FIRST COMMANDMENT

I am the Lord your God, You Shall not carve Idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or in the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth, you shall not bow down before them or worship them.

THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER gods BEFORE ME.

The Negative Side: You shall have no other gods before me (Ex.20:3) The Positive Side: You shall worship the Lord your God (Mt.4:10)

FREEDOM
means, nobody is forced to act against his convictions, alone or in association with others.

SENSE 1: "YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND HIM ONLY SHALL YOU SERVE :The first commandment embraces faith, hope, and charity:

Faith in a sense
Our duty toward God is to believe in him and to bear witness to him and to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance.

Hope in a sense
The 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.

Charity in a sense
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.

SENSE 2: "YOU SHALL NOT MAKE YOURSELF A GRAVEN IMAGE The divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God by the hand of man. 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." He is "the author of beauty.

EXEMPTION: 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.

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. -o-o-o-o-oThe 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.

1. 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. 2. Adoration 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

3. Promises and Vows "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.

4. Sacrifice 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. Outward sacrifice, to be genuine, must be the expression of spiritual sacrifice.

3 KINDS OF WORSHIP 1.) Latria worship that is due to God alone 2.) Dulia veneration/honor to the saints who are in union with God 3.) Hyperdulia a higher form of veneration/honor due to the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary because of the special privilege God has granted on her.

IDOLATRY
Is the negative effect of the first commandment. It consists divinizing what is not God.
2 TYPES of IDOLATRY

1 . ) F O R M A L I D O L AT R Y Wo r s h i p i n g a h u m a n b e i n g o r a mythical god. 2 . ) P R A C T I C A L I D O L AT R Y Having material things more important than God.

SUPERSTITION
Ascribing to created things, power which they do not possess, either in nature or in the virtue of prayer.

P O LY T H E I S M
Worship of many gods.

D I V I N AT I O N
Recourse to Satan or the demons, conjuring up the dead (necromancy) or other practices to unveil the future.

M A G I C O R S O R C E RY
Invocation of the spirits in order to produce miraculous effects.

TEMPTING GOD
Consists in putting His goodness and mighty power to the test.

SACRILEGE
Profanation of the sacraments and other liturgical actions as well as persons, things, or places consecrated to God.

SIMONY
The buying or selling of Spiritual things.

AT H E I S M
Denial of Gods existence. It is a sin against the virtue of religion.

AGNOSTICISM
Denial of Gods knowability or intelligibility. It is equivalent to practical atheism.

SPIRITISM
Invocation of the spirits in view of learning what is hidden from human keen.

The first commandment summons man to believe in God, to hope in him, and to love him above all else, and to offer God authentic worship concerns man both as an individual and as a social being.