My Five Year Plan

My Five Year Plan - When I first started reading the Bible, I thought that it might be nice if someone listed the 613 commandments of the Mosaic Law and gave the rationale as to whether each is binding on Christians. I finally decided to take on the task myself. However, at the rate that I'm going, this will take me about five years. For more background on this blog, click here. If you take issue with any conclusions please post them. I'll be happy to engage in cordial discourse. ...Finally, if you are here for the first time, it's probably best to scroll down and read the posts in chronological order. The archive is to the right.

Monday, December 13, 2010

26. Do not blaspheme

The 26th commandment of Mosaic Law is to not blaspheme

Where in scripture?
Exodus 22:27
You shall not revile God, nor curse a prince of your people.

New Testament References
Mark 3:28-29
Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin."

Catechism of the Catholic Church
2148 Blasphemy is directly opposed to the second commandment. It consists in uttering against God - inwardly or outwardly - words of hatred, reproach, or defiance; in speaking ill of God; in failing in respect toward him in one's speech; in misusing God's name. St. James condemns those "who blaspheme that honorable name [of Jesus] by which you are called." The prohibition of blasphemy extends to language against Christ's Church, the saints, and sacred things. It is also blasphemous to make use of God's name to cover up criminal practices, to reduce peoples to servitude, to torture persons or put them to death. The misuse of God's name to commit a crime can provoke others to repudiate religion.

Blasphemy is contrary to the respect due God and his holy name. It is in itself a grave sin.

2162 The second commandment forbids every improper use of God's name. Blasphemy is the use of the name of God, of Jesus Christ, of the Virgin Mary, and of the saints in an offensive way

St. Thomas Aquinas
Summa Theologica
“It is clear that blasphemy, which is a sin committed directly against God, is more grave than murder, which is a sin against one's neighbor. … it is called the most grievous sin, for as much as it makes every sin more grievous.”

Catholic Encyclopedia
Nowadays you can turn on the television and are very likely to hear some form of blasphemy in a matter of minutes. The Catholic Encyclopedia reports that during the Age of Faith, blasphemy was considered to be a much more serious sin than it is in our secular culture:

Medieval canon law punished the blasphemer most severely. By a decree of the thirteenth century one convicted of blasphemy was compelled to stand at the door of the church during the solemnities of the Mass for seven Sundays, and on the last of these days, divested of cloak and shoes, he was to appear with a rope about his neck. Obligations of fasting and alms-giving were likewise imposed under heaviest penalties (Decret., lib. V, tit. xxvi). The rigours of the ancient discipline were insisted upon by Pius V in his Constitution "Cum primum apostolatus" (p. 10). According to the law herein laid down, the layman found guilty of blasphemy was fined. The fine was increased upon his second offence, and upon his third he was sent into exile. If unable to pay the fine, he was upon the first conviction condemned to stand before the door of the church, his hands tied behind him. For the second offence he was flogged, and for the third his tongue was pierced, and he was sentenced to the galleys. The blasphemous cleric, if possessed of a benefice, lost upon his first offence a year's income; upon his second he was deprived of his benefice and exiled. If enjoying no benefice, he was first subjected to a fine and bodily punishment; on repeating the offence he was imprisoned, and still persisting, he was degraded and condemned to the galleys.

Conclusion
Binding on Christians

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