Exodus 20

We should also know that the ten commandments of the law are also fulfilled by the two gospel precepts, love of God and love of neighbor. For the three commandments which were written on the first tablet pertain to the love of God, while on the second tablet seven commandments were inscribed, one of which is “Honor your father and your mother.” Doubtless all of the latter are recognized as pertaining to love of neighbor. The Lord said in the Gospel: “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” Likewise we read what the apostle James said: “But whoever offends in one point has become guilty in all.” What does it mean to offend in one point and lose all, except to have fallen from the precept of charity and so to have offended in all the other commands? According to the apostle, without charity nothing in our virtues can be shown to avail at all.

Sermon 100A.12

Let [my opponents] insist, if they like, in contradiction to their own assertion, that worship of the one true God and the prohibition against idolatry is not to be preached to the unbaptized but to the already baptized. Do not, however, let them any longer say to those who are going to receive baptism that they need be instructed only on belief in God and after the reception of the sacrament they will be taught the manner of living required by the second precept on the love of neighbor. For both are contained in the law which the people received after the Red Sea, that is, after baptism. The commandments were not so distributed that before crossing the Red Sea the Jews were warned against idolatry and not until after their escape taught to honor father and mother, not to commit adultery, not to kill, and the remaining prescriptions for a rational and godly way of living.

On Faith and Works 11.17

In the first commandment of the Decalogue, just as the worship and service of the one Lord God is most clearly commanded, so for adoration and service to be shown by the faithful to any creature is most vehemently forbidden. For it is said there: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.” If this is taken as spoken simultaneously by the Father and the Son, the Father and the Son are believed to be one Lord God. But if either the Father is believed to have said this without the Son or the Son without the Father, it is necessary that the Father or the Son be denied to be the Lord God. Concerning this he said, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.”

Letter 8.4.9

Morality did not begin by one man saying to another, "I will not hit you if you do not hit me"; there is no trace of such a transaction. There is a trace of both men having said, "We must not hit each other in the holy place." They gained their morality by guarding their religion. They did not cultivate courage. They fought for the shrine, and found they had become courageous. They did not cultivate cleanliness. They purified themselves for the altar, and found that they were clean. The history of the Jews is the only early document known to most Englishmen, and the facts can be judged sufficiently from that. The Ten Commandments which have been found substantially common to mankind were merely military commands; a code of regimental orders, issued to protect a certain ark across a certain desert. Anarchy was evil because it endangered the sanctity. And only when they made a holy day for God did they find they had made a holiday for men.

Orthodoxy, Ch. 5: The Flag of the World (1908)

Again, he who says “you shall never worship a strange god” forbids us to worship another god, and the strange god is so called in contradistinction to our own God. Who then is our own God? Clearly, the true God. And who is the strange god? Surely, he who is alien from the nature of the true God. If therefore our own God is the true God, and if, as the heretics say, the only-begotten God is not of the nature of the true God, he is a strange God and not our God.

On the Faith

The entire law of Christ depends upon charity. And charity depends on two precepts, one of which concerns loving God and the other concerns loving our neighbor.

Now God, in delivering the law to Moses, gave him Ten Commandments written upon two tablets of stone. Three of these Commandments that were written on the first tablet referred to the love of God; and the seven Commandments written on the other tablet related to the love of our neighbor. The whole law, therefore, is founded on these two precepts.

The First Commandment which relates to the love of God is: "You shall not have strange gods." For an understanding of this Commandment, one must know how of old it was violated. Some worshipped demons. "All the gods of the Gentiles are devils" [Ps 95:5]. This is the greatest and most detestable of all sins. Even now there are many who transgress this Commandment: all such as practise divinations and fortune-telling. Such things, according to St. Augustine, cannot be done without some kind of pact with the devil. "I would not that you should be made partakers with devils" [1 Cor 10:20].

Some worshipped the heavenly bodies, believing the stars to be gods: "They have imagined the sun and the moon to be the gods that rule the world" [Wis 13:2]. For this reason Moses forbade the Jews to raise their eyes, or adore the sun and moon and stars: "Keep therefore your souls carefully... lest perhaps lifting up your eyes to heaven, you see the sun and the moon, and all the stars of heaven, and being deceived by error you adore and serve them, which the Lord your God created for the service of all the nations" [Deut 4:15,19]. The astrologers sin against this Commandment in that they say that these bodies are the rulers of souls, when in truth they were made for the use of man whose sole ruler is God.

Others worshipped the lower elements: "They imagined the fire or the wind to be gods" [Wis 13:2]. Into this error also fall those who wrongly use the things of this earth and love them too much: "Or covetous person (who is a server of idols)" [Eph 5:5].

Some men have erred in worshipping their ancestors. This arose from three causes. (1) From their carnal nature: "For a father being afflicted with a bitter grief, made to himself the image of his son who was quickly taken away; and him who then had died as a man, he began now to worship as a god, and appointed him rites and sacrifices among his servants" [Wis 14:15]. (2) Because of flattery: Thus being unable to worship certain men in their presence, they, bowing down, honored them in their absence by making statues of them and worshipping one for the other: "Whom they had a mind to honor... they made an image... that they might honor as present him that was absent" [Wis 14:17]. Of such also are those men who love and honor other men more than God: "He who loves his father and mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me" [10]. "Put your trust not in princes; in the children of man, in whom there is no salvation" [Ps 145:3]. (3) From presumption: Some because of their presumption made themselves be called gods; such, for example, was Nabuchodonosor (Judith 3:13). "Your heart is lifted up and you have said: I am God" [Ez 28:2]. Such are also those who believe more in their own pleasures than in the precepts of God. They worship themselves as gods, for by seeking the pleasures of the flesh, they worship their own bodies instead of God: "Their god is their belly" [Phil 3:19]. We must, therefore, avoid all these things.

"You shall not have strange gods before Me." As we have already said, the First Commandment forbids us to worship other than the one God. We shall now consider five reasons for this.

The first reason is the dignity of God, which, were it belittled in any way, would be an injury to God. We see something similar to this in the customs of men. Reverence is due to every degree of dignity. Thus, a traitor to the king is he who robs him of what he ought to maintain. Such, too, is the conduct of some towards God: "They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man" [Rom 1:23]. This is highly displeasing to God: "I will not give My glory to another, nor My praise to graven things" [Is 42:8]. For it must be known that the dignity of God consists in His omniscience, since the name of God, Deus, is from "seeing," and this is one of the signs of divinity: "Show the things that are to come hereafter, and we shall know that you are gods" [Is 41:23]. "All things are naked and open to His eyes" [Hb 4:13]. But this dignity of God is denied Him by practitioners of divination, and of them it is said: "Should not the people seek of their God, for the living and the dead?" [Is 8:19].

The second reason is God's bounty. We receive every good from God; and this also is of the dignity of God, that He is the maker and giver of all good things: "When You openest your hand, they shall all be filled with good" [Ps 103:28]. And this is implied in the name of God, namely, Deus, which is said to be distributor, that is, dator of all things, because He fills all things with His goodness. You are, indeed, ungrateful if you do not appreciate what you have received from Him, and, furthermore, you make for yourself another god; just as the sons of Israel made an idol after they had been brought out of Egypt: "I will go after my lovers" [Hosea 2:5]. One does this also when one puts too much trust in someone other than God, and this occurs when one seeks help from another: "Blessed is the man whose hope is in the name of the Lord" [Ps 39:5]. Thus, the Apostle says: "Now that you have known God... how turn you again to the weak and needy elements?... You observe days and months and times and years" [Gal 4:9,10].

The third reason is taken from the strength of our solemn promise. For we have renounced the devil, and we have promised fidelity to God alone. This is a promise which we cannot break: "A man who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by one who treads under foot the Son of God, and esteems the blood of the testament unclean, by which he was sanctified, and outrages the Spirit of grace!" [Hb 10:28-29]. "While her husband lives, she shall be called an adulteress, if she be with another man" [Rom 7:3]. Woe, then, to the sinner who enters the land by two ways, and who "halts between two sides" [1 Kg 18:21].

The fourth reason is because of the great burden imposed by service to the devil: "You shall serve strange gods day and night, who will give you no rest" [Jer 16:13]. The devil is not satisfied with leading to one sin, but tries to lead on to others: "Whoever sins shall be a slave of sin" [Jn 8:34]. It is, therefore, not easy for one to escape from the habit of sin. Thus, St. Gregory says: "The sin which is not remitted by penance soon draws man into another sin" [Super Ezech. 11]. The very opposite of all this is true of service to God; for His Commandments are not a heavy burden: "My yoke is sweet and My burden light" [Mt 11:30]. A person is considered to have done enough if he does for God as much as what he has done for the sake of sin: "For as you yielded your members to serve uncleanness and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to serve justice for sanctification" [Rm 6:19]. But on the contrary, it is written of those who serve the devil: "We wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity and destruction, and have walked through hard ways" [Wis 5:7]. And again: "They have labored to commit iniquity" [Jer 9:5].

The fifth reason is taken from the greatness of the reward or prize. In no law are such rewards promised as in the law of Christ. Rivers flowing with milk and honey are promised to the Muslims, to the Jews the land of promise, but to Christians the glory of the Angels: "They shall be as the Angels of God in heaven" [Mt 22:30]. It was with this in mind that St. Peter asked: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" [Jn 6:69].

Explanation of the Ten Commandments

As it was, while the whole world melted into this mass of confused mythology, this Deity who is called tribal and narrow, precisely because he was what is called tribal and narrow, preserved the primary religion of all mankind. He was tribal enough to be universal. He was as narrow as the universe.

In a word, there was a popular pagan god called Jupiter-Ammon. There was never a god called Jehovah-Ammon. There was never a god called Jehovah-Jupiter. If there had been, there would certainly have been another called Jehovah-Moloch.

The Everlasting Man, Ch. 4 (1925)

And to me in particular there came back the memory of a corrugated iron hut used as an R.A.F. chapel — a few kneeling airmen — and a young chaplain uttering the prayer, 'Teach us, O Lord, to love the things Thou standest for.' He was perfectly sincere, and I willingly believe that the things in question included something more and better than 'the Western values', whatever those may be.

And yet... his words seemed to me to imply a point of view incompatible with Christianity or indeed with any serious Theism whatever. God is not, for it, the goal or end. He is (and how fortunate!) enlightened; has, or 'stands for', the right ideals. He is valued for that reason. He ranks, admittedly, as a leader. But of course a leader leads to something beyond himself. That something else is the real goal. This is miles away from 'Thou hast made us for Thyself and our heart has no rest till it comes to Thee.' The Maenads were more religious.

Revival or Decay?, from God in the Dock

The longer I looked into it the more I came to suspect that I was perceiving a universal law. The woman who makes a dog the centre of her life loses, in the end, not only her human usefulness and dignity but even the proper pleasure of dog-keeping. The man who makes alcohol his chief good loses not only his job but his palate and all power of enjoying the earlier (and only pleasurable) levels of intoxication. It is a glorious thing to feel for a moment or two that the whole meaning of the universe is summed up in one woman — glorious so long as other duties and pleasures keep tearing you away from her. But clear the decks and so arrange your life (it is sometimes feasible) that you will have nothing to do but contemplate her, and what happens? Of course this law has been discovered before, but it will stand re-discovery. It may be stated as follows: every preference of a small good to a great, or a partial good to a total good, involves the loss of the small or partial good for which the sacrifice was made.

First and Second Things, from God in the Dock

This love, when it sets up as a religion, is beginning to be a god—therefore to be a demon. And demons never keep their promises. Nature "dies on" those who try to live for a love of nature.

The Four Loves, Chapter 2: Likings and Loves for the Sub-human

We may say that one most essential feature was that it was featureless. Much as we may prefer that creative liberty which the Christian culture has declared and by which it has eclipsed even the arts of antiquity, we must not underrate the determining importance at the time of the Hebrew inhibition of images. It is a typical example of one of those limitations that did in fact preserve and perpetuate enlargement, like a wall built round a wide open space. The God who could not have a statue remained a spirit. Nor would his statue in any case have had the disarming dignity and grace of the Greek statues then or the Christian statues afterwards. He was living in a land of monsters. We shall have occasion to consider more fully what those monsters were, Moloch and Dagon and Tanit the terrible goddess. If the deity of Israel had ever had an image, he would have had a phallic image. By merely giving him a body they would have brought in all the worst elements of mythology; all the polygamy of polytheism; the vision of the harem in heaven.

The Everlasting Man, Ch. 4 (1925)

If you examine the object to which he is attending, you will find that it is a composite object containing many quite ridiculous ingredients. There will be images derived from pictures of the Enemy as He appeared during the discreditable episode known as the Incarnation: there will be vaguer--perhaps quite savage and puerile--images associated with the other two Persons. There will even be some of his own reverence (and of bodily sensations accompanying it) objectified and attributed to the object revered. I have known cases where what the patient called his "God" was actually located--up and to the left at the corner of the bedroom ceiling, or inside his own head, or in a crucifix on the wall. But whatever the nature of the composite object, you must keep him praying to it--to the thing that he has made, not to the Person who has made him.

The Screwtape Letters

[God] warns a man inclined to idolatry not to practice it. But when a man who is not so inclined but yet through cowardice, which he calls “accommodation,” pretends to worship idols as the masses do, he does not, it is true, worship idols, but he does bow before them. And I would say that they who abjure Christianity in the courtroom or even before they are brought there do not worship idols, but they do bow down before them; for they apply to inanimate and unheeding matter the name of the Lord God, namely “God”.

Exhortation to Martyrdom 6

It is obvious that the Jews follow the law where God is represented as saying, “You shall have none other gods but me; you shall not make for yourself an idol nor any likeness of anything in the heaven above and in the earth beneath and in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor worship them.” And they worship none other than the supreme God who made heaven and everything else. It is clear then that since those who live according to the law reverence him who made the heavens, they do not reverence the heavens together with God. Furthermore, none of those who serve the Mosaic law worship the angels in heaven. And in the same way that they do not worship the sun, moon and stars, “the world of heaven,” they avoid worshiping heaven and the angels in it.

Against Celsus 5.6

Christians and Jews are led to avoid temples and altars and images by the command “You shall fear the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” … And not only do they avoid them, but when necessary they readily come to the point of death to avoid defiling their conception of the God of the universe by any act of this kind contrary to his law.

Against Celsus 7.64

When men try to seduce us to apostasy, it is useful to reflect upon what God wishes to teach us when he says, “I am the Lord your God, jealous.” In my view, just as the bridegroom who wishes to make his bride live chastely so as to give herself entirely to him and beware of any relationship whatever with any man other than her husband, pretends, though he be wise, to be jealous—he uses this pretense as a kind of antidote for his bride—so the Lawgiver, especially when he reveals himself as “the firstborn of every creature,” says to his bride, the soul, that he is a jealous God. In this way he keeps his followers from any fornication with demons and pretended gods.

Exhortation to Martyrdom 9

Now Christ is especially jealous for the house of God in each of us, not wishing it to be a house of merchandise or that the house of prayer become a den of thieves, since he is Son of a jealous God. This is the case if we understand such words from the Scriptures in a reasonable manner, which were spoken metaphorically from the human viewpoint to set forth the fact that God wishes nothing alien to his will to be mingled with the soul of any, but especially with the soul of those who wish to receive [the teachings of the] most divine faith.

Commentary on the Gospel of John 10.221

Although making a variety of suppositions about him, we all know something of God but do not all know what he is, for few indeed and fewer (if I may say so) than few are they who grasp his holiness in all things. Thus we are rightly taught to pray that our concept of God may be hallowed among us. Thus we shall see his holiness in creating, in providing, in judging, in choosing and abandoning, in accepting and rejecting, in rewarding and punishing each one according to his merits.In these activities and others like them is found, so I may say, the stamp of the personal character of God, that which in my opinion is called in Scripture the “name of God.” So in Exodus: “You shall not take the name of your God in vain.”

On Prayer 24.2-3

Here too the Lord himself teaches in the passage before us about another Lord. For he says, “I am the Lord thy God,” and adds, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” The second Lord is here mystically instructing his servant about the Father, that is to say, the God of the universe. And you could find many other similar instances occurring in Holy Scripture, in which God speaks as if in a second voice about another. The Lord himself speaks as if about another.

Proof of the Gospel 5.16.243

The second commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for whoever takes the name of the Lord his God in vain will not be purified.” The name of the Lord our God Jesus Christ is Truth: he himself said, “I am the truth.” So truth purifies; futility defiles. And because whoever speaks the truth speaks from what is God’s—for “whoever speaks falsehood speaks from what is his own”—to speak the truth is to speak reasonably, whereas to speak futility is to make a noise rather than to speak. Rightly, because the second commandment means love of the truth, the opposite of that is love of futility.

Sermon 8.5

You are told “Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”; do not regard Christ as a creature because for your sake he put on the creature. And you, you despise him who is equal to the Father and one with the Father.

Sermon 9.3

This is the Second Commandment of the law. Just as there is but one God whom we must worship, so there is only one God whom we should reverence in a special manner. This, first of all, has reference to the name of God. "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain."

"In vain" has a threefold meaning. Sometimes it is said of that which is false: "They have spoken vain things every one to his neighbor" [Ps 11:3]. One, therefore, takes the name of God in vain when one uses it to confirm that which is not true: "Love not a false oath" [Zech 8:17]. "You shall not live because you have spoken a lie in the name of the Lord" [Zech 13:3]. Any one so doing does injury to God, to himself, and to all men.

It is an insult to God because, when you swear by God, it is nothing other than to call Him to witness; and when you swear falsely, you either believe God to be ignorant of the truth and thus place ignorance in God, whereas "all things are naked and open to His eyes" [Hb 4:13], or you think that God loves a lie, whereas He hates it: "You will destroy all who speak lies" [Ps 5:7]. Or, again, you detract from His power, as if He were not able to punish a lie.

Likewise, such a one does an injury to himself, for he binds himself to the judgment of God. It is the same thing to say, "By God this is so," as to say, "May God punish me if it is not so!"

He, finally, does an injury to other men. For there can be no lasting society unless men believe one another. Matters that are doubtful may be confirmed by oaths: "An oath in confirmation puts an end to all controversy" [Hb 6:16]. Therefore, he who violates this precept does injury to God, is cruel to himself, and harmful to other men.

Sometimes "vain" signifies useless: "The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain" [Ps 93:11]. God's name, therefore, is taken in vain when it is used to confirm vain things.

In the Old Law it was forbidden to swear falsely: "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain" [Dt 5:11]. And Christ forbade the taking of oaths except in case of necessity: "You have heard that it was said to them of old: You shall not swear falsely... But I say to you not to swear at all" [Mt 5:33-34]. And the reason for this is that in no part of our body are we so weak as in the tongue, for "the tongue no man can tame" [Jm 3:8]. And thus even in light matter one can perjure himself. "Let your speech be: Yea, yea; No, no. But I say to you not to swear at all" [Mt 5:34,37].

Note well that an oath is like medicine, which is never taken continually but only in times of necessity. Hence, the Lord adds: "And what is over and above these is evil" [Mt 5:37]. "Let not the mouth be accustomed to swearing, for in it there are many falls. And let not the name of God be usual in your mouth, and meddle not with the names of saints. For you shall not escape free from them" [Sir 23:9].

Sometimes "in vain" means sin or injustice: "O sons of men, how long will you be dull of heart? Why do you love vanity?" [Ps 4:3]. Therefore, he who swears to commit a sin, takes the name of his God in vain. Justice consists in doing good and avoiding evil. Therefore, if you take an oath to steal or commit some crime of this sort, you sin against justice. And although you must not keep this oath, you are still guilty of perjury. Herod did this against John [Mk 6:17]. It is likewise against justice when one swears not to do some good act, as not to enter a church or a religious community. And although this oath, too, is not binding, yet, despite this, the person himself is a perjuror.

One cannot, therefore, swear to a falsehood, or without good reason, or in any way against justice: "And you shall swear: As the Lord lives, in truth, and in judgment and in justice" [Jer 4:2].

Sometimes "vain" also means foolish: "All men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God" [Wis 13:1]. Accordingly, he who takes the name of God foolishly, by blasphemy, takes the name of God in vain: "And he who blasphemes against the name of the Lord, let him surely die" [Lev 24:16].

However, the name of God may be taken for six purposes. First, to confirm something that is said, as in an oath. In this we show God alone is the first Truth, and also we show due reverence to God. For this reason it was commanded in the Old Law that one must not swear except by God [Dt 6:13]. They who swore otherwise violated this order: "By the name of strange gods you shall not swear" [Ex 23:13]. Although at times one swears by creatures, nevertheless, it must be known that such is the same as swearing by God. When you swear by your soul or your head, it is as if you bind yourself to be punished by God. Thus: "But I call God to witness upon my soul" [2 Cor 1:23]. And when you swear by the Gospel, you swear by God who gave the Gospel. But they sin who swear either by God or by the Gospel for any trivial reason.

The second purpose is that of sanctification. Thus, Baptism sanctifies, for as St. Paul says: "But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of God" [1 Cor 6:11]. Baptism, however, does not have power except through the invocation of the Trinity: "But You, O Lord, are among us, and your name is called upon by us" [Jer 14:9].

The third purpose is the expulsion of our adversary; hence, before Baptism we renounce the devil: "Only let your name be called upon us; take away our reproach" [Is 4:1]. Therefore, if one return to his sins, the name of God has been taken in vain.

Fourthly, God's name is taken in order to confess it: "How then shall they call on Him, in whom they have not believed?" [Rm 10:14]. And again: "Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved" [Rm 10:13]. First of all, we confess by word of mouth that we may show forth the glory of God: "And every one who calls on My name, I have created him for My glory" [Is 43:7]. Accordingly, if one says anything against the glory of God, he takes the name of God in vain. Secondly, we confess God's name by our works, when our very actions show forth God's glory: "That they may see your good works, and may glorify your Father who is in heaven" [Mt 5:16]. "Through you the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles" [Rm 2:24].

Fifthly it is taken for our defense: "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the just run to it and shall be exalted" [Prov 18:10]. "In My name they shall cast out devils" [Mk 16:17]. "There is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved" [Acts 4:12].

Lastly, it is taken in order to make our works complete. Thus says the Apostle: "All that you do in word or work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" [Col 3:17]. The reason is because "our help is in the name of the Lord" [Ps 123:8]. Sometimes it happens that one begins a work imprudently by starting with a vow, for instance, and then not completing either the work or the vow. And this again is taking God's name in vain. "If you have vowed anything to God, do not defer paying it" [Eccles 5:3]. "Vow and pay to the Lord your God; all you round about Him bring presents" [Ps 75:12]. "For an unfaithful and foolish promise displeases Him" [Eccles 5:3].

Explanation of the Ten Commandments

In short, Mr. McCabe is under the influence of a primary fallacy which I have found very common in men of the clerical type. Numbers of clergymen have from time to time reproached me for making jokes about religion; and they have almost always invoked the authority of that very sensible commandment which says, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” Of course, I pointed out that I was not in any conceivable sense taking the name in vain. To take a thing and make a joke out of it is not to take it in vain. It is, on the contrary, to take it and use it for an uncommonly good object. To use a thing in vain means to use it without use. But a joke may be exceedingly useful; it may contain the whole earthly sense, not to mention the whole heavenly sense, of a situation. And those who find in the Bible the commandment can find in the Bible any number of the jokes. In the same book in which God’s name is fenced from being taken in vain, God himself overwhelms Job with a torrent of terrible levities. The same book which says that God’s name must not be taken vainly, talks easily and carelessly about God laughing and God winking. Evidently it is not here that we have to look for genuine examples of what is meant by a vain use of the name. And it is not very difficult to see where we have really to look for it. The people (as I tactfully pointed out to them) who really take the name of the Lord in vain are the clergymen themselves. The thing which is fundamentally and really frivolous is not a careless joke. The thing which is fundamentally and really frivolous is a careless solemnity.

Heretics, Ch. 16: On Mr. McCabe and a Divine Frivolity (1905)

It will be exposed, in an aggravated degree, to that temptation which the Devil spares none of us at any time — the temptation of claiming for our favourite opinions that kind and degree of certainty and authority which really belongs only to our Faith. The danger of mistaking our merely natural, though perhaps legitimate, enthusiasms for holy zeal, is always great. Can any more fatal expedient be devised for increasing it than that of dubbing a small band of Fascists, Communists, or Democrats 'the Christian Party'?... If ever Christian men can be brought to think treachery and murder the lawful means of establishing the regime they desire, and faked trials, religious persecution and organized hooliganism the lawful means of maintaining it, it will, surely, be by just such a process as this. The history of the late medieval pseudo-Crusader, of the Covenanters, of the Orangemen, should be remembered. On those who add 'Thus said the Lord' to their merely human utterances descends the doom of a conscience which seems clearer and clearer the more it is loaded with sin. All this comes from pretending that God has spoken when He has not spoken.

Meditation on the Third Commandment, from God in the Dock

The third commandment: “Remember the sabbath day to sanctify it.” This third commandment imposes a regular periodical holiday—quietness of heart, tranquility of mind, the product of a good conscience. Here is sanctification, because here is the Spirit of God. Well, here is what a true holiday, that is to say, quietness and rest, means “Upon whom,” he says, “shall my spirit rest? Upon one who is humble and quiet and trembles at my words.” So unquiet people are those who recoil from the Holy Spirit, loving quarrels, spreading slanders, keener on argument than on truth, and so in their restlessness they do not allow the quietness of the spiritual sabbath to enter into themselves.

Sermon 8.6

We are not ordered to keep the sabbath day by a literal corporal abstinence from work, as the Jews observe it—and, indeed, that observance of theirs, because it is so commanded, is considered ludicrous unless it signifies some other spiritual rest. From this we understand that all the truths which are expressed figuratively in the Scriptures are appropriately designed to arouse love. By love we attain to rest. The only commandment that is given figuratively is the one by which rest is enjoined. Rest is universally loved but found pure and entire in God alone.However, the Lord’s day was not made known to Jews but to Christians by the resurrection of the Lord, and from that event it began to acquire its solemnity. Doubtless the souls of all the saints prior to the resurrection of the body enjoy repose, but they do not possess that activity which gives power to risen bodies.

Letter 55

But the rite of the sabbath was taught to our ancient fathers which we Christians observe spiritually so that we abstain from all servile work, that is, from all sin (for the Lord says, “Everyone who commits a sin is a slave of sin”), and we have rest in our hearts, that is, spiritual tranquility. And, however we try in this world, we shall nevertheless not arrive at that perfect rest except when we have departed this life.

Tractate on the Gospel of John 20.2

To teach a Christian anything about the observance of the sabbath would seem to be rather superfluous. On the contrary, not only is it not superfluous, but it is in fact basic, bedrock doctrine, because it is a shadow of things to come. The people, you see, are forbidden to perform servile works on the sabbath. Now are we, I ask you, not forbidden to perform servile works? Listen to the Lord: “Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” And yet to celebrate the sabbath is to hope to receive from God this very thing, of not committing sin. That’s why it is written, “God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” God rested; God enables you to rest. For God himself to rest, well when did he tire himself out working, seeing that he created all things with a word?

Sermon 179A.3

The third precept is “Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.” In this third commandment is suggested a certain idea of freedom, a repose of the heart or tranquility of the mind which a good conscience effects. Indeed, sanctification is there because the Spirit of God dwells there. Now look at the freedom or repose; our Lord says, “Upon whom shall I rest but upon the man who is humble and peaceable, and who trembles at my words?” Therefore restless souls turn away from the Holy Ghost. Lovers of strife, authors of calumnies, devotees of quarrels rather than of charity, by their uneasiness they do not admit to themselves the repose of a spiritual sabbath. Men do not observe a spiritual sabbath unless they devote themselves to earthly occupations so moderately that they still engage in reading and prayer, at least frequently, if not always. As that apostle says, “Be diligent in reading and in teaching”;31 and again, “Pray without ceasing.” Men of this kind honor the sabbath in a spiritual manner.

Sermon 100.4

Under the law the people were ordered to work for six days and to rest on the seventh, [and] to plow and reap for six years and desist during the seventh, because the Lord completed the creation of the world in six days and desisted from his work on the seventh. Mystically speaking, we are counseled by all this that those who in this age (which is comprised of six periods), devote themselves to good works for the Lord’s sake, are in future led by the Lord to a sabbath, that is, to eternal rest.

Homilies on the Gospels 2.17

This is the Third Commandment of the law, and very suitably is it so. For we are first commanded to adore God in our hearts, and the Commandment is to worship one God: "You shall not have strange gods before Me." In the Second Commandment we are told to reverence God by word: "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." The Third commands us to reverence God by act. It is: "Remember that you keep holy the Sabbath day." God wished that a certain day be set aside on which men direct their minds to the service of the Lord.

There are five reasons for this Commandment. The first reason was to put aside error, for the Holy Spirit saw that in the future some men would say that the world had always existed. "In the last days there shall come deceitful scoffers, walking after their own lusts, saying: Where is His promise or His coming? For since the time that the fathers slept, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. For this they are willfully ignorant of, that the heavens were before, and the earth out of water, and through water, created by the word of God" [2 Pet 3:3-5]. God, therefore, wished that one day should be set aside in memory of the fact that He created all things in six days, and that on the seventh day He rested from the creation of new creatures. This is why the Lord placed this Commandment in the law, saying: "Remember that you keep holy the Sabbath day." The Jews kept holy the Sabbath in memory of the first creation; but Christ at His coming brought about a new creation. For by the first creation an earthly man was created, and by the second a heavenly man was formed: "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision is worth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature" [Gal 6:15]. This new creation is through grace, which came by the Resurrection: "That as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, so shall we also be in the likeness of His resurrection" [Rm 6:4-5]. And thus, because the Resurrection took place on Sunday, we celebrate that day, even as the Jews observed the Sabbath on account of the first creation.

The second reason for this Commandment is to instruct us in our faith in the Redeemer. For the flesh of Christ was not corrupted in the sepulchre, and thus it is said: "Moreover My flesh also shall rest in hope" [Ps 15:9]. "Nor will You let your holy one see corruption" [Ps 15:10]. Wherefore, God wished that the Sabbath should be observed, and that just as the sacrifices of the Old Law signified the death of Christ, so should the quiet of the Sabbath signify the rest of His body in the sepulchre. But we do not now observe these sacrifices, because with the advent of the reality and the truth, figures of it must cease, just as the darkness is dispelled with the rising of the sun. Nevertheless, we keep the Saturdays in veneration of the Blessed Virgin, in whom remained a firm faith on that Saturday while Christ was dead.

The third reason is that this Commandment was given to strengthen and foreshadow the fulfillment of the promise of rest. For rest indeed was promised to us: "And on that day God shall give you rest from your labor, from your vexation, and from the hard bondage, to which you had been subjugated" [Is 14:3]. "My people shall dwell in a peaceful land, in secure accommodation, and in quiet places of rest" [Is 32:18].

We hope for rest from three things: from the labors of the present life, from the struggles of temptations, and from the servitude of the devil. Christ promised this rest to all those who will come to Him: "Come to Me, all ye that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart; and you shall find rest to your souls. For My yoke is sweet and My burden light" [Mt 11:28-30].

However, the Lord, as we know, worked for six days and on the seventh He rested, because it is necessary to do a perfect work: "Behold with your eyes how I have labored a little, and have found much rest to Myself" [Sir 51:35]. For the period of eternity exceeds the present time incomparably more than a thousand years exceeds one day.

Fourthly, this Commandment was given for the increase of our love: "For the corruptible body is a load upon the soul" [Wis 9:15]. And man always tends downwards towards earthly things unless he takes means to raise himself above them. It is indeed necessary to have a certain time for this; in fact, some do this continually: "I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall ever be in my mouth" [Ps 33:2]. And again: "Pray without ceasing" [1 Thes 5:17]. These shall enjoy the everlasting Sabbath. There are others who do this during a certain portion of the day: "Seven times a day I have given praise to You" [Ps 118:164]. And some, in order to avoid being entirely apart from God, find it necessary to have a fixed day, lest they become too lukewarm in their love of God: "If you call the Sabbath delightful... then shall you delight in the Lord" [Is 58:13-14]. Again: "Then shall you abound in delights of the Almighty, and shall lift up your face to God" [Job 22:26]. And accordingly this day is not set aside for the sole exercise of games, but to praise and pray to the Lord God. Wherefore, St. Augustine says that it is a lesser evil to plough than to play on this day.

Lastly, we are given this Commandment in order to exercise works of kindliness to those who are subject to us. For some are so cruel to themselves and to others that they labor ceaselessly all on account of money. This is true especially of the Jews, who are most avaricious. "Observe the day of the Sabbath to sanctify it... that your man-servant and your maid-servant may rest, even as thyself" [19]. This Commandment, therefore, was given for all these reasons.

We have already said that, as the Jews celebrated the Sabbath, so do we Christians observe the Sunday and all principal feasts. Let us now see in what way we should keep these days. We ought to know that God did not say to "keep" the Sabbath, but to remember to keep it holy. The word "holy" may be taken in two ways. Sometimes "holy" (sanctified) is the same as pure: "But you are washed, but you are sanctified" [1 Cor 6:11], that is, made holy. Then again at times "holy" is said of a thing consecrated to the worship of God, as, for instance, a place, a season, vestments, and the holy vessels. Therefore, in these two ways we ought to celebrate the feasts, that is, both purely and by giving ourselves over to divine service.

We shall consider two things regarding this Commandment. First, what should be avoided on a feast day, and secondly, what we should do. We ought to avoid three things.

The first is servile work. "Neither do any work; sanctify the Sabbath day" [Jer 17:22]. And so also it is said in the Law: "You shall do no servile work therein" [Lev 23:25]. Now, servile work is bodily work; whereas "free work" (i.e., non-servile work) is done by the mind, for instance, the exercise of the intellect and such like. And one cannot be servilely bound to do this kind of work.

We ought to know, however, that servile work can be done on the Sabbath for four reasons. The first reason is necessity. Wherefore, the Lord excused the disciples plucking the ears of corn on the Sabbath, as we read in St. Matthew (xii. 3-5). The second reason is when the work is done for the service of the Church; as we see in the same Gospel how the priests did all things necessary in the Temple on the Sabbath day. The third reason is for the good of our neighbor; for on the Sabbath the Saviour cured one having a withered hand, and He refuted the Jews who reprimanded Him, by citing the example of the sheep in a pit ("ibid."). And the fourth reason is the authority of our superiors. Thus, God commanded the Jews to circumcise on the Sabbath [Jn 7:22-23].

Another thing to be avoided on the Sabbath is sin: "Take heed to your souls, and carry no burdens on the Sabbath day" [Jer 17:21]. This weight and burden on the soul is sin: "My iniquities as a heavy burden are become heavy upon me" [Ps 37:5]. Now, sin is a servile work because "whoever commits sin is the servant of sin" [Jn 8:34]. Therefore, when it is said, "You shall do no servile work therein" [Lev 23:25], it can be understood of sin. Thus, one violates this commandment as often as one commits sin on the Sabbath; and so both by working and by sin God is offended. "The Sabbaths and other festivals I will not abide." And why? "Because your assemblies are wicked. My soul hates your new moon and your solemnities; they are become troublesome to me" [Is 1:13-14].

Another thing to avoid on the Sabbath is idleness: "For idleness has taught much evil" [Sir 33:29]. St. Jerome says: "Always do some good work, and the devil will always find you occupied" [Ep. ad Rusticum]. Hence, it is not good for one to keep only the principal feasts, if on the others one would remain idle. "The King's honor loves judgment" [Ps 98:4 Vulgate], that is to say, discretion. Wherefore, we read that certain of the Jews were in hiding, and their enemies fell upon them; but they, believing that they were not able to defend themselves on the Sabbath, were overcome and killed [1 Mac 2:31-38]. The same thing happens to many who are idle on the feast days: "The enemies have seen her, and have mocked at her Sabbaths" [Lam 1:7]. But all such should do as those Jews did, of whom it is said: "Whoever shall come up against us to fight on the Sabbath day, we will fight against him" [1 Mac 2:41].

We have already said that man must keep the feast days holy; and that "holy" is considered in two ways, namely, "pure" and "consecrated to God." Moreover, we have indicated what things we should abstain from on these days. Now it must be shown with what we should occupy ourselves, and they are three in number.

The first is the offering of sacrifices. In the Book of Numbers (28) it is written how God ordered that on each day there be offered one lamb in the morning and another in the evening, but on the Sabbath day the number should be doubled. And this showed that on the Sabbath we should offer sacrifice to God from all that we possess: "All things are Yours; and we have given You what we received from your hand" [1 Chron 29:14]. We should offer, first of all, our soul to God, being sorry for our sins: "A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit" [Ps 50:19]; and also pray for His blessings: "Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight" [Ps 140:2]. Feast days were instituted for that spiritual joy which is the effect of prayer. Therefore, on such days our prayers should be multiplied.

Secondly, we should offer our body, by mortifying it with fasting: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice" [Rm 12:1], and also by praising God: "The sacrifice of praise shall honor Me" [Ps 49:23]. And thus on these days our hymns should be more numerous. Thirdly, we should sacrifice our possessions by giving alms: "And do not forget to do good, and to impart; for by such sacrifice God's favor is obtained" [Hb 13:16]. And this alms ought to be more than on other days because the Sabbath is a day of common joys: "Send portions to those who have not prepared for themselves, because it is the holy day of the Lord" [Neh 8:10].

Our second duty on the Sabbath is to be eager to hear the word of God. This the Jews did daily: "The voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath" [Acts 13:27]. Therefore Christians, whose justice should be more perfect, ought to come together on the Sabbath to hear sermons and participate in the services of the Church! "He who is of God, hears the words of God" [Jn 8:47]. We likewise ought to speak with profit to others: "Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth; but what is good for sanctification" [Eph 4:29]. These two practices are good for the soul of the sinner, because they change his heart for the better: "Are not My words as a fire, says the Lord, and as a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" [Jer 23:29]. The opposite effect is had on those, even the perfect, who neither speak nor hear profitable things: "Evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake, you just, and do no sin" [1 Cor 15:33-34]. "Your words have I hidden in my heart" [Ps 118:11]. God's word enlightens the ignorant: "Your word is a lamp to my feet" [Ps 118:105]. It inflames the lukewarm: "The word of the Lord inflamed him" [Ps 104:19].

The contemplation of divine things may be exercised on the Sabbath. However, this is for the more perfect. "O taste, and see that the Lord is sweet" [Ps 33:9], and this is because of the quiet of the soul. For just as the tired body desires rest, so also does the soul. But the soul's proper rest is in God: "Be for me a God, a protector, and a house of refuge" [Ps 30:3]. "There remains therefore a day of rest for the people of God. For he who has entered into his rest has also rested from his works, as God did from His" [Hb 4:9-10]. "When I go into my house, I shall repose myself with her" (i.e., Wisdom) [Wis 8:16].

However, before the soul arrives at this rest, three other rests must precede. The first is the rest from the turmoil of sin: "But the wicked are like the raging sea which cannot rest" [Is 57:20]. The second rest is from the passions of the flesh, because "the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh" [Gal 5:17]. The third is rest from the occupations of the world: "Martha, Martha, you are careful and are troubled about many things" [Lk 10:41].

And then after all these things the soul rests peacefully in God: "If you call the Sabbath delightful... then shall you delight in the Lord" [Is 58:13-14]. The Saints gave up everything to possess this rest, "for it is a pearl of great price which a man having found, hid it, and for joy went off and sold all that he had and bought that field" [Mt 13:44-46]. This rest in truth is eternal life and heavenly joy: "This is my rest for ever and ever; here will I dwell, for I have chosen it" [Ps 131:14]. And to this rest may the Lord bring us all!

Explanation of the Ten Commandments

The strange truth about the matter is told in the very word “holiday.” A bank holiday means presumably a day which bankers regard as holy. A half-holiday means, I suppose, a day on which a schoolboy is only partially holy. It is hard to see at first sight why so human a thing as leisure and larkiness should always have a religious origin. Rationally there appears no reason why we should not sing and give each other presents in honour of anything—the birth of Michael Angelo or the opening of Euston Station. But it does not work. As a fact, men only become greedily and gloriously material about something spiritualistic. Take away the Nicene Creed and similar things, and you do some strange wrong to the sellers of sausages. Take away the strange beauty of the saints, and what has remained to us is the far stranger ugliness of Wandsworth. Take away the supernatural, and what remains is the unnatural.

Heretics, Ch. 6: Christmas and the Aesthetes (1905)

Morality did not begin by one man saying to another, "I will not hit you if you do not hit me"; there is no trace of such a transaction. There is a trace of both men having said, "We must not hit each other in the holy place." They gained their morality by guarding their religion. They did not cultivate courage. They fought for the shrine, and found they had become courageous. They did not cultivate cleanliness. They purified themselves for the altar, and found that they were clean. The history of the Jews is the only early document known to most Englishmen, and the facts can be judged sufficiently from that. The Ten Commandments which have been found substantially common to mankind were merely military commands; a code of regimental orders, issued to protect a certain ark across a certain desert. Anarchy was evil because it endangered the sanctity. And only when they made a holy day for God did they find they had made a holiday for men.

Orthodoxy, Ch. 5: The Flag of the World (1908)

When he speaks to us of another commandment, not known to us by the dictate of conscience, he not only prohibits but also adds the reason. When, for instance, he gave the commandment respecting the sabbath, “On the seventh day you shall do no work,” he subjoined also the reason for this cessation. What was this? “Because on the seventh day God rested from all his works which he had begun to make.” And again, “Because you were a servant in the land of Egypt.” For what purpose then, I ask, did he add a reason respecting the sabbath but did no such thing in regard to murder? Because this commandment was not one of the leading ones. It was not one of those which were accurately defined in our conscience but a kind of partial and temporary one. And for this reason it was later experienced.

Homilies Concerning the Statues 12.9

And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: [Exodus 20:12] But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: [Exodus 20:12] and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. [Exodus 20:12]

And God said, “Honor your father and your mother,” teaching that the child should pay the honor which is due to his parents. Of this honor to parents one part was to share with them the necessaries of life, such as food and clothing, and if there was any other thing in which it was possible for them to show favor toward their own parents.

Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 11.9

And again, who would deny that the command which says, “Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you,” is useful quite apart from any spiritual interpretation and that it ought certainly to be observed, especially when we remember that the apostle Paul has quoted it in the same words?

On First Principles 4.3.4

The formation of the children is then the prerogative of the parents. Therefore honor your father, that he may bless you. Let the godly man honor his father out of gratitude and the ingrate do so on account of fear. Even if the father is poor and does not have plenty of resources to leave to his sons, still he has the heritage of his final blessing with which he may bestow the wealth of sanctification on his descendants. And it is a far greater thing to be blessed than it is to be rich.

The Patriarchs 1.1

[The Lord] declares that [this commandment] is to be interpreted not of mere words, which while offering an empty show of regard may still leave a parent’s wants unrelieved, but by the actual provision of the necessaries of life. The Lord commanded that poor parents should be supported by their children and that these should pay them back when old for those benefits which they had themselves received in their childhood.

Letter 123.6

It’s your parents you see when you first open your eyes, and it is their friendship that lays down the first strands of this life. If anyone fails to honor his parents, is there anyone he will spare?

Sermon 9.7

So if you are afraid your son won’t take care of you once he has his hands on the money, you are in fact making filial piety a commodity for sale, not a quality to be loved. How much better a poor man’s son, the son, for instance, of an old man in the direst poverty, who expects nothing from his father because he hasn’t got anything he can leave him but who all the same supports his father with his labor and the sweat of his brow. Sometimes, of course, the children of rich people too take the fear of God seriously, and that’s why they show consideration to their parents, not because they expect something from them but because they are their parents who brought them into the world and brought them up, and God gave a commandment which says “Honor your father and your mother.” But where the reward is there for all to see, the genuineness of their sentiments is not so obvious.

Sermon 45.2

Perfection for man consists in the love of God and of neighbor. Now, the three Commandments which were written on the first tablet pertain to the love of God; for the love of neighbor there were the seven Commandments on the second tablet. But we must "love, not in word nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth" [1 Jn 3:18]. For a man to love thus, he must do two things, namely, avoid evil and do good. Certain of the Commandments prescribe good acts, while others forbid evil deeds. And we must also know that to avoid evil is in our power; but we are incapable of doing good to everyone. Thus, St. Augustine says that we should love all, but we are not bound to do good to all. But among those to whom we are bound to do good are those in some way united to us. Thus, "if any man does not take care of his own, especially of those of his house, he has denied the faith" [1 Tim 5:8]. Now, amongst all our relatives there are none closer than our father and mother. "We ought to love God first," says St. Ambrose, "then our father and mother." Hence, God has given us the Commandment: "Honor your father and your mother."

The Philosopher also gives another reason for this honor to parents, in that we cannot make an equal return to our parents for the great benefits they have granted to us; and, therefore, an offended parent has the right to send his son away, but the son has no such right [Ethics V]. Parents, indeed, give their children three things. The first is that they brought them into being: "Honor your father, and forget not the groanings of your mother; remember that through them you were born" [Sir 7:29-30]. Secondly, they furnished nourishment and the support necessary for life. For a child comes naked into the world, as Job relates (1:21), but he is provided for by his parents. The third is instruction: "We have had fathers of our flesh for instructors" [Hb 12:9]. "Do you have children? Instruct them" [Sir 7:25].

Parents, therefore, should give instruction without delay to their children, because "a young man according to his way, even when he is old will not depart from it" [Prov 22:6]. And again: "It is good for a man when he has borne the yoke from his youth" [Lam 3:27]. Now, the instruction which Tobias gave his son (Tob 4) was this: to fear the Lord and to abstain from sin. This is indeed contrary to those parents who approve of the misdeeds of their children. Children, therefore, receive from their parents birth, nourishment, and instruction.

Now, because we owe our birth to our parents, we ought to honor them more than any other superiors, because from such we receive only temporal things: "He who fears the Lord honors his parents, and will serve them as his masters that brought him into the world. Honor your father in work and word and all patience, that a blessing may come upon you from him" [Sir 3:8,10]. And in doing this you shall also honor yourself, because "the glory of a man is from honor of his father, and a father without honor is the disgrace of his son" [Sir 3:13].

Again, since we receive nourishment from our parents in our childhood, we must support them in their old age: "Son, support the old age of your father, and grieve him not in his life. And if his understanding fail, have patience with him; and do not despise him when you are in your strength... Of what an evil fame is he who forsakes his father! And he is cursed of God who angers his mother" [Sir 3:14-16]. For the humiliation of those who act contrary to this, Cassiodorus relates how young storks, when the parents have lost their feathers by approaching old age and are unable to find suitable food, make the parent storks comfortable with their own feathers, and bring back food for their worn-out bodies. Thus, by this affectionate exchange the young ones repay the parents for what they received when they were young" [Epist. II].

We must obey our parents, for they have instructed us. "Children, obey your parents in all things" [Col 3:20]. This excepts, of course, those things which are contrary to God. St. Jerome says that the only loyalty in such cases is to be cruel [Ad Heliod]: "If any man hate not his father and mother... he cannot be My disciple" [Lk 14:26]. This is to say that God is in the truest sense our Father: "Is not He your Father who possessed you, made you and created you?" [Deut 32:6].

"Honor your father and your mother." Among all the Commandments, this one only has the additional words: "that you may be long-lived upon the land." The reason for this is lest it be thought that there is no reward for those who honor their parents, seeing that it is a natural obligation. Hence it must be known that five most desirable rewards are promised those who honor their parents.

The first reward is grace for the present life, and glory in the life to come, which surely are greatly to be desired: "Honor your father... that a blessing may come upon you from God, and His blessing may remain in the latter end" [Sir 3:9-10]. The very opposite comes upon those who dishonor their parents; indeed, they are cursed in the law by God [Deut 27:16]. It is also written: "He who is unjust in that which is little, is unjust also in what is greater" [Lk 16:10]. But this our natural life is as nothing compared with the life of grace. And so, therefore, if you do not acknowledge the blessing of the natural life which you owe to your parents, then you are unworthy of the life of grace, which is greater, and all the more so for the life of glory, which is the greatest of all blessings.

The second reward is a long life: "That you may be long-lived upon the land." For "he who honors his father shall enjoy a long life" [Sir 3:7]. Now, that is a long life which is a full life, and it is not observed in time but in activity, as the Philosopher observes. Life, however, is full inasmuch as it is a life of virtue; so a man who is virtuous and holy enjoys a long life even if in body he dies young: "Being perfect in a short space, he fulfilled a long time; for his soul pleased God" [Wis 4:13]. Thus, for example, he is a good merchant who does as much business in one day as another would do in a year. And note well that it sometimes happens that a long life may lead up to a spiritual as well as a bodily death, as was the case with Judas. Therefore, the reward for keeping this Commandment is a long life for the body. But the very opposite, namely, death is the fate of those who dishonor their parents. We receive our life from them; and just as the soldiers owe fealty to the king, and lose their rights in case of any treachery, so also they who dishonor their parents deserve to forfeit their lives: "The eye that mocks his father and despises the labor of his mother in bearing him, let the ravens pick it out, and the young eagles eat it" [Prov 30:17]. Here "the ravens" signify officials of kings and princes, who in turn are the "young eagles." But if it happens that such are not bodily punished, they nevertheless cannot escape death of the soul. It is not well, therefore, for a father to give too much power to his children: "Do not give to a son or wife, brother or friend, power over you while you live; and do not give your estate to another, lest you repent" [Sir 33:20].

The third reward is to have in turn grateful and pleasing children. For a father naturally treasures his children, but the contrary is not always the case: "He who honors his father shall have joy in his own children" [Sir 3:6]. Again: "With what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you again" [Mt 7:2]. The fourth reward is a praiseworthy reputation: "For the glory of a man is from the honor of his father" [Sir 3:13]. And again: "Of what an evil fame is he who forsakes his father?" [Sir 3:18]. A fifth reward is riches: "The father's blessing establishes the houses of his children, but the mother's curse roots up the foundation" [Sir 3:11].

"Honor your father and your mother." A man is called father not only by reason of generation, but also for other reasons, and to each of these there is due a certain reverence. Thus, the Apostles and the Saints are called fathers because of their doctrine and their exemplification of faith: "For if you have ten thousands instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, by the gospel, I have begotten you" [1 Cor 4:15]. And again: "Let us now praise men of renown and our fathers in their generation" [Sir 44:1]. However, let us praise them not in word only, but by imitating them; and we do this if nothing is found in us contrary to what we praise in them.

Our superiors in the Church are also called fathers; and they too are to be respected as the ministers of God: "Remember your prelates,... follow their faith, considering the end of their conversation" [Hb 13:7]. And again: "He who hears you, hears Me; and he who despises you, despises Me" [Lk 10:16]. We honor them by showing them obedience: "Obey your prelates, and be subject to them" [Hb 13:17]. And also by paying them tithes: "Honor the Lord with your substance, and give Him of the first of your fruits" [Prov 3:9].

Rulers and kings are called fathers: "Father, if the prophet had commanded you do some great thing, surely you would have done it" [2 Kg 5:13]. We call them fathers because their whole care is the good of their people. And we honor them by being subject to them: "Let every soul be subject to higher powers" [Rm 13:1]. We should be subject to them not merely through fear, but through love; and not merely because it is reasonable, but because of the dictates of our conscience. Because "there is no power but from God" [Rom 13:1]. And so to all such we must render what we owe them: "Tribute, to whom tribute is due; custom, to whom custom; fear, to whom fear; honor, to whom honor" [Rom 13:7]. And again: "My son, fear the Lord and the king" [Prov 24:21].

Our benefactors also are called fathers: "Be merciful to the fatherless as a father" [Sir 4:10]. He, too, is like a father who gives his bond, of whom it is said: "A good man will be surety for his neighbor, but a man who has lost his sense of shame will fail him" [Sir 29:14]. On the other hand, the thankless shall receive a punishment such as is written: "The hope of the unthankful shall melt away as the winter's ice" [Wis 16:29]. Old men also are called fathers: "Ask your father, and he will declare to you; your elders and they will tell you" [Deut 32:7]. And again: "Rise up before the grey head, and honor the person of the aged man" [Lev 19:32]. "In the company of great men take not upon you to speak; and when the ancients are present, do not speak much" [Sir 32:13]. "Hear in silence, and for your reverence good grace shall come to you" [Sir 32:9]. Now, all these fathers must be honored, because they all resemble to some degree our Father who is in heaven; and of all of them it is said: "He who despises you, despises Me" [Lk 10:16].

Explanation of the Ten Commandments

How was it then when he said, “You shall not kill,” that he did not add, “because murder is a wicked thing?” The reason was that conscience had already taught this beforehand. He speaks thus, as if to those who know and understand the point.

Homilies Concerning the Statues 12.9

“What about the prohibition, ‘You shall not kill,’ which is also there? If killing is evil in every respect, how will the just who, in obedience to a law, have killed many, be excused from this charge?” The answer to this question is that he does not kill who is the executor of a just command.

On Lying 13.23

It is significant that in Holy Scripture no passage can be found enjoining or permitting suicide either in order to hasten our entry into immortality or to void or avoid temporal evils. God’s command, “You shall not kill,” is to be taken as forbidding self-destruction, especially as it does not add “your neighbor,” as it does when it forbids false witness, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

City of God 1.20

In the divine law which tells us we must love God and our neighbor, it is commanded that we not only do good but also avoid evil. The greatest evil that can be done to one's neighbor is to take his life. This is prohibited in the Commandment: "You shall not kill."

In connection with this Commandment there are three errors. Some have said that it is not permitted to kill even brute animals. But this is false, because it is not a sin to use that which is subordinate to the power of man. It is in the natural order that plants be the nourishment of animals, certain animals nourish others, and all for the nourishment of man: "Even the green herbs have I delivered them all to you" [Gen 9:3]. The Philosopher says that hunting is like a just war [Politics I]. And St. Paul says: "Whatsoever is sold in the meat market, eat; asking no questions for conscience' sake" [1 Cor 10:25]. Therefore, the sense of the Commandment is: "You shall not kill men."

Some have held that the killing of man is prohibited altogether. They believe that judges in the civil courts are murderers, who condemn men to death according to the laws. Against this St. Augustine says that God by this Commandment does not take away from Himself the right to kill. Thus, we read: "I will kill and I will make to live" [Deut 32:39]. It is, therefore, lawful for a judge to kill according to a mandate from God, since in this God operates, and every law is a command of God: "By Me kings reign, and lawgivers decree just things" [Prov 8:15]. And again: "For if you do what is evil, fear; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister" [Rm 13:4]. To Moses also it was said: "Wizards you shall not allow to live" [Ex 22:18]. And thus that which is lawful to God is lawful for His ministers when they act by His mandate. It is evident that God who is the Author of laws, has every right to inflict death on account of sin. For "the wages of sin is death" [Rm 6:23]. Neither does His minister sin in inflicting that punishment. The sense, therefore, of "You shall not kill" is that one shall not kill by one's own authority.

There are those who held that although this Commandment forbids one to kill another, yet it is lawful to kill oneself. Thus, there are the examples of Samson (Judges, xvi) and Cato and certain virgins who threw themselves into the flames, as St. Augustine relates in The City of God [I, 27]. But he also explains this in the words: "He who kills himself, certainly kills a man" [ibid. 13]. If it is not lawful to kill except by the authority of God, then it is not lawful to kill oneself except either upon the authority of God or instructed by the Holy Spirit, as was the case of Samson. Therefore, "you shall not kill."

It ought to be known that to kill a man may happen in several ways. Firstly, by one's own hand: "Your hands are full of blood" [Is 1:15]. This is not only against charity, which tells us to love our neighbor as ourself: "No murderer has eternal life abiding in himself" [1 Jn 3:15]. But also it is against nature, for "every beast loves its like" [Sir 13:19]. And so it is said: "He who strikes a man with a will to kill him, shall be put to death" [Ex 21:12]. He who does this is more cruel than the wolf, of which Aristotle says that one wolf will not eat of the flesh of another wolf [De animal. IV].

Secondly, one kills another by word of mouth. This is done by giving counsel to anyone against another by provocation, accusation, or detraction: "The sons of men whose teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword" [Ps 56:5]. Thirdly, by lending aid, as it is written: "My son, do not go with them... for their feet run to evil, and they rush to shed blood" [Prov 1:15-16]. Fourthly, by consent: "They are worthy of death, not only they who do such things, but they also who consent to those who do them" [Rm 1:32]. Lastly, one kills another by giving a partial consent when the act could be completely prevented: "Deliver those who are led to death" [Prov 24:11]; or, if one can prevent it, yet does not do so through negligence or avarice. Thus, St. Ambrose says: "Give food to him that is dying of hunger; if you do not, you are his murderer."

We have already considered the killing of the body, but some kill the soul also by drawing it away from the life of grace, namely, by inducing it to commit mortal sin: "He was a murderer from the beginning" [Jn 8:44], that is, in so far as he drew men into sin. Others, however, slay both body and soul. This is possible in two ways: first, by the murder of one with child, whereby the child is killed both in body and soul; and, secondly, by committing suicide.

In the Gospel of St. Matthew (ch. 5) Christ taught that our justice should be greater than the justice of the Old Law. This means that Christians should observe the Commandments of the law more perfectly than the Jews observed them. The reason is that greater effort deserves a better reward: "He who sows sparingly, shall also reap sparingly" [2 Cor 9:6]. The Old Law promised a temporary and earthly reward: "If you are willing and will listen to Me, you shall eat the good things of the land" [Is 1:19]. But in the New Law heavenly and eternal things are promised. Therefore, justice, which is the observance of the Commandments, should be more generous because a greater reward is expected.

The Lord mentioned this Commandment in particular among the others when He said: "You have heard that it was said to them of old: You shall not kill.... But I say to you that anyone who is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment" [Mt 5:21-22]. By this is meant the penalty which the law prescribes: "If any man kills his neighbor on set purpose, and by lying in wait for him; you shall take him away from My altar, that he may die" [Ex 21:14].

Now, there are five ways to avoid being angry. The first is that one be not quickly provoked to anger: "Let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak and slow to anger" [James 1:19]. The reason is that anger is a sin, and is punished by God. But is all anger contrary to virtue? There are two opinions about this. The Stoics said that the wise man is free from all passions; even more, they maintained that true virtue consisted in perfect quiet of soul. The Peripatetics, on the other hand, held that the wise man is subject to anger, but in a moderate degree. This is the more accurate opinion. It is proved firstly by authority, in that the Gospel shows us that these passions were attributed to Christ, in whom was the full fountainhead of wisdom. Then, secondly, it is proved from reason. If all the passions were opposed to virtue, then there would be some powers of the soul which would be without good purpose; indeed, they would be positively harmful to man, since they would have no acts in keeping with them. Thus, the irascible and concupiscible powers would be given to man to no purpose. It must, therefore, be concluded that sometimes anger is virtuous, and sometimes it is not.

We see this if we consider anger in three different ways. First, as it exists solely in the judgment of reason, without any perturbation of soul; and this is more properly not anger but judgment. Thus, the Lord punishing the wicked is said to be angry: "I will bear the wrath of the Lord because I have sinned against Him" [Micah 7:9].

Secondly, anger is considered as a passion. This is in the sensitive appetite, and is twofold. Sometimes it is ordered by reason or it is restrained within proper limits by reason, as when one is angry because it is justly fitting to be angry and within proper limits. This is an act of virtue and is called righteous anger. Thus, the Philosopher says that meekness is in no way opposed to anger. This kind of anger then is not a sin.

There is a third kind of anger which overthrows the judgment of reason and is always sinful, sometimes mortally and sometimes venially. And whether it is one or the other will depend on that object to which the anger incites, which is sometimes mortal, sometimes venial. This may be mortal in two ways: either in its genus or by reason of the circumstances. For example, murder would seem to be a mortal sin in its genus, because it is directly opposite to a divine Commandment. Thus, consent to murder is a mortal sin in its genus, because if the act is a mortal sin, then the consent to the act will be also a mortal sin. Sometimes, however, the act itself is mortal in its genus, but, nevertheless, the impulse is not mortal, because it is without consent. This is the same as if one is moved by the impulse of concupiscence to fornication, and yet does not consent; one does not commit a sin. The same holds true of anger. For anger is really the impulse to avenge an injury which one has suffered. Now, if this impulse of the passion is so great that reason is weakened, then it is a mortal sin; if, however, reason is not so perverted by the passion as to give its full consent, then it will be a venial sin. On the other hand, if up to the moment of consent, the reason is not perverted by the passion, and consent is given without this perversion of reason, then there is no mortal sin. "Whoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment," must be understood of that impulse of passion tending to do injury to the extent that reason is perverted—and this impulse, inasmuch as it is consented to, is a mortal sin.

The second reason why we should not be easily provoked to anger is because every man loves liberty and hates restraint. But he who is filled with anger is not master of himself: "Who can bear the violence of one provoked?" [Prov 27:4]. And again: "A stone is heavy, and sand weighty, but the anger of a fool is heavier than both" [Prov 27:3].

One should also take care that one does not remain angry over long: "Be ye angry, and sin not" [Ps 4:5]. And: "Let not the sun go down upon your anger" [Eph 4:26]. The reason for this is given in the Gospel by Our Lord: "Be at agreement with your adversary betimes whilst you are in the way with him; lest perhaps the adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison. Amen, I say to you, you shall not go out from hence till you repay the last penny" [Mt 5:25-26].

We should beware lest our anger grow in intensity, having its beginning in the heart, and finally leading on to hatred. For there is this difference between anger and hatred, that anger is sudden, but hatred is long-lived and, thus, is a mortal sin: "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer" [1 Jn 3:15]. And the reason is because he kills both himself (by destroying charity) and another. Thus, St. Augustine in his "Rule" says: "Let there be no quarrels among you; or if they do arise, then let them end quickly, lest anger should grow into hatred, the mote becomes a beam, and the soul becomes a murderer." Again: "A passionate man stirs up strife" [Prov 15:18]. "Cursed be their fury, because it was stubborn, and their wrath, because it was cruel" [Gen 49:7].

We must take care lest our wrath explode in angry words: "A fool immediately shows his anger" [Prov 12:16]. Now, angry words are twofold in effect; either they injure another, or they express one's own pride in oneself. Our Lord has reference to the first when He said: "And whoever says to his brother: 'You fool,' shall be in danger of hell fire" [Mt 5:22]. And He has reference to the latter in the words: "And he who shall say: 'Raca,' shall be in danger of the council." Moreover: "A mild answer breaks wrath, but a harsh word stirs up fury" [Prov 15:1].

Finally, we must beware lest anger provoke us to deeds. In all our dealings we should observe two things, namely, justice and mercy; but anger hinders us in both: "For the anger of a man does not work the justice of God" [James 1:20]. For such a one may indeed be willing but his anger prevents him. A certain philosopher once said to a man who had offended him: "I would punish you, were I not angry." "Anger has no mercy, nor fury when it breaks forth" [Prov 27:4]. And: "In their fury they slew a man" [Gen 49:6].

It is for all this that Christ taught us not only to beware of murder but also of anger. The good physician removes the external symptoms of a malady; and, furthermore, he even removes the very root of the illness, so that there will be no relapse. So also the Lord wishes us to avoid the beginnings of sins; and anger is thus to be avoided because it is the beginning of murder.

Explanation of the Ten Commandments

Now a step further. Does loving your enemy mean not punishing him? No, for loving myself does not mean that I ought not to subject myself to punishment—even to death. If you had committed a murder, the right Christian thing to do would be to give yourself up to the police and be hanged. It is, therefore, in my opinion, perfectly right for a Christian judge to sentence a man to death or a Christian soldier to kill an enemy. I always have thought so, ever since I became a Christian, and long before the war, and I still think so now that we are at peace. It is no good quoting 'Thou shalt not kill.' There are two Greek words: the ordinary word to kill and the word to murder. And when Christ quotes that commandment He uses the murder one in all three accounts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And I am told there is the same distinction in Hebrew. All killing is not murder any more than all sexual intercourse is adultery.

Mere Christianity, Book 3, Chapter 7: Forgiveness

Therefore whatsoever things God commands (and one of these is “You shall not commit adultery”) and whatsoever things are not positively ordered but are strongly advised as good spiritual counsel (and one of these is, “It is a good thing for a man to not touch a woman”)—all of these imperatives are rightly obeyed only when they are measured by the standard of our love of God and our love of our neighbor in God.

A Handbook on Faith, Hope and Love 32.121

It is written in the law, “You shall not commit fornication.” This is required in a beneficial way according to the simple sound of the letter by the person who is still entangled in the passions of fleshly impurity. It is necessarily observed in spiritual fashion, however, by one who has already left behind this filthy behavior and impure disposition, so that he also rejects not only all idolatrous ceremonies but also every superstition of the Gentiles and the observance of auguries and omens and of all signs and days and times. And he is certainly not engaged in the divination of particular words or names, which befouls the wholesomeness of our faith.

Conference 14.11.2

The law cuts away sins of the flesh, but our Redeemer condemns even unlawful thoughts. If therefore they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if someone rises from the dead, because when will those who neglect to fulfill the lesser precepts of the law grow strong enough to obey the higher commands of our Savior? And indeed it is certain that those who refuse to fulfill his words undoubtedly refuse to believe him.

40 Homilies on the Gospels, Homily 40

After the prohibition of murder, adultery is forbidden. This is fitting, since husband and wife are as one body. "They shall be," says the Lord, "two in one flesh" [Gen 2:24]. Therefore, after an injury inflicted upon a man in his own person, none is so grave as that which is inflicted upon a person with whom one is joined.

Adultery is forbidden both to the wife and the husband. We shall first consider the adultery of the wife, since in this seems to lie the greater sin, for a wife who commits adultery is guilty of three grave sins, which are implied in the following words: "So every woman who leaves her husband,... first, is unfaithful to the law of the Most High; and secondly, she has offended against her husband; thirdly, she has fornicated in adultery, and hath gotten her children of another man" [Sir 23:32-33].

First, therefore, she has sinned by lack of faith, since she is unfaithful to the law wherein God has forbidden adultery. Moreover, she has spurned the ordinance of God: "What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder" [Mt 19:6]. And also she has sinned against the institution or Sacrament. Because marriage is contracted before the eyes of the Church, and thereupon God is called, as it were, to witness a bond of fidelity which must be kept: "The Lord hath been witness between you and the wife of your youth whom you have despised" [Mal 2:14]. Therefore, she has sinned against the law of God, against a precept of the Church and against a Sacrament of God.

Secondly, she sins by infidelity because she has betrayed her husband: "The wife does not have power over her own body: but the husband" [1 Cor 7:4]. In fact, without the consent of the husband she cannot observe chastity. If adultery is committed, then, an act of treachery is perpetrated in that the wife gives herself to another, just as if a servant gave himself to another master: "She forsakes the guide of her youth, and has forgotten the covenant of her God" [Prov 2:17-18].

Thirdly, the adulteress commits the sin of theft in that she brings forth children from a man not her husband; and this is a most grave theft in that she expends her heredity upon children not her husband's. Let it be noted that such a one should encourage her children to enter religion, or upon such a walk of life that they do not succeed in the property of her husband. Therefore, an adulteress is guilty of sacrilege, treachery and theft.

Husbands, however, do not sin any less than wives, although they sometimes may salve themselves to the contrary. This is clear for three reasons. First, because of the equality which holds between husband and wife, for "the husband also does not have power over his own body, but the wife" [1 Cor 7:4]. Therefore, as far as the rights of matrimony are concerned, one cannot act without the consent of the other. As an indication of this, God did not form woman from the foot or from the head, but from the rib of the man. Now, marriage was at no time a perfect state until the law of Christ came, because the Jew could have many wives, but a wife could not have many husbands; hence, equality did not exist.

The second reason is because strength is a special quality of the man, while the passion proper to the woman is concupiscence: "You husbands, likewise dwelling with them according to knowledge, giving honor to the female as to the weaker vessel" [1 Pt 3:7]. Therefore, if you ask from your wife what you do not keep yourself, then you are unfaithful. The third reason is from the authority of the husband. For the husband is head of the wife, and as it is said: "Women may not speak in the church,... if they would learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home" [10]. The husband is the teacher of his wife, and God, therefore, gave the Commandment to the husband. Now, as regards fulfillment of their duties, a priest who fails is more guilty than a layman, and a bishop more than a priest, because it is especially incumbent upon them to teach others. In like manner, the husband that commits adultery breaks faith by not obeying that which he ought.

Thus, God forbids adultery both to men and women. Now, it must be known that, although some believe that adultery is a sin, yet they do not believe that simple fornication is a mortal sin. Against them stand the words of St. Paul: "For fornicators and adulterers God will judge" [Hb 13:4]. And: "Do not err: neither fornicators... nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor liers with men shall possess the kingdom of God" [1 Cor 6:9]. But one is not excluded from the kingdom of God except by mortal sin; therefore, fornication is a mortal sin.

But one might say that there is no reason why fornication should be a mortal sin, since the body of the wife is not given, as in adultery. I say, however, if the body of the wife is not given, nevertheless, there is given the body of Christ which was given to the husband when he was sanctified in Baptism. If, then, one must not betray his wife, with much more reason must he not be unfaithful to Christ: "Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid!" [13]. It is heretical to say that fornication is not a mortal sin.

Moreover, it must be known that the Commandment, "You shall not commit adultery," not only forbids adultery but also every form of immodesty and impurity. There are some who say that intercourse between married persons is not devoid of sin. But this is heretical, for the Apostle says: "Let marriage be honorable in all and the bed undefiled" [Hb 13:4]. Not only is it devoid of sin, but for those in the state of grace it is meritorious for eternal life. Sometimes, however, it may be a venial sin, sometimes a mortal sin. When it is had with the intention of bringing forth offspring, it is an act of virtue. When it is had with the intent of rendering mutual comfort, it is an act of justice. When it is a cause of exciting lust, although within the limits of marriage, it is a venial sin; and when it goes beyond these limits, so as to intend intercourse with another if possible, it would be a mortal sin.

Adultery and fornication are forbidden for a number of reasons. First of all, because they destroy the soul: "He who is an adulterer has no sense, for the folly of his heart shall destroy his own soul" [Prov 6:32]. It says: "for the folly of his heart," which is whenever the flesh dominates the spirit. Secondly, they deprive one of life; for one guilty of such should die according to the Law, as we read in Leviticus (20:10) and Deuteronomy (22:22). Sometimes the guilty one is not punished now bodily, which is to his disadvantage since punishment of the body may be borne with patience and is conducive to the remission of sins; but nevertheless he shall be punished in the future life. Thirdly, these sins consume his substance, just as happened to the prodigal son in that "he wasted his substance living riotously" [Lk 15:13]. "Do not give your soul to harlots, lest you destroy your inheritance" [Sir 9:6]. Fourthly, they defile the offspring: "The children of adulterers shall not come to perfection, and the seed of the unlawful bed shall be rooted out. And if they live long they shall be nothing regarded, and their last old age shall be without honor" [Wis 3:16-17]. And again: "Otherwise your children should be unclean; but now they are holy" [1 Cor 7:14]. Thus, they are never honored in the Church, but if they are clerics their dishonor may go without shame. Fifthly, these sins take away one's honor, and this especially is applicable to women: "Every woman who is a harlot shall be trodden upon as dung in the way" [Sir 9:10]. And of the husband it is said: "He gathers to himself shame and dishonor, and his reproach shall not be blotted out" [Prov 6:33].

St. Gregory says that sins of the flesh are more shameful and less blameful than those of the spirit, and the reason is because they are common to the beasts: "Man when he was in honor did not understand; and became like senseless beasts that perish" [Ps 48:21].

Explanation of the Ten Commandments

"You shall not steal:" [Exodus 20:15] for Achan, when he had stolen in Israel at Jericho, was stoned to death; [Joshua 7:1] and Gehazi, who stole, and told a lie, inherited the leprosy of Naaman; [2 Kings 5:27] and Judas, who stole the poor's money, betrayed the Lord of glory to the Jews, [John 12:6] and repented, and hanged himself, and burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out; [Matthew 27:5; Acts 1:18] and Ananias, and Sapphira his wife, who stole their own goods, and "tempted the Spirit of the Lord," were immediately, at the sentence of Peter our fellow-apostle, struck dead. [Acts 5:1-11]

(Book 7), Section 1, II

The Lord specifically forbids injury to our neighbor in the Commandments. Thus, "You shall not kill" forbids us to injure our neighbor in his own person; "You shall not commit adultery" forbids injury to the person to whom one is bound in marriage; and now the Commandment, "You shall not steal," forbids us to injure our neighbor in his goods. This Commandment forbids any worldly goods whatsoever to be taken away wrongfully.

Theft is committed in a number of ways. First, by taking stealthily: "If the goodman of the house knew at what hour the thief would come" [Mt 24:43]. This is an act wholly blameworthy because it is a form of treachery. "Confusion... is upon the thief" [Sir 5:17].

Secondly, by taking with violence, and this is an even greater injury: "They have violently robbed the fatherless" [Job 24:9]. Among such that do such things are wicked kings and rulers: "Her princes are in the midst of her as roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, they left nothing for the morning" [Zeph 3:3]. They act contrary to God's will who wishes a rule according to justice: "By Me kings reign and lawgivers decree just things" [Prov 8:15]. Sometimes they do such things stealthily and sometimes with violence: "Your princes are faithless companions of thieves, they all love bribes, they run after rewards" [Is 1:23]. At times they steal by enacting laws and enforcing them for profit only: "Woe to those who make wicked laws" [Is 10:1]. And St. Augustine says that every wrongful usurpation is theft when he asks: "What are thrones but forms of thievery?" [City of God IV, 4].

Thirdly, theft is committed by not paying wages that are due: "The wages of him whom you have hired shall not abide by you until the morning" [Lev 19:13]. This means that a man must pay every one his due, whether he be prince, prelate, or cleric, etc.: "Render therefore to all men their dues. Tribute, to whom tribute is due, custom, to whom custom" [Rm 13:7]. Hence, we are bound to give a return to rulers who guard our safety.

The fourth kind of theft is fraud in buying and selling: "You shall not have divers weights in your bag, a greater and a less" [Deut 25:13]. And again: "Do no unjust thing in judgment, in rule, in weight, or in measure" [Lev 19:35-36]. All this is directed against the keepers of wine-shops who mix water with the wine. Usury is also forbidden: "Who shall dwell in your tabernacle, or who shall rest in your holy hill?... He who has not put his money out to usury" [Ps 14:1,5]. This is also against money-changers who commit many frauds, and against the sellers of cloth and other goods.

Fifthly, theft is committed by those who buy promotions to positions of temporal or spiritual honor. "The riches which he swallowed, he shall vomit up, and God shall draw them out of his belly" [Job 20:15], has reference to temporal position. Thus, all tyrants who hold a kingdom or province or land by force are thieves, and are held to restitution. Concerning spiritual dignities: "Amen, amen, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold but climbs up another way is a thief and a robber" [Jn 10:1]. Therefore, they who commit simony are thieves.

"You shall not steal." This Commandment, as has been said, forbids taking things wrongfully, and we can bring forth many reasons why it is given. The first is because of the gravity of this sin, which is likened to murder: "The bread of the needy is the life of the poor; he who defrauds them of it is a man of blood" [Sir 34:25]. And again: "He who sheds blood and he who defrauds the laborer of his hire are brothers" [Sir 34:27].

The second reason is the peculiar danger involved in theft, for no sin is so dangerous. After committing other sins a person may quickly repent, for instance, of murder when his anger cools, or of fornication when his passion subsides, and so on for others; but even if one repents of this sin, one does not easily make the necessary satisfaction for it. This is owing to the obligation of restitution and the duty to make up for what loss is incurred by the rightful owner. And all this is above and beyond the obligation to repent for the sin itself: "Woe to him who heaps together what is not his own; for how long will he load himself with thick clay?" [Hab 2:6 Vulgate]. For thick clay is that from which one cannot easily extricate himself.

The third reason is the uselessness of stolen goods in that they are of no spiritual value: "Treasures of wickedness shall profit nothing" [Prov 10:2]. Wealth can indeed be useful for almsgiving and offering of sacrifices, for "the ransom of a man's life are his riches" [Prov 13:8]. But it is said of stolen goods: "I am the Lord that love judgment, and hate robbery in a holocaust" [Is 61:8]. And again: "He who offers sacrifice of the goods of the poor is as one who sacrifices the son in the presence of his father" [Sir 34:24].

The fourth reason is that the results of theft are peculiarly harmful to the thief in that they lead to his loss of other goods. It is not unlike the mixture of fire and straw: "Fire shall devour their tabernacles, who love to take bribes" [Job 15:34]. And it ought to be known that a thief may lose not only his own soul, but also the souls of his children, since they are bound to make restitution.

Explanation of the Ten Commandments

In the Decalogue itself it is written, “You shall not bear false witness,” in which classification every lie is embraced, for whoever pronounces any statement gives testimony to his own mind. If anyone should argue that not every lie should be called false witness, what will he answer to this statement which is also in the sacred Scriptures: “The mouth that belies, kills the soul”? If anyone should think that this passage can be interpreted to except certain lies, he may read in another passage: “You will destroy all that speak a lie.” In this connection, our divine Lord said with his own lips, “Let your speech be ‘yes, yes’; ‘no, no’; and whatever is more comes from the evil one.” Hence the apostle too, when he directs that the old man should be put off, under which term all sins are understood, goes on to explain his remark and specifically says, “Therefore put away lying and speak the truth.”

On Lying 5.6

The law says to you, for example, “You shall not bear false witness.” If you know what the truth of the evidence is, you have light in your mind. But if you are overcome by greed for sordid gain and decide in your heart of hearts to bear false witness for the sake of it, then you are already beginning to be tossed about by the storm in the absence of Christ. You are being heaved up and down by the waves of your avarice, you are being endangered by the tempest of your desires, and with Christ apparently absent, you are on the verge of sinking.

Sermon 75.5

The Lord has forbidden anyone to injure his neighbor by deed; now he forbids us to injure him by word. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." This may occur in two ways, either in a court of justice or in ordinary conversation.

In the court of justice it may happen in three ways, according to the three persons who may violate this Commandment in court. The first person is the plaintiff who makes a false accusation: "You shall not be a detractor nor a whisperer among the people" [Lev 19:16]. And note well that it is not only wrong to speak falsely, but also to conceal the truth: "If your brother offends you, go and rebuke him" [Mt 18:15]. The second person is the witness who testifies by lying: "A false witness shall not be unpunished" [Prov 19:5]. For this Commandment includes all the preceding ones, inasmuch as the false witness may himself be the murderer or the thief, etc. And such should be punished according to the law. "When after most diligent inquisition, they shall find that the false witness hath told a lie against his brother, they shall render to him as he meant to do to his brother.... You shall not pity him, but shall require life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" [Deut 19:18-21]. And again: "A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a dart and a sword and a sharp arrow" [Prov 25:18]. The third person is the judge who sins by giving an unjust sentence: "You shall not... judge unjustly. Respect not the person of the poor, nor honor the countenance of the mighty. But judge your neighbor according to justice" [Lev 19:15].

In ordinary conversation one may violate this Commandment in five ways. The first is by detraction: "Detractors, hateful to God" [Rm 1:30]. "Hateful to God" here indicates that nothing is so dear to a man as his good name: "A good name is better than great riches" [Prov 22:1]. But detractors take away this good name: "If a serpent bite in silence, he is no better that backbites secretly" [Eccles 10:11]. Therefore, if detractors do not restore this reputation, they cannot be saved.

Secondly, one may break this precept by listening to detractors willingly: "Hedge in your ears with thorns, do not listen to a wicked tongue, and make doors and bars for your mouth" [Sir 28:28]. One should not listen deliberately to such things, but ought to turn away, showing a sad and stern countenance: "The north wind drives away rain as does a sad countenance a backbiting tongue" [Prov 25:23].

Thirdly, gossipers break this precept when they repeat whatever they hear: "Six things there are which the Lord hates, and the seventh His soul detests... one who sows discord among brethren" [Prov 6:16,19]. Fourthly, those who speak honied words, the flatterers: "The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and the unjust man is blessed" [Ps 9:24]. And again: "O My people, they who call you blessed deceive you" [Is 3:12].

The prohibition of this Commandment includes every form of falsehood: "Refuse to utter any lie; for the habit of lying serves no good" [Sir 7:14]. There are four reasons for this. The first is that lying likens one to the devil, because a liar is as the son of the devil. Now, we know that a man's speech betrays from what region and country he comes from, thus: "Even your accent betrays you" [Mt 26:73]. Even so, some men are of the devil's kind, and are called sons of the devil because they are liars, since the devil is "a liar and the father of lies" [Jn 8:44]. Thus, when the devil said, "No, certainly you shall not die" [Gen 3:4], he lied. But, on the contrary, others are the children of God, who is Truth, and they are those who speak the truth.

The second reason is that lying induces the ruin of society. Men live together in society, and this is soon rendered impossible if they do not speak the truth to one another. "Therefore put away lying, speak the truth, every man with his neighbor; for we are members one of another" [Eph 4:25].

The third reason is that the liar loses his reputation for the truth. He who is accustomed to telling lies is not believed even when he speaks the truth: "What can be made clean by the unclean? And what truth can come from what is false?" [Sir 34:4].

The fourth reason is because a liar kills his soul, for "the mouth that lies kills the soul" [Wis 1:11]. And again: "You will destroy all who speak lies" [Ps 5:7]. Accordingly, it is clear that lying is a mortal sin; although it must be known that some lies may be venial.

It is a mortal sin, for instance, to lie in matters of faith. This concerns professors, prelates and preachers, and is the gravest of all other kinds of lies: "There shall be among you lying teachers, who shall bring in sects of perdition" [2 Pet 2:1]. Then there are those who lie to wrong their neighbor: "Do not lie to one another" [Col 3:9]. These two kinds of lies, therefore, are mortal sins.

There are some who lie for their own advantage, and this in a variety of ways. Sometimes it is out of humility. This may be the case in confession, about which St. Augustine says: "Just as one must avoid concealing what he has committed, so also he must not mention what he has not committed." "Does God have any need of your lie?" [Job 13:7]. And again: "There is one who humbles himself wickedly, and his interior is full of deceit; and there is one who humbles himself exceedingly with a great lowness" [Sir 19:25 Vulgate].

There are others who tell lies out of shame, namely, when one tells a falsehood believing that he is telling the truth, and on becoming aware of it he is ashamed to retract: "In no wise speak against the truth, but be ashamed of the lie of your ignorance" [Sir 4:30]. Others lie for desired results as when they wish to gain or avoid something: "We have placed our hope in lies, and by falsehood we are protected" [Is 28:15]. And again: "He who trusts in lies feeds the winds" [Prov 10:4].

Finally, there are some who lie to benefit another, that is, when they wish to free someone from death, or danger, or some other loss. This must be avoided, as St. Augustine tells us. "Accept no person against your own person, nor against your soul a lie" [Sir 4:26]. But others lie only out of vanity, and this, too, must never be done, lest the habit of such lead us to mortal sin: "For the bewitching of vanity obscures good things" [Wis 4:12].

Explanation of the Ten Commandments

Love of money then is an old, an ancient vice, which showed itself even at the declaration of the divine law; for a law was given to check it.

On the Duties of the Clergy 2.26.130

The law said, “You shall not covet,” in order that, when we find ourselves lying in this diseased state, we might seek the medicine of grace. By that commandment [we might] know both in what direction our endeavors should aim as we advance in our present mortal condition and to what a height it is possible to reach in the future immortality. For unless perfection could somewhere be attained, this commandment would never have been given to us.

On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.32

There you are then, the law tells you “you shall not covet.” You know the law which says, “You shall not covet.” Covetousness surges up in you, which you didn’t know. It was there inside, you see, but it wasn’t known. You started to make an effort to overcome what was inside, and what was hidden came to light. Proud fellow, through the law you have been made into a transgressor. Acknowledge grace, and become a singer of praise.

Sermon 26.9

Even a lion can be shooed off its prey by the terrifying threat of arms and weapons and the crowd of people perhaps surrounding it or coming to attack it; and yet the lion comes, the lion returns. It hasn’t seized its prey; it hasn’t either laid aside its evil intention. If that’s what you’re like, your justice is still the sort by which you take care not to get tortured. What’s so great about being afraid of punishment? Who isn’t afraid of it?

Sermon 169.8

What is the accomplishing of good except the cessation and end of evil? But what is the cessation of evil except what the law says, “You shall not lust”? To lust not at all is the accomplishing of good because it is the cessation of evil. He said this: “To accomplish good is not there for me,” because he was unable to bring it about that he did not lust. He only brought it about that he reined in lust, that he did not consent to lust and that he did not offer his members to lust for its service.

Tractate on the Gospel of John 41.12

To save me from saying a lot, among other commandments it contains “You shall not covet your neighbor’s property.” Don’t covet; don’t go up and down in front of that country house belonging to someone else and sigh because it’s such a fine one. Do not covet your neighbor’s property. “The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness.” What haven’t you acquired, if you have got hold of God? So don’t covet your neighbor’s property.

Sermon 252A.6

The Law of the Old Testament certainly forbids coveting another's wife, but it does not punish a king for commanding brave deeds of soldiers, or for desiring water. And we all know that David, pierced by the sword of concupiscence, both coveted and took away another man's wife. Fitting scourges followed his fault, and he corrected the evil he had perpetrated through the lamentations of penance.

40 Homilies on the Gospels, Homily 34

"You shall not covet your neighbor's goods." There is this difference between the divine and the human laws that human law judges only deeds and words, whereas the divine law judges also thoughts. The reason is because human laws are made by men who see things only exteriorly, but the divine law is from God, who sees both external things and the very interior of men. "You are the God of my heart" [Ps 72:26]. And again: "Man sees those things that appear, but the Lord sees the heart" [1 Sam 16:7]. Therefore, having considered those Commandments which concern words and deeds, we now treat of the Commandments about thoughts. For with God the intention is taken for the deed, and thus the words, "You shall not covet," mean to include not only the taking by act, but also the intention to take. Therefore, it says: "You shall not even covet your neighbor's goods." There are a number of reasons for this.

The first reason for the Commandment is that man's desire has no limits, because desire itself is boundless. But he who is wise will aim at some particular end, for no one should have aimless desires: "A covetous man shall not be satisfied with money" [Eccles 5:9]. But the desires of man are never satisfied, because the heart of man is made for God. Thus, says St. Augustine: "You have made us for You, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You." Nothing, therefore, less than God can satisfy the human heart: "He satisfies your desire with good things" [Ps 102:5].

The second reason is that covetousness destroys peace of heart, which is indeed highly delightful. The covetous man is ever solicitous to acquire what he lacks, and to hold that which he has: "The fullness of the rich will not suffer him to sleep" [Eccles 5:11]. "For where your treasure is, there is your heart also" [Mt 6:21]. It was for this, says St. Gregory, that Christ compared riches to thorns [Lk 8:14].

Thirdly, covetousness in a man of wealth renders his riches useless both to himself and to others, because he desires only to hold on to them: "Riches are not fitting for a covetous man and a niggard" [Sir 14:3]. The fourth reason is that it destroys the equality of justice: "Neither shall you take bribes, which even blind the wise, and pervert the words of the just" [Ex 23:8]. And again: "He who loves gold shall not be justified" [Sir 31:5]. The fifth reason is that it destroys the love of God and neighbor, for says St. Augustine: "The more one loves, the less one covets," and also the more one covets, the less one loves. "Nor despise your dear brother for the sake of gold" [Sir 7:20]. And just as "No man can serve two masters," so neither can he serve "God and mammon" [Mt 6:24].

Finally, covetousness produces all kinds of wickedness. It is "the root of all evil," says St. Paul, and when this root is implanted in the heart it brings forth murder and theft and all kinds of evil. "They that will become rich, fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the desire of money is the root of all evil" [1 Tim 6:9-10]. And note, furthermore, that covetousness is a mortal sin when one covets one's neighbor's goods without reason; and even if there be a reason, it is a venial sin.

Explanation of the Ten Commandments

St. John says in his first Epistle that "all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life" [1 Jn 2:16]. Now, all that is desirable is included in these three, two of which are forbidden by the precept: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house." Here "house," signifying height, refers to avarice, for "glory and wealth shall be in his house" [Ps 111:3]. This means that he who desires the house, desires honors and riches. And thus after the precept forbidding desire for the house of one's neighbor comes the Commandment prohibiting concupiscence of the flesh: "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife."

Because of the corruption which resulted from the Fall, none has been free from concupiscence except Christ and the glorious Virgin. And wherever there is concupiscence, there is either venial or mortal sin, provided that it is allowed to dominate the reason. Hence the precept is not, let sin not be; for it is written: "I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh" [Rm 7:18].

First of all, sin rules in the flesh when, by giving consent to it, concupiscence reigns in the heart. And, therefore, St. Paul adds "so as to obey the lusts thereof" to the words: "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body" [Rm 6:12]. Accordingly the Lord says: "Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart" [Mt 5:28]. For with God the intention is taken for the act.

Secondly, sin rules in the flesh when the concupiscence of our heart is expressed in words: "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" [Mt 12:34]. And again: "Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth" [Eph 4:29]. Therefore, one is not without sin who composes frivolous songs. Even the philosophers so thought, and poets who wrote amatory verses were sent into exile. Lastly, sin rules in the flesh when at the behest of desire the members are made to serve iniquity: "As you have yielded your members to serve uncleanness to greater and greater iniquity" [Rm 6:19]. These, therefore, are the progressive steps of concupiscence.

We must realize that the avoidance of concupiscence demands much labor, for it is based on something within us. It is as hard as trying to capture an enemy in one's own household. However, this desire can be overcome in four ways.

Firstly, by fleeing the external occasions such as, for instance, bad company; and in fact whatever may be an occasion for this sin: "Do not gaze upon a maiden lest her beauty be a stumbling-block to you... Do not look around you in the ways of the city, nor wander up and down in its streets. Turn away your face from a woman dressed up, and do not gaze upon another's beauty. For many have perished by the beauty of a woman, whereby lust is enkindled as a fire" [Sir 9:5-9]. And again: "Can a man hide fire in his bosom, and his garments not burn?" [Prov 6:27]. And thus Lot was commanded to flee, "neither stay you in all the country about" [Gen 19:17].

The second way is by not giving an opening to thoughts which of themselves are the occasion of lustful desires. And this must be done by mortification of the flesh: "I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection" [1 Cor 9:27].

The third way is perseverance in prayer: "Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it" [Ps 126:1]. And also: "I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, except God gave it" [Wis 8:21]. Again: "This kind is not cast out save by prayer and fasting" [Mt 17:21]. All this is not unlike a fight between two persons, one of whom you desire to win, the other to lose. You must sustain the one and withdraw all support from the other. So also between the spirit and the flesh there is a continual combat. Now, if you wish the spirit to win, you must assist it by prayer, and likewise you must resist the flesh by such means as fasting; for by fasting the flesh is weakened.

The fourth way is to keep oneself busy with wholesome occupations: "Idleness hath taught much evil" [Sir 33:29]. Again: "This was the iniquity of Sodom your sister, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance, and the idleness of her" [Ez 16:49]. St. Jerome says: "Be always busy in doing something good, so that the devil may find you ever occupied." Now, study of the Scriptures is the best of all occupations, as St. Jerome tells us: "Love to study the Scriptures and you will not love the vices of the flesh" [Ad Paulin.].

Explanation of the Ten Commandments

But to urge people to be content with what they haven't got is a piece of impudence hard for even the English poor to pardon. But though the creed of content is unsuited to certain special riddles and wrongs, it remains true for the normal of mortal life. We speak of divine discontent; discontent may sometimes be a divine thing, but content must always be the human thing. It may be true that a particular man, in his relation to his master or his neighbour, to his country or his enemies, will do well to be fiercely unsatisfied or thirsting for an angry justice. But it is not true, no sane person can call it true, that man as a whole in his general attitude towards the world, in his posture towards death or green fields, towards the weather or the baby, will be wise to cultivate dissatisfaction. In a broad estimate of our earthly experience, the great truism on the tablet remains: he must not covet his neighbour's ox nor his ass nor anything that is his. In highly complex and scientific civilisations he may sometimes find himself forced into an exceptional vigilance. But, then, in highly complex and scientific civilisations, nine times out of ten, he only wants his own ass back.

A Miscellany of Men: The Contented Man

But notice how it happened there and how it happened here. There, the people stood a long way off; there was an atmosphere of dread, not of love. I mean, they were so terrified that they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself, and do not let the Lord speak to us, lest we die.” So God came down, as it is written, on Sinai in fire; but he was terrifying the people who stood a long way off, and “writing with his finger on stone,” not on the heart.Here, however, when the Holy Spirit came, the faithful were gathered together as one; and he didn’t terrify them on a mountain but came in to them in a house. There came a sudden sound, indeed, from heaven, as of a fierce squall rushing upon them; it made a noise, but nobody panicked. You have heard the sound, now see the fire too, because each was there on the mountain also, both fire and sound; but there, there was smoke as well, here, though, the fire was clear. “There appeared to them,” Scripture says, you see, “divided tongues, as of fire.” Terrifying them from a long way off? Far from it. Because “it settled upon each one of them, and they began to talk in languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Hear a person speaking a language, and understand the Spirit writing not on stone but on the heart.

Sermon 155.6

To make an altar of earth for the Lord is to place our hope in the incarnation of the Mediator. Our gift is accepted by God when, on this altar, our humility rests whatever it does upon faith in the Lord’s incarnation. We place the gift we offer on an altar made of earth if we base all our actions on faith in the Lord’s incarnation. Exposition of the Old and New Testament, Exodus

To make an altar of earth for the Lord is to place our hope in the incarnation of the Mediator. Our gift is accepted by God when, on this altar, our humility rests whatever it does upon faith in the Lord’s incarnation. We place the gift we offer on an altar made of earth if we base all our actions on faith in the Lord’s incarnation.

Exposition of the Old and New Testament, Exodus 30

Unity knows no number, equality allows no scale. As Scripture says, “You shall not go up by steps to my altar.”

Exposition of the Psalms 116:2