I swear this is true

As my Wednesday ten commandments reflections started with the first of the ten, it would clearly be barbaric not to continue in order. 

The second commandment, from the book of Deuteronomy, chapter five, verse eleven:

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”

As with the first, this second commandment helps us to respect and love God. Which is something Jesus teaches us to do.

St. Matthew writes beautifully about the teaching of Jesus in chapter five of his Gospel. It was one of my favourite chapters of the New Testament before I became a Christian. In chapter five, verses 33-37, Jesus says the following:

"Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, "You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord." But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be "Yes, Yes" or "No, No"; anything more than this comes from the evil one."

Sometimes this commandment is thought to forbid saying “Oh my God” or “Jesus” in a crude or thoughtless way, but as with all the teachings of the faith it is much deeper than that.

I want to get to the heart of the teaching, in order to touch on how and why this commandment has been important in my understanding of God, and consequently my day to day life.

In 2015 when I was looking for “the true church of Jesus Christ” as a Gospel and Country music fan I went to Pentecostal churches first. Nothing to do with theology, entirely to do with music.

I attended services at different churches, while researching and comparing beliefs between Christian denominations, and sought to improve my knowledge of the Bible.

So, I was reading a book by David Pawson called “Unlocking the Bible”-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unlocking-Bible-David-Pawson/dp/0007166664

I’m sorry I can’t recommend it because of the errors in his teaching. Some historical information was useful for me at the time, it gave more context to the books of the Bible, and the people behind the books.

I liked the way he spoke about some of his Pastoral and familial interactions; I’m sure he’s well-meaning, sincere and great fun at Parish BBQ’s. I no longer have a copy of this book to check information so I’m relying on my memory; please forgive any errors, I cannot directly quote the text.

David Pawson mentions people’s focus on God’s love and adds something like “But God is also Holy” and I was shocked to read this.

My God was still a semi-pantheistic, fairly distant, but apparently caring universe creator. I had never thought about the word holy before, and don’t think I thought about the word holy, as such, at that time. I was just amazed that God is Holy.

Holy wasn’t in my vocabulary. I was so foul mouthed that “Holy…*expletive deleted for the sanctity of our souls*” might have come out, but even that would have been soft for me.

Growing up with a materialist, secular view of life and the universe meant that it was a meaningless word, used in the context of religion, and so my early understanding of God though I felt awe and wonder at Him, I couldn’t have described why and couldn't recognise this as a response to His Holiness.

I never felt as alienated from God the Father as I did from Jesus, but I was following Jesus, and the knowledge that God is Holy linked with what the Mormon’s had taught me about Jesus in 2013- that Jesus was perfect.

My Dad was determined to stop me learning about religion by sending me to a Primary school further away than the local Church of England School which my best friend went to, but we had some Christianity in our Primary School anyway.
*I remember one year St. Paul’s did “Cinders” for their Christmas play and we did "Joseph and His Technicolour Dreamcoat"…
I have no memory of being taught that Jesus was perfect in school though.

Elvis clearly says Jesus is perfect in a famous quote from 1956, which I had stuck on my bedroom door as a teenager, but somehow even then it didn’t get through to me.

I didn’t pick it up from reading the Bible or the Gospel music I’ve always listened to. It wasn’t until the Mormons mentioned it that I was ready to hear that Jesus is perfect.

So, God is Holy. Jesus, the Holy one, was perfect. I am following Jesus, meaning I am trying to be like Him, therefore I must be holy too.

As I accepted that God is Holy, my attitude changed because I took this on board in a meaningful way, not through great efforts on my part.

This acceptance of His Holiness meant that as I searched for God’s Church, I was now looking for something else in the churches I went to, though I say that with hindsight. This thing I now sought was something which I eventually found most clearly lived out in the Mass- that is the reverence of God.
I needed something now in the language, the gestures and the attitude of the people present that says that God is Almighty- worthy to be praised, worthy to be honoured. The catchy music, relevant sermons and friendly people at the Evangelical churches were all lovely and good, but they were not enough.

At the beginning of this post the quote from Jesus included: 
"...But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by Heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black..."

I included this because honouring God means honouring His name, the Holy land, or His Church and His people but it extends beyond that.
This loving respect for God that we have when we know He is Holy is the start, but because of His love for creation and for us, our respect has to extend beyond God the deity.

To live our lives as if everything is done in God is the greatest way to honour God’s Holy name, and the surest way of keeping this commandment.

Life itself is sacred and creation (that is the universe and all it contains) is God’s gift to us. The life we’ve been given was given by God, and the whole of creation was also given to us by this Holy God. Therefore, He wants us to appreciate what He has made because it came from Him.
When we see that everything is God-given it is easier to be respectful, and fulfil all that Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew. We take life more seriously in a way, and so do not disrespect it.

How strange is this! We all grow up in trackies and jeans, watching TV, reading vile tabloids, looking at nonsense online, talking rubbish and in every way and most places life in the secular, modern world has become casual. It’s normal to go to dinner, or business meetings in casual clothes and speak to customers, bosses, the elderly… anybody, as if we are all on the same footing.

This is quite nice in a way, it could be a sign of an improved world, with greater humility and love, but I think it causes problems in our attitude towards one another. More so, because of how different God is from us, it causes difficulties in our relationship with Him too.

It could seem to modern ears like God asking to be honoured is a manifestation of Patriarchal egotism, an unnecessary subjugation of humanity, which puts us down. In fact, that is not true.

Even if the idea that God is far above us is something hard to grasp, He does not want us beneath or apart from Him in a way that deprives us of dignity. He loves us so much that He came into the world to walk among us, and He remains with us in the Holy Spirit, and in the Church.

The invitation to all people to join the Church is God’s way of inviting everybody into His heart. He wants to be with us- that is what I mean when I say we are in Him, or united to Him.
God is always going to be above us, because He is the creator and we are the creatures, but we are creatures made like Him, made to be like Him, and so to be Holy like Him. That is actually our purpose!
So, it’s not just possible for us to be Holy too, it is our destiny if we choose to accept it. We can be made Holy by following Jesus and uniting ourselves to Him through a life of prayer and the Sacraments of His Church.

From my experience, I would say that to live this second commandment sincerely starts when we know God is Holy, because we cannot disrespect God if we know and love the fact that He is Holy.

With this knowledge of God's goodness, when we also seek to be like Jesus, we are seeking to be united to God in such a way that we are made Holy, because through Jesus we become a part of God.

As a convert I tried to understand God intellectually and through changing my behaviour, that is turning from my sins. Then, through His Church, and the Sacraments of the Church, I have been united to this Holy God.

The seeking of God through mind, repentance, and the Sacraments is then an ongoing relationship until death. It is necessary for this to be an ongoing relationship because we are sinful, which means we find it difficult to be Holy, and impossible without God.

Little Saints with Scrooples cartoon, Part One

It is difficult to follow and seek to join with God if He is Holy, especially if we know we are not Holy. Yet, it has to be that way around, because we can only be made Holy in Him, we cannot do it on our own. So, we have to take steps towards God, to unite ourselves with Him through the Sacraments, in order to be in Him, so that we become like Him and are changed.

"Again, you have heard that is was said to those of ancient times, "You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you made to the Lord... Let your word be "Yes, Yes" or "No, No"; anything more than this comes from the evil one."

While I am somewhat resolute, I am terrified of committing myself to things and of making mistakes. So, I was really tortured with doubt about joining the Catholic Church, even when I was convinced it was the true Church.

One fear I had was that I wasn’t ready, I was still too sinful so maybe I needed to change more before entering.

I was already following Christ as well as I could, I was seeking to give up all that displeased God, to accept anything that I saw was truly from God, and do all that was necessary to serve Him. Yet, I could see I was still sinful, still failing, and felt I wasn’t good enough to join Christ’s Church.

Thankfully God calls us by name, He knows I am pedantic and saw me researching the Saints. I was overwhelmed by all these Virgin Martyrs because I thought we were supposed to identify with our Confirmation Saint, and didn’t realise they are role models. Gladly I was praying the Rosary regularly and realised I had to choose the Virgin Mary as my Confirmation Saint because I was praying to her regularly already.

-Guess who taught me the Hail Mary when I was a teenager? Elvis. God bless him.

I did not choose Mary as my confirmation Saint because of my resemblance to her, she chose me because I needed to resemble her more. God let me share His Mother’s own Holy name, because at that time I was not someone willing to say “Yes” or “No” and the decision to join the Church was an important one. He wanted me to say “Yes!” and I wanted to, but I was scared of this Holy God and ashamed of my sinfulness.

Little Saints with Scrooples cartoon, Part Two

The questions the Priest asks at Baptism and Confirmation have answers like “Yes” and “I do”.
We swear to God, make promises to God. If I had not had the friendship of the Virgin Mary, and her example at the Annunciation, maybe my "Yes, I do" would have been a "No, I can't" or "Maybe later" through fear and insecurity.

Entering the Church was a necessary leap of faith specifically for me to keep this second commandment, because of the coarseness and irreverence which feels so natural to me; the grace I receive from God through the Sacraments of the Church and the practice of the Catholic faith are still necessary for me to keep a reverent attitude towards God and all that is Holy.

We become more perfect in this commandment through this life in preparation for eternal life, where we will be perfectly Holy and united to God, contemplating His Holiness for eternity.

If you want to keep the second commandment more perfectly too, I suggest meditating on God’s Holiness. Consider first the meaning of the word Holy, then think about the fact that this word describes God. I will do this too.

Then let's consider the good things God has created, and done in our lives, and the world. Think of these as proof of His love for us and hopefully we will love Him more because of these meditations.
As you and I grow in love of the good God whose name is Holy, and worthy to be praised, we will not want to misuse or abuse the one we love, or anyone, or anything we know He cares for.