received
without pay, give without pay."55 It is impossible to appropriate to
oneself spiritual goods and behave toward them as their owner or master, for
they have their source in God. One can receive them only from him, without
payment.
2122 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."56 The competent authority
determines these "offerings" in accordance with the principle that
the Christian people ought to contribute to the support of the Church's
ministers. "The laborer deserves his food."57
Atheism
2123 "Many . . . of our contemporaries either do not
at all perceive, or explicitly reject, this intimate and vital bond of man to
God. Atheism must therefore be regarded as one of the most serious problems of our
time."58
2124 The name "atheism" covers many very
different phenomena. One common form is the practical materialism which
restricts its needs and aspirations to space and time. Atheistic humanism
falsely considers man to be "an end to himself, and the sole maker, with
supreme control, of his own history."59 Another form of contemporary
atheism looks for the liberation of man through economic and social liberation.
"It holds that religion, of its very nature, thwarts such emancipation by
raising man's hopes in a future life, thus both deceiving him and discouraging
him from working for a better form of life on earth."60
2125 Since it rejects or denies the existence of God,
atheism is a sin against the virtue of religion.61 The imputability of this
offense can be significantly diminished in virtue of the intentions and the
circumstances. "Believers can have more than a little to do with the rise
of atheism. To the extent that they are careless about their instruction in the
faith, or present its teaching falsely, or even fail in their religious, moral,
or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than to reveal the true
nature of God and of religion."62
2126 Atheism is often based on a false conception of
human autonomy, exaggerated to the point of refusing any dependence on God.63
Yet, "to acknowledge God is in no way to oppose the dignity of man, since
such dignity is grounded and brought to perfection in God. . . . "64
"For the Church knows full well that her message is in harmony with the
most secret desires of the human heart."65
Agnosticism
2127 Agnosticism assumes a number of forms. In certain
cases the agnostic refrains from denying God; instead he postulates the
existence of a transcendent being which is incapable of revealing itself, and
about which nothing can be said. In other cases, the agnostic makes no judgment
about God's existence, declaring it impossible to prove, or even to affirm or
deny.
2128 Agnosticism can sometimes include a certain search
for God, but it can equally express indifferentism, a flight from the ultimate
question of existence, and a sluggish moral conscience. Agnosticism is all too
often equivalent to practical atheism.
* IV. "YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FOR YOURSELF A GRAVEN
IMAGE . . .">
2129 The divine injunction included the prohibition of
every representation of God by the hand of man. Deuteronomy explains:
"Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out
of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven
image for yourselves, in the form of any figure. . . . "66 It is the
absolutely transcendent God who revealed himself to Israel. "He is the
all," but at the same time "he is greater than all his works."67
He is "the author of beauty."68
2130 Nevertheless, already in the Old Testament, God
ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward
salvation by the incarnate Word: so it was with the bronze serpent, the ark of
the covenant, and the cherubim.69
2131 Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word,
the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea (787) justified against the
iconoclasts the veneration of icons - of Christ, but also of the Mother of God,
the angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God
introduced a new "economy" of images.
2132 The Christian veneration of images is not contrary
to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor
rendered to an image passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates
an image venerates the person portrayed in it."70 The honor paid to sacred
images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God
alone:
Religious worship
is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under
their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement
toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose
image it is.71
IN BRIEF
2133 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength" (Deut 6:5).
2134 The first commandment summons man to believe in God,
to hope in him, and to love him above all else.
2135 "You shall worship the Lord your God" (Mt
4:10). Adoring God, praying to him, offering him the worship that belongs to
him, fulfilling the promises and vows made to him are acts of the virtue of
religion which fall under obedience to the first commandment.
2136 The duty to offer God authentic worship concerns man
both as an individual and as a social being.
2137 "Men of the present day want to profess their
religion freely in private and in public" (DH 15).
2138 Superstition is a departure from the worship that we
give to the true God. It is manifested in idolatry, as well as in various forms
of divination and magic.
2139 Tempting God in words or deeds, sacrilege, and
simony are sins of irreligion forbidden by the first commandment.
2140 Since it rejects or denies the existence of God,
atheism is a sin against the first commandment.
2141 The veneration of sacred images is based on the
mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God. It is not contrary to the first
commandment.
3 Ex 20:2-5; cf. Deut 5:6-9.
4 Mt 4:10.
5 Deut 6:13-14.
6 Cf. Ex 19:16-25; 24:15-18.
7 St. Justin, Dial. cum Tryphone Judaeo 11,1:PG 6,497.
8 Roman Catechism 3,2,4.
9 Rom 1:5; 16:26.
10 Cf. Rom 1:18-32.
11 CIC, can. 751: emphasis added.
12 Cf. Deut 6:4-5.
13 Lk 4:8; Cf. Deut 6:13.
14 Cf. Lk 1:46-49.
15 Lk 18:1.
16 St. Augustine, De civ Dei 10,6:PL 41,283.
17 Ps 51:17.
18 Cf. Am 5:21-25; Isa 1:10-20.
19 Mt 9:13; 12:7; Cf. Hos 6:6.
20 Cf. Heb 9:13-14.
21 CIC, can. 1191 § 1.
22 Cf. Acts 18:18; 21:23-24.
23 Cf. CIC, can. 654.
24 LG 42 § 2.
25 Cf. CIC, cann. 692; 1196-1197.
26 DH 1 § 2.
27 DH 2 § 1.
28 NA 2 § 2.
29 DH 14 § 4.
30 DH 1 § 3.
31 AA 13 § 1.
32 Cf. DH 1.
33 Cf. AA 13; Leo XIII, Immortale Dei 3,17; Pius XI, Quas
primas 8,20.
34 DH 2 § 1.
35 DH 2 § 2.
36 DH 6 § 3.
37 Cf. Leo XIII, Libertas praestantissimum 18; Pius XII
AAS 1953,799.
38 Cf. DH 2.
39 Cf. Pius VI, Quod aliquantum (1791) 10; Pius IX,
Quanta cura 3.
40 DH 7 § 3.
41 Cf. Mt 23:16-22.
42 Ps 115:4-5, 8; cf. Isa 44:9-20; Jer 10:1-16; Dan
14:1-30; Bar 6; Wis 13:1-15:19.
43 Josh 3:10; Ps 42:3; etc.
44 Mt 6:24.
45 Cf. Rev 13-14.
46 Cf. Gal 5:20; Eph 5:5.
47 Origen, Contra Celsum 2,40:PG 11,861.
48 Cf. Deut 18:10; Jer 29:8.
49 Cf. Lk 4:9.
50 Deut 6:16.
51 Cf. 1 Cor 10:9; Ex 17:2-7; Ps 95:9.
52 Cf. CIC, cann. 1367; 1376.
53 Cf. Acts 8:9-24.
54 Acts 8:20.
55 Mt 10:8; cf. already Isa 55:1.
56 CIC, can. 848.
57 Mt 10:10; cf. Lk 10:7; 2 Cor 9:5-18; 1 Tim 5:17-18.
58 GS 19 § 1.
59 GS 20 § 2.
60 GS 20 § 2.
61 Cf. Rom 1:18.
62 GS 19 § 3.
63 Cf. GS 20 § 1.
64 GS 21 § 3.
65 GS 21 § 7.
66 Deut 4:15-16.
67 Sir 43:27-28.
68 Wis 13:3.
69 Cf. Num 21:4-9; Wis 16:5-14; Jn 3:14-15; Ex 25:10-22;
1 Kings 6:23-28; 7:23-26.
70 St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto 18,45:PG 32,149C; Council
of Nicaea II: DS 601; cf. Council of Trent: DS 1821-1825; Vatican Council II:
SC 126; LG 67.
71 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II,81,3 ad 3.”
(Daddy Bob) Also, explain why Catholic priests are called
"FATHER" when Jesus said not to do that? Also what about the various
Catholic titles that the priests use? Didn't Jesus also warn against that?
(Cristoiglesia) From the early Church we find that clergy
were addressed as father. There are those with little knowledge of history or
hermeneutical discipline such as understanding Scriptures within context, who
believe that the Bible prohibits one from calling a priest father. The words
they rely on come directly from Christ:
(Mat 23:9 DRB) And call none your father upon earth; for
one is your father, who is in heaven.
Keeping the verse in context let us look at the verse
preceding this verse:
(Mat 23:8 DRB) But be not you called Rabbi. For one is
your master: and all you are brethren.
Rabbi means teacher and the Latin word for teacher is
doctor so anyone using these terms as well are violating the literal
interpretation of the text.
Let us look at the verse after verse 9:
(Mat 23:10 DRB) Neither be ye called masters: for one is
your master, Christ.
There is no way that the interpretation could be correct
if one reads and understands the Matthew passage in context. He is clearly teaching
that one should not look to any human authority as our teacher, father, master,
doctor or other titles of respect but instead give to God those things that are
reserved for Him. Do you also refuse to call people doctor, teacher, professor,
mister, or master? All of these are forbidden as well if we are to accept a
literal understanding.
Context also requires that we investigate what the other
Scriptures say as well as the understanding of these words by those who
followed Christ. There are many instances where the writers of the New
Testament contradict a literal understanding of not calling a man father,
teacher or master. Consider the following verses:
(Act 5:34 DRB) But one in the council rising up, a
Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, respected by all the people,
commanded the men to be put forth a little while.
(Col 4:1 DRB) Masters, do to your servants that which is
just and equal: knowing that you also have a master in heaven.
(2Ti 1:11 DRB) Wherein I am appointed a preacher and an
apostle and teacher of the Gentiles.
Let us examine the statements of St. Stephen to see if he
understood Christ to be speaking literally….In is soliloquy (Acts Chapter 7)
before the Sanhedrin before his stoning to martyrdom he used the term father in
referring to Abraham Isaac and Jacob as fathers and also to his Israelite
ancestors as fathers.
St. John the beloved disciple also did not understand
Christ to be teaching literally as we can see in the following verses:
(1Jn 2:13 DRB) I write unto you, fathers, because you
have known him who is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because
you have overcome the wicked one.
(1Jn 2:14 DRB) I write unto you, babes, because you have
known the Father. I write unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the
word of God abideth in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.
(1Jn 2:15 DRB) Love not the world, nor the things which
are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not
in him.
(1Jn 2:16 DRB) For all that is in the world is the
concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of
life, which is not of the Father but is of the world.
St. Paul also had a different understanding of Christ’s
words than the literalists:
(1Co 4:14 DRB) I write not these things to confound you:
but I admonish you as my dearest children.
(1Co 4:15 DRB) For if you have ten thousand instructors
in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, by the gospel, I have
begotten you.
(1Co 4:16 DRB) Wherefore, I beseech you, be ye followers
of me as I also am of Christ.
St. Paul was speaking of the fact that he is called to
shepherd the flock as are all priests. We not only give birth to the Christian
through Baptism but also nourish the faithful with the Holy Eucharist and God’s
Word. We care for them and bind their spiritual wounds through the delivery of
the Sacraments. It is no wonder that we are called father as we care for our
Church family as a father cares for his own family.
(Daddy Bob) How about the old "purgatory and
hellfire" scams that make so much money for the Catholics?
(Cristoiglesia) You know, I have heard this accusation
before from other Jehovah Witnesses. Like you they do not explain why they make
such a statement. Rather than speculate about what you mean, why do you not
explain your rather dubious accusation. Why do you call these doctrines scams and
how do you perceive they are profitable to the Church?
“Aren't catholic priests paid and yet jesus taught not to
do that?”
Priests receive very little in payment and some live in
poverty according to their vows. I am not aware of Jesus teaching that clergy
should not receive sustenance.
Matthew 10:5-11:1
King James Version (KJV)
5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them,
saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the
Samaritans enter ye not:
6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is
at hand.
8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast
out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
9 Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your
purses,
10 Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither
shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman
is worthy of his meat.
(Daddy Bob) Maybe you can help me understand these
things.
(Cristoiglesia) I pray that I have done as you wished and
helped your understanding. God bless!
In Christ
Fr. Joseph
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