You are right; it is odd because according to The King James Bible, The American Standard Bible, The English Standard Bible and any other bible I have ever read it’s the 3rd Commandment that deals with not taking the Lord’s name in vain. Which version of Bible are you referring to?
My brother in the Church, you need much guidance, maybe more then we can give you here. You might want to talk to your Priest about these problems you are having. It seems to me like more then trying to understand what the Church teaches, you want to decide what the Church teaches through the Bible. That is a very dangerous road to start down, and can lead one to many errors. As Catholics we need to accept that the Church, started by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, has all truth in her. Remember that we wrote the New Testament, and that the Bible is not the source and summit of our faith, that is our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament of the Alter.
The most important answer to your question is that you, like me, understand that the Holy Catholic Church has the right and authority to tell us, the lay faithful, what the bible means, correct? You do know that the King James Bible is not even a complete Bible right? It is missing 7 books and parts of a few others because Marty got a bug up his tunic and started playing “Fun with Exacto-knives”
I use the New American Bible, and if you do not have one please ask your priest about getting on after mass, most parishes will be happy to give you a free copy. The thing is that this does not matter which bible you use, it is how you choose to split up the commandments. If you go and ask a Jew what the first commandment is, they will tell you
“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.”
There 2nd commandment is the Catholic first “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
In the short version, we just say “You shall have no other gods before me.” The reason that we split them up like this is not to hide anything, but because the bible has 14 statements listed and tells us there are 10 commandments. As you can guess, we can argue all day long about what the list should be, but somebody had to make a call. As you know as a Catholic, the Church was given the Keys to the Kingdom, and she alone has the right to decide these things for us.
Now to give you my personal answer to your question. I was a pagan and a witch for 19 years before I decided to come into the Holy Catholic Church, who alone has all truth in her. In those years as a pagan, I prayed to idols almost every day, and although it might have LOOKED like what was going on was the same as what you see in our parishes, nothing could be further from the truth. When I bowed to an Idol, I did not think that my god was someplace out there, I thought is was really in the statue. I believed that the statue was alive and could answer my prayers and help me in my life. I would bring them gems and other gifts in order to win their favor. Thinking that if I made the statue happy, I would get what I wanted.
More then any of that however, I would not just pray, but WORSHIP it. I would thank my god for giving me another day, and bow and beg my god to forgive me if I did not do their bidding and obey their commands. I am glad that I no longer do silly things like that. When I say a prayer at Church to a statue of the Blessed Mother, I understand that this statue I see before me is not Mary Most Holy, but just a statue made by humans. I also understand that Mary is just a creature, just like us, the angels and the saints. She is the most beautiful and perfect of Gods creatures, but she is still just a creature. I love her, so I talk to her, and ask her to pray for me to God. As in a Hail Mary “Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”
It is no different then asking my friend to pray for me, or asking my priest to pray for me. I understand that Mary, my friend and my priest cannot help me, but I know that God can. As it says in the James 5:16 “The heartfelt prayer of someone upright works very powerfully.” Who is more upright then Mary, the Angels and the Saints? They are more alive then I am right now, they see the face of God almighty. Why would I not want to get their help in things?
In closing my Brother, please go and spend some time praying to our Lord and Savoir in the Eucharist. I promise you that you will feel better about all of this when you are done. Plus I am sure you can use a good “Son Tan”
Pax
. but if you are Catholic and therefore Christian… look around you at all the inspiration-including saints that were directed by God to paint what they were shown to share with the world… does the Sacred Heart of Jesus ring a bell…
:angel1: