Religion
81. The Virtue of Religion
1. Cicero thinks that the word religion derives from the Latin verb relegere, "to read over again," and that it suggests the propriety of reading and pondering, again and again, on what belongs to divine worship. St. Augustine thinks that the word religion comes from religare, "to bind, or tie up," and indicates the bond or tie between man and God. Whatever may be true of the origin of the word, religion means an ordering, a standing, a relationship between man and God.
2. Religion in a person is a virtue, that is, it is an enduring quality, a habit, which disposes him who has it to pay, steadfastly and well, the debt of honor and worship that he owes to God.
3. Religion is one virtue. For, though it has many and various acts, God is the object of them all.
4. Religion is a special virtue, distinct from other virtues, and it disposes man to give to God the special honor that is his due. Therefore, though religion serves the ends of justice, and is one of its potential parts, it has its own definite field wherein to exercise and apply justice. Thus it is not identical with justice as such. Nor is it identical with any other virtue.
5. Religion is not a theological virtue, infused like faith, hope, and charity. It is a moral virtue. The theological virtues have God himself as their object, whereas religion has as its object the honor, reverence, and worship due to God.
6. Religion is the chief of the moral virtues because its acts are directed immediately to God's honor and glory, while the other moral virtues direct their acts to God through the medium of religion. Therefore, religion is nobler and more excellent than the other moral virtues.
7. Religion is expressed essentially by internal acts of the soul; secondarily, it is expressed by suitable external acts. Man is body-and-soul, and, during earthly life, the soul has an extrinsic dependence on the body, so that, for instance, the intellect cannot grasp reality without the cooperation of bodily senses. It is inevitable, therefore, that religion which honors God and thereby perfects the faculties of the human mind and will, should also, in some sense, perfect the bodily faculties as well. Hence, these bodily faculties have some expression of religion to make; that is to say, religion will have expression, though in a secondary way, in external and bodily acts, in sensible signs, actions, and ceremonies.
8. Sanctity, which fundamentally means purity and sacredness under the law, is holiness. Now, holiness and religion come to the same thing. For it is by holiness that the human mind and will apply themselves to the service of God, and this is religion. Therefore, sanctity in a man and religion in a man are not really distinct; they are distinct by a logical distinction, not by a real distinction; that is to say, they are two distinct aspects of the same thing.
82. Devotion
1. Devotion, in the religious sense, is the will to give oneself steadily to the service of God.
2. Devotion is not a virtue, but the act of a virtue. Indeed, it is an act of charity, as all the moral virtues are when they are supernatural. But specifically it is an act of the virtue of religion.
3. The extrinsic cause of devotion in a person is God. The intrinsic cause (which is in the person himself) is meditation or contemplation. When a person thinks upon God and ponders his goodness and loving kindness, he is stirred to a love of God that begets devotion. And, pondering his own insufficiency and his faults, a man is moved to turn to God and to lean upon him; out of this consideration too, devotion arises.
4. The direct and chief effect of devotion is joy in God. Its secondary and indirect effect is sorrow for one's shortcomings and sins.
83. Prayer
1. Prayer is not an act of the appetitive power (the desiring power, the will) but of the reason, that is, of the thinking mind which enlightens and guides the will. Prayer is basically a petition, a beseeching; it is an act of reason which, as Aristotle says, "exhorts us to do what is best."
2. There are three musty errors about praying. One is that God does not rule things, and that the prayer of petition is useless. A second is that all things happen by fixed fate, and that consequently praying is a vain action. A third is that prayer attempts to make God change His providence, and is therefore foolish. We reject at once the first two of these errors as in manifest conflict with both reason and faith. As for the third, we say that we pray not to change providence, but to align ourselves with it. St. Gregory says, "By asking, men may deserve to receive what almighty God from eternity is disposed to give." Hence, it is right and reasonable to pray.
3. It is a mistake to say that prayer, as petition, seeks something from God and is therefore not an act of honoring God, and consequently is not an act of religion. For we do honor God when we confess that we need him, and proclaim his almighty power to bestow blessings. We honor God so when we pray, and therefore prayer is a true act of religion.
4. We seek God's help and blessing by prayer directly when we pray to God, and indirectly when we pray to the saints and angels to engage their cooperating prayer. In the first case, we honor God in himself; in the second, we honor God through his blessed creatures. Both types of prayer are acts of religion.
5. We rightly pray for particular favors, and not merely for blessing in general. The clear-cut petition for particular blessings suits man's nature, and stirs his devotion. Besides, when we pray, we always have the will to leave things in God's hands; no matter how ardent are our special petitions, they are offered as subject to God's love and wisdom. Thus, in making petition with all earnestness and desire, we still do not want God to give us what would work our hurt or cause our ruin.
6. We can lawfully pray for temporal goods, so long as we do not attach to them inordinate importance, and make them the end-all and be-all of existence. For we may lawfully desire external goods, and what we may lawfully desire, we may lawfully pray for. Hence, it is not wrong, but very right, to ask God for temporal favors.
7. When we pray we should ask for what we lawfully desire, and also for what we ought to desire. Now, we ought to desire grace, and salvation, and all good things for others as well as for ourselves. Hence, we should pray for others.
8. As we are obliged to love our enemies, so we should pray for them. This prayer, like love itself, must be for enemies in general. It is a matter of perfection to love and pray for enemies individually.
9. The "Our Father," or Lord's Prayer is the most perfect of all prayers, not merely because Christ taught it, but because it includes in itself all that can be in a prayer. In this prayer, we ask for all that is to be desired, and in the order in which the items of desire should be listed.
10. Prayer is proper to rational creatures, that is, it belongs to such creatures exclusively. It is an act of reason "which exhorts us to do what is best." Irrational creatures cannot pray. And God, who is non-creatural Reason, has no occasion to pray. Therefore only rational creatures have the right and the duty to pray.
11. The saints in heaven pray for us. For prayer for others is born of charity, and the saints have greater charity than we have. And the saints are closer to God than we are; hence, their prayers are more effective than ours.
12. Prayer should find expression in audible words as well as in the silent language of the heart. Oral prayer is plainly necessary for the common prayer offered by one in the name of many. If the priest praying with his congregation did not speak out, the people would have no knowledge of the prayer. And individual man is so made that he naturally tends to put his thoughts and affections into oral speech. Even when a man prays privately, he finds it useful to put his prayer into actual speech; for this helps him (a) to fix attention and arouse devotion; (b) to give his bodily powers opportunity of joining his spiritual powers in honoring their Creator; (c) to give natural, and useful, outlet to the overflowing affection of heart and mind.
13. To be altogether perfect, oral prayer requires attention throughout. But even holy persons suffer from wandering of mind. If a person has the true intention of praying, his prayer is good and meritorious despite involuntary wanderings of mind. There are three types of attention in oral praying: attention to the words as well pronounced; attention to the meaning of the words uttered; attention to God and the things prayed for. The third sort of attention is the most necessary.
14. The cause of prayer is charity (the grace, love, and friendship of God), which ought to be in us always. We should ceaselessly have the virtual or implied intention of doing all for the glory of God. In this sense, prayer should be continuous. "And he [Christ] also told them . . . that they must always pray, and not lose heart" (Luke 18:1). Prayer, however, as actual petition to God cannot be continuous; we have many other things to consume our time; we must eat, and sleep, and attend to daily tasks, and chat with friends, and travel, and do a hundred other things. Prayer as actual and explicit petition is possible at many hours of the day; it is well that there be a few stated times for it. This actual and formal prayer ought to be long enough in time to stir fervor and desire for God and his blessings, but it ought not to be so long as to cause weariness.
15. Prayer, like any supernaturally virtuous act, proceeds from charity, and hence is meritorious. Good prayer is from charity through religion with the concurrence of humility, faith, and devotion. It is an act effective in meriting, as it is an act effective in obtaining favors from God.
16. Those who are in the state of sin can effectively beg God's blessing, for God loves the sinner even as he hates the sin. In his divine mercy, God hears the prayers of a sinner who earnestly and persever-ingly asks for himself what he needs to turn from sin and save his soul. St. Augustine says (Tract. xliv super Joan.): "If God were not to hear sinners, the publican would have vainly cried, 'O Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.'"
17. Prayer raises the mind adoringly to God, and begs his blessings, and, with appreciative or thankful spirit, it implores divine mercy on sinful man. Hence, prayer has parts: adoration, petition, thanksgiving, penitential supplication.
84. Exterior Acts of Religion: Adoration
1. Divine adoration or latria is worship given to God alone. It is the highest type of religious reverence. The reverence we pay to the saints and angels is called dulia. Sometimes, especially in the older books and formulas, dulia is called adoration; but it is never called divine adoration. And the chief act of latria or divine adoration (that is, the act of sacrifice), is never performed to express dulia, but only to express latria; sacrifice is offered to God alone. {-To Mary, the Mother of God, is offered a reverence which is higher than that offered to the other saints and to the angels; this reverence to Mary is called hyperdulia. It is a superior form of dulia; it is never latria. Latria is divine worship, divine adoration; it is given to no creatures, not even to the most perfect of creatures; it is given only to God.-}
2. We are divinely commanded to adore God with our entire being -heart, soul, mind, strength-for we are, body and soul, God's creatures and children. Hence, there must be external or exterior acts of latria as well as internal acts. To be sure, all such exterior acts have meaning as the expression of interior adoration in the soul.
3. God is rightly adored at all times and in all places. But, for the formal exercise of external acts of latria, it is fitting, and even necessary, that there should be a special and suitable place for divine worship.
85. Exterior Acts of Religion: Sacrifice
1. The offering of sacrifice to God is an obligation laid on man by the natural law. Reason requires that man show signs of submission to God, as well as signs of honor paid to God. Now, man is a bodily being in a bodily world; it is reasonable that he should make the necessary signs of religion in a bodily way, using bodily things. This is done by offering sacrifice. The whole history of mankind shows that the offering of sacrifice is a universal practice. This fact confirms the truth mentioned, namely, that sacrifice to God is required of man by the natural law.
2. Sacrifice is the highest and most solemn and impressive of the acts of latria. As an official act of religion and external divine worship, it is defined as follows: sacrifice is the offering of a bodily thing (called victim), by a qualified person (called priest), in a suitable place (called altar), and the destruction or change of the victim (this is immolation or mactation) to express the supreme and unique dominion of God over all his creatures, and the absolute dependence of all creatures upon God.
3. Sacrifice is a special act done out of reverence for God; it therefore belongs to the virtue of religion. Sometimes acts of the other virtues are called by the name of sacrifices; thus we say that a person makes a sacrifice of time or money, or that he is a self-sacrificing person, or that he sacrifices the use of certain foods or pleasures as penance, and so on; and we say that a soldier who dies in battle makes the supreme sacrifice. Now, such things are not actually or formally sacrifices, but they are called so because they are a sort of offering that is, or should be, made to God; they have a resemblance, either striking or distant, to sacrifice, and thus they are given its name.
4. Using the name sacrifice in this extended meaning, we are all bound to offer to God the inward sacrifice of a devout mind, and to perform requisite acts of virtue in the spirit of sacrifice, that is, out of high reverence for God.
86. Exterior Acts of Religion: Oblations
1. We are all bound to make offerings, in one way or another, for the support of religion, as it exists in external and established practice according to the institution of Christ. Such offerings are oblations.
2. Offerings are made to priests (I Cor. 9:13) who are "to live by the altar." And the priest has further use for offerings or oblations than his mere livelihood; he has to obtain what belongs to the functions of external worship, and he has to dispense goods to the poor.
3. An offering or oblation is not to be made of things unjustly acquired or wrongfully possessed.
4. The Old Law required men to make an offering or oblation of "the first fruits," that is, the best of their crops and harvestings. This was to make open and practical acknowledgment that "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof," and that the tiller of the soil does not create its fertility, but that all good things come from God. Even after the coming of the New Law, the offering of "first fruits" continued to be a pious custom in some countries.
87. External Acts of Religion: Tithes
1. The Old Law imposed the duty of paying tithes (that is, one-tenth of all revenues) for the support of religion. Certainly, the obligation of offering to the Church a decent proportion of one's income is incumbent on man, even in the light of natural reason. The paying of one's share here is an act of religion.
2. All one's material possessions come from God. Hence, some part of such things should be offered to God again, both to show that we ourselves do not create them, and to support and propagate the true religion. Such an offering is an external act of religion.
3. Since those who serve the altar, the clergy, have most serious duties to occupy all their time and energies, they must not be forced to acquire temporal necessaries for themselves. They are to be supported by offerings, by the fair contributions of all the people.
4. The clergy themselves are not required to pay tithes or to make offerings out of tithes received. But if a clergyman has property and income of his own, as by inheritance for example, he is required to make suitable and proportionate offering out of this income for the support of religion.
88. Vows
1. A vow is a promise, proceeding from a deliberate will, with a purpose in view. Sometimes a vow is expressed in words before witnesses; sometimes it is made silently and interiorly, with no human witness.
2. As an act of religion, a vow is a promise freely made to God to do something pleasing to him that the person promising is not already under obligation to do.
3. A vow is a promise freely made. No one is obliged to make a vow. But once a vow is made, it imposes obligation; it must be kept. A person must be true to his word, especially his word to God.
4. Although a vow is a promise to do what is pleasing to God, the whole benefit of the vow redounds to the person who makes it. God is not benefited or helped by our vows; no creature can confer a favor on the Creator. St. Augustine (Ep. 127 ad Arment. et Paulin.) says, "God does not grow rich on our payments, but makes those who pay him grow rich in him."
5. A vow is the directing and dedicating of the thing promised to the worship and service of God. Therefore, a vow is an act of religion. And, since vows are made to God, they are acts of latria, that is, of divine worship.
6. It is better and more meritorious to do something pleasing to God (which the performer or agent is not already obliged to do) in fulfillment of a vow, than to do the same thing without a vow. The vow itself is an act of religion, and adds its merit to the merit of the good deed which fulfills it.
7. A religious vow is solemnized when it is the vow of one who receives holy orders, or who enters a religious community to live under a rule approved by the Church.
8. Since a vow is essentially a free promise, a person who is lawfully subject to another is incapable of making a vow which conflicts with his duties to that other.
9. Children who have reached the use of reason can lawfully make a private vow to enter a religious community, but while they are under the age of puberty, the vow may be annulled by their parents. After puberty, according to the age determined by the Church, children can make a religious vow, simple or solemn, even without the consent of their parents.
10. A person who makes a vow makes a kind of law for himself. It may happen that this law is found to conflict with a greater good. In such a case, competent authority must decide that the vow is not to be observed. This decision is called a dispensation from the vow. If the dispensing authority imposes another obligation to take the place of the one removed, the action is called commutation, not dispensation.
11. The Church has power to dispense from vows, even from the vow of chastity or continency which, by ecclesiastical institution, is attached to the taking of major orders. But it seems that the solemn and perpetual vow of chastity, which belongs essentially to the religious or monastic life, admits of no dispensation.
12. Only competent Church authority can dispense from a vow or commute it.
89. Oaths
1. To take an oath is to swear. And to swear is to call upon God to witness that we speak the truth (declaratory oath), or that we will keep a promise (promissory oath).
2. It would be irreverent to call upon God as our witness in merely trifling matters. It is very wrong and sinful to swear to a he, or to take oath on a promise one does not intend to keep. But it is lawful, in serious and important matters and with due caution, to take a sincere oath. Such an oath is usually an act of reverence to God.
3. The conditions necessary for a lawful oath are: truth, judgment, and justice. For Holy Writ proclaims as much when (Jer. 4:2) it says: "Thou shalt swear: As the Lord liveth, in truth, and in judgment, and in justice." We must swear in truth: we must never swear to a lie or to an insincere promise. We must swear in judgment: an oath must be made with prudence and discretion, and for no frivolous reason. We must swear in justice: a promissory oath must not pledge what it is unlawful to perform.
4. As we have seen, an oath, rightly made, is an act of reverence to God. It is thus an act of the virtue of religion.
5. But an oath, however reverent, indicates a lack and a deformity: it indicates a lack of trust between man and man. Hence, an oath is not desirable for its own sake. An oath is rather like a medicine: not good to take for its own sake, but only for the curing of an ailment. Therefore, oaths are not to be used more frequently than necessary. Scripture says (Ecclus. 23:12): "A man that sweareth much shall be filled with iniquity."
6. Men sometimes swear by creatures ("by my soul," "by St. George," etc.), and such expressions are really oaths if they refer, through creatures, to God. Otherwise these exclamations are not truly oaths at all. Often they are part and parcel of expressions of cursing.
7. A true promissory oath that meets the conditions of justice and judgment must always be kept. But one must not fulfill a promissory oath that involves injustice; one cannot lawfully swear to do what is unlawful. Herod swore without judgment and justice to give to Herodias anything she might ask. When he fulfilled his oath, causing the death of St. John the Baptist, he committed a new and a greater sin. His oath itself was a sin; its fulfillment was another sin and a worse sin.
8. An oath is not more binding than a vow; on the contrary, a vow, by its nature, is more strictly binding than an oath. For a vow rests on reverence and fidelity, and to break it is a double offense. But an oath rests on reverence; to violate it does not necessarily involve infidelity.
9. An oath admits of dispensation. If a vow, with greater binding power, can be dispensed, certainly an oath, which is less binding than a vow, can be dispensed.
10. An oath is made void by certain conditions of person and time. Thus a minor cannot make a binding oath. And persons of great dignity, such as the king or the president of a country, are guaranteed trustworthy by their office, and are usually not required to swear; thus, in a sense, their oath is void as being unnecessary.
90. Adjuration
1. To "adjure" a person is to put him under oath, that is, to require an oath from him. Thus the high priest required our Lord to swear that He is the Christ (Matt. 26:63): "I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou art the Christ, the Son of God." Since it is lawful, on due conditions, to swear, it cannot be unlawful, when occasion warrants and jurisdiction exists, to demand an oath of another. In a court of law, for example, a witness is lawfully adjured, that is, he is required to swear before God that he will give full and true testimony.
2. It is a kind of adjuring to induce or command anyone to do a thing in the name of God. In this sense, evil spirits are adjured in exorcisms.
3. Sometimes irrational creatures are adjured, but only in so far as they are instruments of rational creatures.
91. Oral Praise of God
1. We use words of the lips when we speak to God, not for the purpose of making known our thoughts to One who knows them better than we do ourselves, but to stir ourselves and our hearers to reverence for God. We need to praise God with our lips, not for His sake, but for our own. In Psalm 62 it is written: "My mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips."
2. And it is just and right that the voice of man should praise God, not alone in the spoken word, but also in song. The use of music in praising God is a means for stirring reverence for him and employing the feelings in his service; it is certainly suitable that, to such music, there should be set the words of a hymn or song or psalm.
92. Vices Opposed to Religion: Superstition
1. Superstition is a vice opposed to religion. It offers divine worship to whom it should not, or it offers divine worship to God in an unworthy manner. The name superstition comes from the Latin superstes which means "a survivor." It suggests that what are called superstitions are survivors or "holdovers" from the false pre-Christian religions known collectively as paganism.
2. Superstition takes various forms: (a) idolatry gives divine honor to a creature; (b) divination consults demons, thus attributing divine powers to creatures; (c) false observances are outer expressions of the belief that divine powers are found in certain creatures.
93. Kinds of Superstition
1. Sometimes the truths and practices of the true religion are misinterpreted or misused, and this is a kind of superstition. It is true doctrine, for instance, that the souls in purgatory are helped by our prayers. But it would be superstition to believe that a certain formula of prayer, or a certain number of prayers, gives absolute assurance of the deliverance of a certain soul from purgatory.
2. And the good and useful practices of Catholics-in penitential acts, for instance, and in using medals, scapulars, and other blessed objects-are sometimes turned into superstitious usages by mistaken persons who invest such practices with a kind of magical power, instead of using them, according to the mind of the Church, as means of stirring up reverence and devotion to God in their own hearts.
94. Idolatry
1. Idolatry is that form of superstition which sets up false gods, and pays divine honor to what is not divine. St. Augustine (De Doct. Christ, ii) says: "Anything invented by man for making and worshiping idols, or for giving divine worship to a creature, or any part of a creature ... is superstitious." The superstition here indicated is that of idolatry.
2. It is certainly a sin to worship idols, outwardly or inwardly. It is right to give honor to superiors, but not to regard them as gods. Idolatry is utterly inordinate; it is flatly contrary to reason; it conflicts with religion; it is a thing evil in itself. Hence, idolatry is never to be tolerated. We must reject the error of those heretics who say that, in times of persecution, it suffices to hold the true religion in the heart, and, for the sake of freedom from trouble, to take part in the outward worship of idols.
3. It is a sin, and in itself the gravest kind of sin, to practice idolatry. For it is directly against God, like hatred of God which we have called the worst sin in its kind. Idolatry would upset the order of the universe by ascribing universal control and absolute power to a creature. Some sins may be worse than idolatry by reason of the contempt for God and his law that exists in the sinner's heart; but no sin is worse in itself.
4. Men cause idolatry by their excessive affections, inordinate loyalties, too high an esteem for artistic objects, and also by ignorance. Scripture says (Wisd. 14:14): "By the vanity of men, they [idols] came into the world." A further cause of idolatry is found in the solicitation of demons who offer themselves to be adored.
95. Divinations
1. Divination is an effort to know the future by using superstitious means. It attributes to creatures the power of knowing, or disclosing the future absolutely, whereas this power belongs to God alone. Therefore, divination is always a sin.
2. Divination often takes the form (indeed, this is usual) of an appeal to demons or devils for knowledge of the future, or for knowledge of what one should do now to achieve good or avoid trouble in time to come.
3. There are three major classes of divinations: direct invoking of demons; reading auguries; using other means of reading the future (dreams, necromancy or pretended apparitions, utterances of the dead, etc.).
4. The invoking of demons is unlawful, for it (a) involves an implicit pact with an evil spirit; (b) results in what is prejudicial to man's salvation.
5. Divination by the stars is a vain practice, for man's future is not determined by heavenly bodies. Besides, this is a practice into which evil spirits readily enter to find gullible victims for further bad influencing. Hence, divination by the stars is sinful.
6. Divination by dreams is also unlawful. God can indeed make use of dreams and turn them into revealing visions. But unless God make manifest the character of a dream as a revelation, it is wrong to attach to the dream a prophetic value. Of course, a man may know that when he has dreams of a certain type, he is taking cold, or some such matter. This is not divination or superstition. Only when dreams are accepted as things preternatural and prophetic are they a variety of superstition, that is, of divination.
7. Auguries, omens, use of external superstitious practices as means of getting knowledge or guidance, are all forms of divination, and share its foolish and sinful character. The evil of using such things is in the assumption that the future depends on them. To read the natural signs of causes now in operation is not superstitious. Thus, to predict the morrow's weather from the clouds, or currents of air, or from the cry of birds, is not divination.
8. To draw lots in the sharing of goods, or in determining the winner of a prize, is not divination. But to draw lots to determine what course of action to pursue, with the assumption that fated necessity rules lives, and that somehow the chance selection of a card or the drawing of a straw will indicate what one is fated to enjoy or endure, is divination, and, in consequence, is foolish, unreasonable, and sinful.
96. Superstitious Observances
1. It is futile and sinful to dabble in what is called magic, and to use charms, formulas of speech, or other devices, to obtain occult knowledge or to control events by evoking occult powers. To do such things is to employ superstitious observances. Of course, the magic here mentioned is not the skilled trickery of an entertainer, often called a magician, who diverts us with prestidigitation and legerdemain; his tricks are not superstitious practices. The magic we speak of as superstition is what people commonly call black magic. This sort of thing debases the mind, dishonors God, and opens the door to diabolical intervention.
2. The carrying or wearing of health charms, luck pieces, and the like, is, when done with serious intent of profiting by their use, a great evil; for such practice involves a belief in some preternatural force, other than God, which gives to the objects used a magical power. This belief is superstition, and is a sin against religion.
3. Fortunetelling is a superstitious and unlawful practice, whether it be done by consulting a person, or by using cards, reading tea leaves, looking in a crystal ball, or employing other inept and futile observances. Similarly, it is superstition to give serious belief to the omens of luck, good or bad, such as horseshoes, four-leaf clovers, the breaking of a mirror, seeing a black cat, passing under a ladder, and so on.
4. The using of incantations (recited or chanted formulas of words or sounds) and the wearing of written words on the person, in the belief that such things have a protective power, are acts of superstition. Even sacred words and blessed objects such as medals must be used in the spirit of reverence to God, and never in the way of amulets or luck pieces.
97. Irreligion: Tempting God
1. To tempt a person is to put him to a test. To tempt God is to try, by word or deed, to test God's knowledge or power. Sometimes, indeed, the effort is not so much to test God, as a presumptuous reliance on God to supply what a man can readily do for himself. Thus a man who refuses to take medicine when he is seriously sick, and expects God to cure him, is guilty, in some measure, of tempting God. To expect miracles when no human means are at hand to meet an extreme situation, is not to tempt God. But to expect miracles to supply for one's own lack of effort, or for the sake of enjoying a kind of spectacular exhibition, is tempting God.
2. Therefore, tempting God is a sin. It usually involves a doubt of God's knowledge and power, and seeks to be sure about these-it puts God to the test. It is manifest that there is a wild inordinateness in this spectacle of a creature setting himself up to test and judge the infinite Creator upon whom the creature essentially depends. But one must not too quickly assume that what seems at first sight to be the sin of tempting God is actually such a sin. When, for instance, the apostles asked God to confirm their words with signs (that is, with miracles) they were not tempting God; they had no doubt of his knowledge and power; they sought no proof for themselves; they wished God to make manifest his truth to unbelievers, and to accredit his messengers. The apostles' petition came from full faith, and loving reliance on God; it did not spring from ignorance, doubt, or arrogance, as the sin of tempting God always does.
3. Tempting God is a sin against the virtue of religion because it is a direct act of irreverence towards God.
4. It does not seem that tempting God is so grievous an irreverence as superstition. The person who tempts God manifests a doubt of God's knowledge and power, and this may be a passing and temporary thing. But a person given to superstition is usually steeped and confirmed in irreligious error. As lasting irreverent error is worse than passing irreverent doubt, so superstition is worse than tempting God.
98. Irreligion: Perjury
1. Perjury is a lie confirmed by an oath. It is the calling upon God to witness that truth is spoken, when, in fact, truth is not spoken. We hear the term perjury used mostly with reference to false evidence given by a witness in a court of law. But any lie confirmed by oath, in court or out, is perjury. Perjury involves an injury to God, and therefore is a sin against religion. It is also a great sin against commutative justice, for it ruins the necessary guarantee of honesty among men.
2. Thus, by its very nature, perjury is sinful, and is essentially a sin against religion.
3. And, again by its very nature, perjury is a mortal sin. For it is not only irreverence towards God; it is contempt of God, for it invokes Him to witness what the perjurer knows is not true.
4. We should not lightly demand an oath from others merely to assure ourselves that they are telling the truth; to require an oath, a matter must be serious and important, and one in which it is essential to know the exact truth. Private individuals should never demand an oath from a known liar; his oath would be meaningless in any case, and to require it is only to furnish him an occasion of sin. But a judge in court rightly demands an oath from every witness, even if he knows that this witness or that is wholly unreliable. For the judge acts in an official capacity, not a personal one, and the common good demands a consistent procedure of supporting court testimony by oath.
99. Irreligion: Sacrilege
1. Sacrilege is the violation or misuse of what is sacred. Things that belong to the worship of God have, by their purpose and use, a certain sacredness. To violate or profane such things is to be irreverent to God for whose worship the things exist.
2. Sacrilege is a special sin opposed to the virtue of religion. St. John Damascene says that when the purple has been made into a royal robe we honor it, and that he who dishonors it is punished. So also when anything is made into the instrument of divine worship, it is sacred, and he who dishonors it does a special and punishable thing.
3. Sacrilege is not only found in the profane and irreverent use of sacred things; it is also found in irreverent treatment of sacred persons, and in irreverent conduct in sacred places. The worst sacrilege against persons is that of irreverent use of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament; this terrible sin is committed by those who misuse or profane the sacred species, and by those who deliberately receive Communion unworthily. Sacrilege against persons is also committed by those who offer physical indignity to persons consecrated to God by vow or by holy order. Sacrilege in things is found in the irreligious use of sacred vessels, vestments, images, relics, medals, and the like. Sacrilege in places is committed by whatever profanes the altar or the house of God.
4. Sacrilege is sometimes punished by the Church through excommunication or other censure. In Catholic countries, it is sometimes punished by civil laws also.
100. Irreligion: Simony
1. Simony is the sin of trying to buy or sell something spiritual, or something connected with what is spiritual. Simony takes its name from that of Simon Magus who tried to buy from the apostles the power of calling down the Holy Ghost by the imposing of hands (see Acts 8:18-24). Simony is a sin, because what is spiritual cannot be estimated at a material price; because God alone owns what is spiritual, while his ministers only dispense it; because spiritual things flow freely from God and are to be freely given by his clergy (Matt. 10:8): "Freely have you received; freely give." Therefore, simony is an irreverence to God, and consequently it is a sin against the virtue of religion.
2. The priests of the Church are to be supported materially by the people to whom they minister, for those that serve the altar are to live by the altar. But no priest or prelate dare sell, or try to sell, sacrament, or Mass, or benefice, or ecclesiastical office, for this would be the sin of simony.
3. As we have said elsewhere, it is right and lawful to give something for the support of those who administer spiritual things, in accordance with the customs approved by the Church. But in such giving (and in the receiving, too) there must be no hint or thought or slightest intention of buying and selling. Nor are people to be forced into making an offering by withholding spiritual things that should be administered.
4. Things annexed to what is spiritual cannot be bought or sold unless the things can be evaluated in material terms entirely apart from their quasi-spiritual character. Thus, certain rights of patronage and benefice may be sold, if it be made clear to all parties that the spiritual element does not enter into the transaction. Similarly, blessed articles, such as blessed candles, may be sold if nothing extra is added to the price by reason of the blessing. Yet certain blessed articles lose their blessing (and attached indulgences for pious use) if they are sold, even lawfully and not simoniacally.
5. To grant something spiritual as remuneration for a service, is simony. For what is paid for a thing is estimated, or can be estimated, in terms of money.
6. Anything acquired simoniacally must be surrendered; it cannot justly be retained. Those guilty of the sin of simony are subject to penalties set down in church law.