You Shall Not Take the Name of the Lord Your God in Vain

A Shepherd's Voice (Transcript - Episode 2)

Let us begin in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glory be to God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

We are called to give glory to God, and that is what I hope to do as we continue “A Shepherd’s Voice.” Thank you for joining me for the second episode. Thank you to those who listened or read the transcript from the first episode. I do this out of love and let me share a quote from the great St. Augustine of Hippo that expresses better than I could the spirit that guides me in this effort: “The honor of a shepherd is to serve with love. Let us love, therefore, not as if we sought our own advantage, but let us love because we are shepherds.” This is what inspires me to offer these weekly episodes of “A Shepherd’s Voice.”

As you know, last week we looked at the First Commandment. I want to continue looking at what is called the Decalogue, the ten words that are directly from God, and that we know from our Catholic tradition, and stretching back to the very beginning to those who understood the One True God, whom we know as the Trinity – and through His Son, Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, God’s eternal Son, who is Incarnate among us, and who remains with us. He has left us His Church, and as one shepherd in His Church, it is my joyful but daunting work to proclaim the truth of our Catholic faith, joyfully but vigorously and clearly, in a time that the Church, as I spoke of last week, is in a time of great crisis because clarity is hard to find. The strong voices of shepherds seem to be silenced, and as one shepherd, I am challenged, but joyfully challenged, to speak in the name of Christ, to speak for His Church, to speak for the Deposit of Faith, and to speak for the significance of the Decalogue - these Ten Commandments that guide us and that we must pay special attention to, especially in this Twenty-First Century.

All the confusion, all the lack of clarity really is not our reality, and that is what we need to be founded on very clearly, with joy and peace in our hearts. Let us know that we know the truth because we know Jesus Christ, Truth Incarnate, and He is with us in Word and Sacrament. That is our reality. That is not just an idea that some of us tap. That is the reality of the universe at this time, in what we call the Twenty-First Century - a timeless God has revealed Himself to us.

And so last week we focused on, while looking at this crisis in the Church, the First Commandment: I am the Lord your God. You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.

All of us need to continue to reflect on that first of the Ten Commandments, a very basic foundation of the One True God, and His own Son, Jesus Christ, who established the one true Church. We cannot be apologetic or shy about proclaiming this truth. It is a truth for all humanity. Also, we have to be careful to not be arrogant. I am a sinful and weak man; I am “a” shepherd’s voice, but because I am a bishop, consecrated to serve as a successor of the apostles, the burden is on my shoulders to speak this truth clearly and let it resound through our world today with all its complexities, with all its great discoveries. The greatest truth we know is the truth that God has revealed to us, the truth that remains with us, in the mystery of Jesus Christ, especially in the Eucharist and in the Mass - the Holy Mass, the sacred sacrifice of the Mass, that I will speak to later, in this second episode of “A Shepherd’s Voice.”

Today I want to focus on the Second Commandment, critical as well: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”

Brothers and sisters, let us prayerfully reflect on those words, and acknowledge just how far we are from embracing and living this critical commandment of the Lord God: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”

Even as I am recording this in the wonder and means of communication, the name of God, the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, in all kinds of ways is being blasphemed and taken in vain, and we must be aware and resolve to truly embrace this important message of the Second Commandment of the Decalogue. To take the name of the Lord Our God in vain is contrary to God’s commandments. The wisdom of God, guiding us since ancient times with the law revealed to Moses, and guiding those who sought the Messiah, and continuing to guide us through this Decalogue in our time - the Lord speaks to this Twenty-First Century in powerful words - because His name is taken in vain in devastating ways - as jokes, in blasphemous curses, as simply expletives of confusion or frustration.

Let us all resolve, if we have fallen into these bad habits – and it is easy for all of us because we are surrounded by it – let us resolve to truly embrace this great Second Commandment of respecting the name of God, and especially in our Christian world, respecting the name of His Son, Jesus Christ - God has a name in His Son, and we must speak it with reverence and awe every time it is spoken. Our Hebrew ancestors knew how powerful this commandment was, and they were unwilling to even speak the name of God. They alluded to God - they saw it as wrong to even speak God’s name because of this commandment.

We know God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and wondrously God has revealed His name through His Son, who reveals the Father and the Spirit, in ways not thought even possible by our Hebrew ancestors. But we must rejoice in this gift of knowing the name of God’s Son by respecting it more deeply, more profoundly than ever before, and doing our best to teach our children, and to reform our lives, and to stand up against all the blasphemies of the name of God that are devastating to the people of God in our time.

Simply turn on some source of media, whether music or movies or anything, and we will hear God’s name taken in vain - sometimes in jest, sometimes in blasphemous anger, damning someone in God’s name. We are called not to do this, and we must pay attention to this commandment.

Let me turn to a quote from St. John Vianney who says it better than I could: “The name of God is blasphemed when men utter it in a spirit of hatred or reproach; it is profaned when they use it without respect, as in frivolous conversation. The name of the Lord is holy, and it must not be used lightly or thoughtlessly.”

Let us take to heart these words from one of the greatest of pastors, the patron saint of pastors, St. John Vianney. He is speaking hundreds of years ago, and what he is speaking against has swept through the world in ways that we must be aware of, and we must guard against. As he says – the name of the Lord is holy. We must treat God’s holy name with awe and respect, as the Scriptures tell us – “at the name of Jesus every knee shall bend.” We must approach Jesus’ name and every name of God in whatever form – Father, Son, or Holy Spirit – with that kind of reverence and that kind of awareness of whom we speak – God our loving Creator, love Incarnate in Jesus Christ.

This leads me to speak, in some ways painfully, of a reality that we must face in the Church that Christ established 2,000 years ago. We will have the anniversary of that establishment in the year 2033, according to our calendar, when Jesus Christ said, “Upon this rock” speaking of Peter – speaking to Peter – “Upon this rock I will build my Church.” We know this Church is the Catholic Church of today – with all her wounds, with all of her confusion, with all of her corruption from even the very top, she is still the Church. We must cling to Christ, and we must cling to His Church, and we must pray for the leaders that are wandering and are leading the flock away from Christ in real ways.

The name of the Lord God, the name of Jesus Christ, is not being respected, and this is being codified, or being attempted to be codified, in rejection of the Traditional Latin Mass. As you know, as I speak to you, I was a priest ordained in 1985, and very much of the Novus Ordo. Thankfully, and we must be aware, that Jesus Christ comes to us in the Mass celebrated in the form of what we call the Novus Ordo, and it can be and should be and must be sacred, reverent and focused on Christ, but many corruptions have wandered into this new form of the Mass. To denigrate and try to extinguish the Traditional Latin Mass on which the mass of the Novus Ordo is built, the foundation - to attack that foundation - true shepherds must speak against this attack, and it is an attack. We cannot mince words. We cannot pretend that we are just misunderstanding. It is becoming clearer all the time that many from the very top of the Church are seeking to eliminate the Traditional Latin Mass.

As a man who continues to simply learn it, as I learn it and practice celebrating this ancient rite, the ancient rite that so many saints flourished in through the ages, we cannot allow it to be denied and denigrated, and so we have to speak clearly in ways that come difficult to me because I want to be respectful to the Holy Father and to those who work in the Vatican, but as I have said before, the greatest respect is to speak the truth of Christ, the truth of the Deposit of Faith, and part of that truth is to uphold the sacred reality of the Traditional Latin Mass. I have no intention of denigrating or rejecting those who are, as I was, only accustomed to what is called the Novus Ordo, the mass since the late 1960’s, after the Second Vatican Council - but the foundation of the Mass remains the Traditional Latin Mass.

And if we read the actual documents of the Council, they speak that the Mass could be renewed and revised to some degree, but would look very much like the Traditional Latin Mass, so I think we have to be very clear that attempts to eliminate or denigrate or push into the dustbin of history the Traditional Latin Mass is not of the Church that Jesus Christ established. We must call to correction any voice that attempts to do this, with love and charity, but we must know that love and charity are always built on all that is true, all that is good, and all that is beautiful - on Truth Incarnate that is Jesus Christ.

I have to turn to a recent autobiography of Pope Francis, called Hope, where the Holy Father, regretfully - I do not think we can say anything truthfully other than that he says words that attack the Latin Mass, traditional Catholics, and traditional bishops - criticizing conservative cardinals and bishops for their “rigid and extravagant attire” during Traditional Mass, suggesting that it might indicate “mental instability” and reflects “clerical ostentation.”

Brothers and sisters, as a shepherd, with one shepherd’s voice, I must reject this characterization given by Pope Francis. It is the loving thing to do – to reject something that is not true and that is harmful. To characterize those who have the traditional Catholic faith and love the Latin Mass as somehow mentally unstable is truly wrong and harmful. As I have come to know, and I am definitely a student of the Traditional Latin Mass, continuing to learn its beauty, its intricacy – but facing Christ, focused on the sacred altar of sacrifice that is the Mass – I am learning more and more how essential this liturgy is.

I have no intention of letting go of the Novus Ordo that I have grown up with, but I seek to make it more reverent and to continue to purify it in this foundational reality that is the Latin Mass - beautiful, as I learn the Traditional Latin Mass. If you look at your missal, if you have a missal of the Latin Mass - and I encourage all Catholics, even if you have never been to a Latin Mass, to get a missal that has in it English and Latin - and compare it, reflect on it in relationship to the Mass that you hopefully attend every Sunday and every holy day, as is the law of the Church, but reflect on how this Mass points us to Christ. And one of the details is that, at the name of Christ, the priest or the bishop who is celebrating the Mass is directed to bow his head. To me that is a simple and profoundly beautiful way that the Traditional Latin Mass reminds us and resonates with the understanding of the Second Commandment of the Decalogue: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”

Brothers and sisters, how do we shore up our determination? We can all fall into bad habits. We can all make the mistake of letting the name of Jesus Christ just become something that comes out of our mouths when we stub our toe. But how do we guard against that?

I believe the Traditional Latin Mass and the Church’s beautiful liturgy there really help to shore up our determination to keep the name of God sacred! The name of His Son, the name of God our Father, the name of the Holy Spirit - to keep those names spoken only in reverence, as a prayer - the Latin Mass encourages and supports that attitude.

Let me share from another beautiful saint who once again says it better than I could, St. Teresa of Avila: “Let us remember that the soul will never reach the perfection of love if it has not first been wounded by the grandeur and beauty of God.” Let me repeat those beautiful words of St. Teresa of Avila: “Let us remember that the soul will never reach the perfection of love if it has not first been wounded by the grandeur and beauty of God.”

Focus on those words of St. Teresa of Avila – “beauty and grandeur” – those are words that appropriately speak of the Traditional Latin Mass in our Catholic faith. They are words that should resonate in every liturgy in whatever form.

Brothers and sisters, I believe in this time in the Church, in the troubled world that we live in, that we must take every opportunity to come to the Eucharistic altar of Jesus Christ to hear the Word of God proclaimed and to see Word Incarnate becoming body and blood, soul and divinity, from bread and wine that has been consecrated. Every time in any form of the liturgy, and there are more than 20 different liturgical rites that are recognized as valid celebrations of the Eucharist, we need to develop a spirit and attitude that reverences all of those. So I must denounce Pope Francis’ denigration of this sacred rite that reminds us of the importance of the Second Commandment of the Decalogue, to keep the name of the Lord Our God as sacred and holy. We need to look for beauty and grandeur.

The Mass is not entertainment – it is not a human celebration – it is a sacrifice to God the Father of His Son, a once and for all sacrifice, that as a priest, and now a bishop, I am humbled to celebrate with an unworthiness that I am challenged to continue to seek to overcome. To turn from sin and to live the virtues of the gospel more deeply is the call of every man ordained to the priesthood. Deacons assist the priests and the bishops, and so all in holy orders – deacon, priest, or bishop – we must be the first to reverence the name of God and to model for a world that is so broken, so forgetful of God, and so quickly denigrating God’s name. We must be the ones who joyfully point to the beauty and majesty that are present in every liturgy if celebrated properly and to reject any attempt to make this holy sacrifice of the Mass simply a human gathering, focused on human people gathered. We are to be sacred – we are temples of the Holy Spirit – but how do we nurture that reality of who we are? By reverencing God. By living in the awesome light that Jesus Christ brings.

I have to take clear exception to this message of Pope Francis in his autobiography called Hope. This is a devastating message that a chorus of shepherds’ voices should lovingly oppose because it is not guiding us deeper into the life of Christ, into His Sacred Heart.

Let me turn to another quotation from Pope Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis: “The true friends of the people are neither revolutionaries nor innovators, but traditionalists.”

Think of the words of St. Pope Pius X in light of what Pope Francis is saying about those who love the Traditional Mass. Certainly those who gather at those masses are sinners as we all are. Whether I’m celebrating Mass in the Traditional rite or in the Novus Ordo or in whatever of the other rites of our Catholic faith, I always approach that altar as a sinner, as everyone in the congregation does, but we must move away from the temptation to be divided as the body of Christ.

Many have challenged me as one bishop to be a bridge builder, to help people come closer to the Sacred Heart of Christ, and the liturgy is one of the greatest planks in that bridge that all of us must work together to build. So let us seek to eliminate the divisions because our only real and lasting unity is always in Jesus Christ, who is One Lord, guiding us in one faith and one baptism.

The Second Commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”

Brothers and sisters, let us prayerfully reflect on those words, and if necessary, confess any sins that have crept into our lives that are contrary to this Second Commandment. Let us be honest with ourselves and let us be clear that we must pay attention to these ten words from God revealed to us, true revelation as we find in the Deposit of our Catholic Faith. In sacred Scripture, in the Magisterium, in the sacraments, in every element that is true to the Catholic Church, God reveals Himself, a living and true God.

Let us be strengthened in this faith, and let us oppose any voice, any human voice that calls us away from true reverence to the majestic Son of God, of God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Reverencing the name of God calls us to ultimate reverence, but part of that reverence is to acknowledge that I am a sinner. I pray that I may continue to have a heart of repentance, seeing reparation and atonement for all the sins that I have committed and the sins that I must confess to God in the Sacrament of Confession.

Ultimately, one way of looking at living our Catholic faith, of being faithful to the Word and the Sacraments that guide us, is to reverence the name of God. That is not only in speaking God’s name which absolutely must be done only in reverence, but remembering that when we turn from temptation and sin, that is the greatest way that we reverence the name of God.

This Second Commandment resonates through all of what we are called to do to live our baptism. So let us continue to do so joyfully.

I invite you to join me next week once again for the third episode of “A Shepherd’s Voice.”

God bless you.

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland

Bishop Emeritus