Second Commandment

Welcome to our Daily Rosary Meditation. This is the next in our series on Friendship with Jesus and the Commandments. Let's begin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. It's called to mind all those we've promised to pray for. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day He rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us to stay our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us and our insnown at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us and our insnown at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us and our insnown at the hour of our death. Amen. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning as now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Our first mystery. In this series we're thinking deeply about how morality is not just about rules, it's about a relationship. It's about a deep personal relationship with Jesus. God is not an idea, he's a person and he gives himself to us. The first commandment taught us love him first. Don't choose something instead of him. Now the second commandment shows us what that love looks like in practice. Because every friendship is revealed in how you treat the friend and especially in how you treat their name. If you love someone, you don't use their name carelessly, you don't attach it to what is false, you don't use it to serve yourself, you don't mock their name because their name represents them. It brings them to mind and into the moment and God has given us his name so that we can know him, call on him and be close to him. So the second commandment is not mainly about words, it's about how we treat God because here too the same thing is happening. God offers himself in friendship even in his name and we respond either by receiving him with love and truth and reverence or by taking his name and using it for what is empty or false or self-serving. And that's not just a mistake in speech, it's disloyalty in friendship. It's taking the one who loves you and treating him as if he were small or unimportant or useless or even worse is something to be mocked. So the second commandment, it's not a restriction, it's an invitation to love God so much and to know him so personally that you would never want to misuse his name because you would never want to misuse him because when you love someone you're careful with their name. When you love Jesus you are loyal to him even in the way you speak which is why it's a sin to take holy things lightly. It's a sin and a violation of the second commandment to take God's name in vain. Holy Mary, Mother of God, preface in earnest, noun at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, preface in earnest, noun at the hour of our death, Amen. Holy Mary, Mother of God, preface in earnest, noun at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, O my Jesus, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy. Our second mystery, immature people and really irresponsible comedians act as though nothing is important, nothing is sacred. Like every sin, this is an attack on human goodness, on human nature. Because when you act like nothing really matters, that means you're robbing life of its ultimate meaning. All human life, all pain, all the heroism, all the beauty and the love becomes just a big joke. We need our lives to have significance if we're going to be happy. We need certain things to matter. Certain things have to be serious, certain things have to be important. And the only way to preserve a sense of the importance of human life is to preserve a sense of the importance, the grandeur, the infinite dignity and majesty of God. Because if God isn't important, then nothing is. If God doesn't matter, then we certainly don't. And if we don't matter, if nothing we care about or experience or love matters, then there's nothing worthwhile about our existence. And that is the essence of despair. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us the stair daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Thou among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us in earnest, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are Thou among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us in earnest, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are Thou among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us in earnest, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are Thou among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us in earnest, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are Thou among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us in earnest, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Eomeri, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us innerns now on at the hour of our death. Eomeri, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us innerns now on at the hour of our death. Eomeri, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us and earnst now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, has now and never shall be, world without end. Amen. Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy. Our third mystery. Each of the 10 commandments is about protecting and promoting our friendship with God, our happiness, and our flourishing. And that goes for the second commandment too. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Now God's existence isn't diminished if we don't respect him, but ours is. God doesn't lose his sense of self-worth if we speak of him irreverently, but we will. Our dignity and our sense of human importance, that's all predicated on God's dignity and importance. We only exist because he has shared his existence. We only have dignity because our Heavenly Father has shared his dignity with us, his adopted children, and our lives only have meaning and significance and purpose in so far as we are related to him. So to undermine our sense of his greatness is to undermine any hope of living a life that matters. Our Father who art in heaven, Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us in our is now and at the hour of our death. Holy Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us in our is now and at the hour of our death. Holy Mary, full of grace, Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us in us now and at the hour of our death. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us in us now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with the blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, preface and earns now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with the blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, preface and earns now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with the blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, preface and earns now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with the blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, preface and earns now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with the blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us in earnest, noun at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us in earnest, noun at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us in earnest, noun at the hour of our death, Amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, as now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen. Oh, my Jesus. Brigham, us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy. The fourth mystery. Blasphemy is, of course, the worst sin against the Second Commandment. Imagine hearing someone use your son or daughter's name as a curse. You'd feel it instantly, because that name isn't just a word. It's the person you love. If I heard that, I would stop them immediately, no matter what it cost me. Blasphemy does that to the name of Jesus. But the commandment doesn't just forbid saying evil, hateful, horrible things about God. Can you imagine what Jesus thinks when we mock the name of his Father? That is why the Second Commandment condemns speaking about God in vain, as though God were insignificant. And this is a fault that nearly everyone, atheists and Christians, manifest throughout the English-speaking world. We use the word God, or even the name Jesus, as a form of punctuation, or as a way of expressing mild surprise, or anger, or disgust. I mean, it's astonishing when you think that we take the name of God and use it as a term of disgust. This must not be done. You can't really act as though God is the most important thing. When you're constantly talking as though God is completely unimportant, our words and thoughts and actions, they all go together. The name of God is holy, and what is holy is touched and spoken of with reverence, or it's not to be touched or spoken of at all. For without the holy, without the sacred, without the supremely important, and the foundation of significance for every human life, without that, we will all descend into meaninglessness. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Forgive us to stay our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. Blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us and earnst now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us and earnst now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us and earnst now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us and earnst now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning as now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen. Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy. Our fifth mystery. We should speak of God as though he's watching us, because he is. The Catechism says, The Lord's name is holy. For this reason man must not abuse it. He must keep it in mind in silent loving adoration. He will not introduce it into his own speech, except to bless, praise, and glorify it. St. John Henry Newman points out that we all talk about people differently depending on whether they're present or not. When people aren't present, we tend to speak about them less respectfully. We're more likely to be dismissive and sometimes even insulting. So, Newman says, Remember that God is present whenever you speak of him. He hears how you use his name and how you talk about him. So before you say his name, remember he's there. And remember one day you'll see him as he is. King and ruler of the universe. Infinite Creator and final judge. He is all those things now. And he hears what we're saying. So don't say anything irreverent and don't take his name in vain. And even more importantly, when we remember that God is present, Jesus is present. Holy Spirit is present. And when we talk with them as one friend to another, we actually grow in a deeper, more personal friendship with them. And we become more aware of all the ways they are taking care of us and all they are doing for us. And we become more grateful, more humble, more honoring to this great friend we have. In God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So what is our resolution? I think our resolution is to practice remembering the presence of God and then speak to him as a friend. And if you make that a habit, both your speech and your behavior, both your speech and your behavior will be a lot better. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us a stare daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God,ργ women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, preface and earnst, now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, preface and earnst, now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, preface and earnst, now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, preface and earnst, now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, preface and earnst, now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, Blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, and earnst now and at the hour of our death, amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, and earnst now and at the hour of our death, amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, and earnst now and at the hour of our death, amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, and earnst now and at the hour of our death, amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, and earnst now and at the hour of our death, amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, as now never shall be, world without end, amen. Oh, my Jesus. Forgive us, our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy. Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do that, O Prince of the heavenly host. By the power of God cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowls throughout the world, seeking the ruin of souls. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, what caught your attention with that meditation, Teresa? This subject excites me so much because I think this is just the tip of the iceberg on a huge conversation about morality and speech. But first of all, it makes me really want to reread Joseph Piper's abuse of language, abuse of power, because it touches on a lot of these things that, obviously, you were talking just the first second commandment, but my mind was wandering through all of the implications of this, of the way our language really is so much more impactful than we realize, and this, of course, does connect back to how we talk about God, but in all of our speech, especially when you talk about comedy and humor, and the way that that normalizes things, it's why I feel like so much of comedy is a lot of very crude humor, and that's for two reasons. A, it's the shock factor is very easy to get a laugh, because people are, in a way, subtly surprised that you're talking about something, and B, people feel comfortable when you normalize things that they do that they're ashamed of, but that's one very powerful element of humor that I could talk about that for ages, but it's, for instance, every single social movement, every big... If you have a social agenda, everyone knows that how you word something is so critical to that. That's why most... It's really indicative of a, or a great example of that is we say pro-life. They don't say pro-death, they would say pro-choice, but also why we would never say pro-anti-choice. Right. It's really, really specific how you use your language, because it tells an entirely different story, and so that's just the tip of the iceberg of how we talk about God. It might seem very casual, but these words affect everything. Well, you just said it. How you speak tells your whole story. Even if you don't think about it that way. Even if when you say pro-life or pro-choice, that's not, you're not thinking of the greater story every time, but it has these implications and the power of a word. But we live in a society where there are words you absolutely cannot say without losing your job, losing everything, but God's not one of them. Yeah. Or in a negative way. You can't... That's fine by most of us, including Catholics. And we should be outraged. I've spent a lot of time in the Middle East. And I've worked closely with a lot of Muslims. You wouldn't dare to blaspheme the name of Muhammad. They would... You would know immediately... That is a brilliant reverence. And one thing, like one simple resolution to have here is just to practice a level of reverence with our speech for God to make up for this lack. In reparations. You can turn this tide around. That's a really good point. In reparation, we should do that. Because our language is powerful. Yeah. And it's... And it's... But I like what you said. The way you speak tells a story. The way you speak tells your story. Because this is about more than speech. This is about the way you live your life all the time. So our life and our words, our actions and our words should be a sign of God. I mean, we are Christian. We carry His name. So our life and our words should remind other people of God. And I've noticed something. If your words and your life regularly remind people of God, it affects their behavior. They clean up their behavior. Yeah, they do. I've noticed... I was on... I was with a friend in Chicago. He worked downtown. We took the train an hour ride down. And we took the train an hour ride back home. And on this train, it just happened to be... I was sitting with a bunch of steel workers. Guys that put up the steel frames for Bill Weldon together. And they didn't know who I was. And so we're riding along on the train and they're just having their normal conversation. And it's laced with all kinds of blasphemy. And they turned to me and said, because everybody rides the same train every day. So I'm the different person that day. Here's the new guy. So halfway through the conversation, they asked me, so what do you do for a living? I thought, I'm a theologian. Probably because they didn't know what that was. No, they knew. You know, growing up, all my friends thought you were a scientist. I said, I'm a Catholic theologian. They immediately apologized. That's awesome. They apologized for what they had been saying. And they changed completely. Yeah. Because they were suddenly reminded of God. So our life has to be a constant reminder about to that doesn't mean you go around and be the cosmic spiritual cop. But there's something in example where people want to master, match your pace in conversation as well as your vocabulary, where people will almost wait for someone else to curse to feel like they can curse. If you never give them that, you see people turn tail talking a very different way. But I also am absolutely convinced we should not tolerate if someone mocks or blasphemes or uses as a curse. Anything about God or any holy thing or anything connected to our faith, we should absolutely not tolerate it. Yeah. But this, I almost feel as if we should do an entire meditation someday on just the many levels of morality and speech because it will change your life. I gave up cursing a couple years ago now. And even to this day, I feel like I'm constantly running into dead ends and running into a brick wall and conversation because I'm like, oh, there's a word I want to use. I can't use it. And it reminds you how pervasive it is in language, but also how difficult it can be to not curse at all, even in quotation. But I've really, no matter where you're at with your language and your speech, whether that's gossip or using the Lord's name in vain or any form of derogatory humor, anything, there's some step you can take and you'll be very surprised where you could be in a couple of years slowly changing your speech. But it is so transformative of life just to start there by giving up one thing fully. And suddenly you're like, oh, I actually have self control. And one of the, I don't know if I've told the story of the podcast, but one of the reasons I really wanted to give up cursing was I was driving late at night and it was like I was about to get over and a car came up behind me really, really fast. They were just like trying to pass on the right, speeding past, and I had to swerve and I kind of like lost control of the wheel for a second and was headed towards the median for a second. My car screeches out and I'm like stopped on the highway for a second. And the first thing out of my mouth was so profane. It was, it was profane, it was stupid, it was meaningless. And I was like, that would have been my last word. That would have been the dumbest thing to say. But then just recently I was, I was driving with my mom and I like, it was one of those really hard stops, big traffic comes up really suddenly. And I said something, it was like so Midwestern like, whoop. And I was like, well, that would have been my last word. And that's equally stupid, but at least I wouldn't feel bad about it. Yeah. There are definitely, you know, you got to practice your last words because you don't get to choose them when they come out. There was that really funny moment when we were on, we were in, we were coming down from Mount Tabor. And we were out, we had to get to the airport. So Yasser, our bus driver was like, we don't have time to pray the rosary in the church. You have to pray it on the bus. And we were, so we were recording the rosary podcast as we were driving in the bus toward the airport. And he was, he was really pushing it because he had to get us there in time. And when Yasser pushes a bus, it's flying. But it was so funny because we were, we were Hail Mary full of grace. The Lord is with the blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And right then, right at that moment, he, he slid out on the break. Right. I said, Jesus. It does sound, I think that's in an episode somewhere. It is. It was so funny. It was literally right at that moment of the prayer. It was pretty crazy. Yeah, it was pretty. Everyone laughed at that. But I mean, unintentional, unintentional, but pretty crazy. At that moment, it was actually a true prayer. Well, it's important for us to have a sense of humor. But the right one. But the right one. Must be apostles of friendship, good conversation and the rosary. Share this with others.