The Ten Commandments, 1 to 3: love of God

Yes. When the rich young man asked what he must do, Jesus first told him to keep the commandments, and then invited him to follow him. Following Christ does not abolish the commandments; it fulfils them. The Council of Trent taught that Christians, even when justified, are still bound to keep them. Because they express our basic duties to God and neighbour, they are unchanging and oblige always and everywhere; they are engraved by God in the human heart.

Jesus summed up the whole Law in two commandments: love God, and love your neighbour as yourself. The first three commandments concern love of God and the other seven love of neighbour, just as the Law was given on two tablets. The Catechism follows the numbering of St Augustine, which became traditional in the Catholic Church. The Greek Fathers divided them slightly differently, and that division is found in the Orthodox Churches and Reformed communities; the content is the same.

"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" (Exodus 20:2 to 3). God first reminds his people that he brought them out of slavery, and then asks to be served alone. The first commandment embraces faith, hope and charity: we believe God, trust him, and love him above everything and all creatures for his sake. Our first duty toward God is to believe in him and bear witness to him.

Against faith: wilful doubt, neglect of revealed truth, heresy, apostasy and schism. Against hope: despair, which stops hoping for God's forgiveness and help, and presumption, which hopes to be saved without God's help or forgiven without conversion. Against love: indifference, ingratitude, lukewarmness, spiritual sloth (acedia), and hatred of God, which comes from pride. Involuntary difficulty in believing is not the same as wilful doubt.

By adoration, the first act of the virtue of religion: acknowledging God as Creator and Saviour, as Mary did in the Magnificat. By prayer, without which we cannot keep the commandments. By sacrifice, which is true only when it comes from the heart; the only perfect sacrifice is Christ's on the Cross, and we unite our own offering to it. And by keeping the promises and vows we make to God, as in Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage and Holy Orders.

Superstition is a distortion of religious feeling. It can even creep into the worship of the true God, when we give a kind of magical power to certain practices, as if prayers or sacramental signs worked by their outward performance alone, without the inner dispositions they require. Faith trusts a Person, not a technique.

No. Idolatry means treating as God what is not God. Besides worship of other gods or of demons, a person can make an idol of power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state or money. Jesus said that no one can serve God and wealth (Matthew 6:24). Worship of the one God gathers our life into unity; idolatry scatters it.

Yes. A Christian trusts the future to God's providence and gives up unhealthy curiosity about it. The Catechism rejects all forms of divination, including horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, omens and lots, clairvoyance and mediums, because they seek power over time and over others. Magic and sorcery, which try to tame hidden powers, are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion, even when used to restore health. The Catechism also calls the wearing of charms reprehensible. This does not forbid sensible planning or medicine.

Tempting God means putting his goodness or power to the test, as Satan tried to make Jesus do. Sacrilege is profaning or treating unworthily the sacraments and other liturgical actions, or persons, things and places consecrated to God; it is especially grave against the Eucharist. Simony is buying or selling spiritual things. No one should be refused the sacraments because of poverty.

Atheism, which denies God, is a sin against the virtue of religion, though a person's guilt can be much lessened by intentions and circumstances. The Second Vatican Council admits that believers can share responsibility for atheism when they neglect their faith or hide the face of God by their lives. Agnosticism takes many forms. It can include a real search for God, but it can also become indifference or practical atheism.

The commandment forbade making images of God, who had shown no form. Yet God himself allowed images that pointed to salvation, such as the bronze serpent and the cherubim. Because the Son of God became man and was seen, the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 defended the veneration of icons of Christ, the Mother of God, the angels and the saints. The honour given to an image passes to the person it shows. It is respectful veneration, not the adoration due to God alone.

Everyone is bound to seek the truth about God and to hold to it once found. This goes together with sincere respect for other religions, which often reflect a ray of the truth that enlightens all people. No one may be forced to act against conscience in religious matters, nor prevented from acting according to it, in private or in public, within due limits. This right rests on the dignity of the human person.

"You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God" (Exodus 20:7). God's name is holy, and we keep it in loving adoration. We bear witness to it by confessing our faith without fear. The commandment forbids every improper use of the names of God, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and the saints. Blasphemy, speaking against God with hatred, reproach or defiance, is directly opposed to it. Breaking a promise made in God's name also misuses it.

An oath calls God to witness that what we say is true. A false oath, or perjury, makes God a witness to a lie and is a grave lack of respect for him. Jesus taught his disciples to let their yes be yes and their no be no (Matthew 5:33 to 37). The Church has understood this as not excluding oaths for grave and right reasons, such as in court. An oath may be refused when an unjust authority demands it, and must be refused when it serves purposes contrary to human dignity.

Baptism is given in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and there the Christian receives his name in the Church, often the name of a saint who becomes a model and a helper in prayer. We begin our day and our prayers with the Sign of the Cross. God calls each one by name, and every person's name deserves respect, because it stands for the person.

"Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8). God gave Israel the sabbath as a day of rest and of remembrance of creation and of freedom from Egypt. Jesus rose on the first day of the week, so for Christians Sunday, the Lord's Day, fulfils the sabbath and announces our eternal rest in God. On Sundays and holy days of obligation the faithful take part in the Eucharist and avoid work that hinders worship, joy, works of mercy and rest. In the Eastern Catholic Churches the faithful keep this day by the Divine Liturgy, called the Holy Qurbana in the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches, or, where their own Church provides, by the celebration of the divine praises (CCEO can. 881).