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| St. Thomas Aquinas Catechetical Instructions IntraText CT - Text |
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SECOND COMMANDMENT: "Thou Shalt Not Take the Name of the Lord Thy God in Vain."
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. "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."1
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1. "He who requires that honor be paid Him, also demands that we speak of Him with reverence, and He forbids the contrary. . . . There are those who are so blinded by darkness of error as not to fear to blaspheme His name, whom the Angels glorify. Men are not deterred by this Commandment from shamelessly and daringly outraging His divine majesty every day, or rather every hour and moment of the day. Who does not know that every assertion is accompanied with an oath and teems with curses and imprecations? To such lengths has this impiety been carried that one scarcely buys or sells, or transacts ordinary business of any sort, without having recourse to swearing, and who, even in matters the most unimportant and trivial, does not profane the most holy name of God thousands of times" ("Roman Catechism," "Second Commandment," 2). See also teaching of St. Thomas in "Summa Theol.," II-II, Q. lxxxix, art. 3, 5, 6.
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