WHO IS DENNIS SOUSA?

Mr. Dennis Sousa is the Director of Faith Formation at Saint Philip Church in Greenville, RI. He earned his M.A. in Theology from Providence College. Dennis has served on various oversight committees and advisory boards within the Diocese of Providence and is a widely sought-after speaker. He currently lives in Scituate, RI, with his wife Jennifer and their daughter Grace.

What is the 2nd Commandment?

In this episode, Dennis Sousa talks about the 2nd Commandment. He explains:

-What is the 2nd Commandment?
-How do we practice this commandment and keep God’s name holy?
-How do we sin against this commandment?
-Can you address the frequent complaints that Catholics somehow have a different 2nd commandment especially when it comes to graven images?

God’s Name is Holy

I re-invited Dennis to talk about the 2nd commandment since there was so much confusion online. It was certain we would need a guest who would be able to lead us with the right teaching on this. I couldn’t find anyone and the Lord reminded me of Dennis. So I wrote back to him and he gladly agreed. Not only does he do a fantastic job explaining the 2nd commandment but he makes a good case why we need spiritual guidance when it comes to Church teaching.

I’ve learned that we take God’s name too casually. In our text messages and in normal conversation we just say things without a second thought. Bad habits can be broken but Dennis has a nifty trick to help you when your surroundings are filled with people who take God’s name in vain.

Examination of Conscience

It’s Lent. Even as I write this post, I’m constantly thinking of my examination for Confession next week. To help you, Dennis has sent a brilliant Examination from the University or Minnesota. He also has shared his own parish resources from St. Philip to help you based on age. These are excellent resources for anyone interested in preparing for their Confessions. Additionally, we have an episode on Confession if you need more help.

ENJOYED THIS PODCAST?

We hope you enjoyed this podcast. Check out our podcasts on the First Commandment and St Teresa of Avila. Finally, if you liked this podcast, like us, leave us a comment and share our episodes on social media with those who may benefit from it. If there is a particular saint that you would like to hear about us, tell us and we’ll add him or her to our future episodes.

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Episode Transcript

Pamela: Welcome to the new episode of the “Christian Circle Podcast.” And we have Dennis who is with us again. And he was here with us talking about the first commandment. And so he’s gonna talk to us again about the 2nd commandment today. So Dennis, just to remind people, you know,

Tell people who you are and what your ministry is all about.

Dennis: Sure. Thanks, Pamela. So again, my name is Dennis Sousa. I am the director of faith formation at St. Philip Parish. I’ve been there for about 10 years now, and I have a wife named Jennifer and a daughter named Grace, and we are just trying to be faithful to the Lord. One of the things that, you know, is great about my ministry is that I’m able to have my family involved. And so Jennifer and Grace have been a huge part of what I do because it’s largely working with, you know, not only children but adults and families. And so I’ve been doing that, like I said, for the last 10 years. It’s a great pleasure to be back with you again today, Pamela.

Pamela: Great. And thank you for joining us again because the 2nd commandment is kind of controversial and it’s also a bit different. I mean, the Catholics say they have the 2nd commandment, but the Protestants have a different one and you have the Jewish ones who have a separate one.

Tell us first, what is the 2nd commandment?

Dennis: Sure. So the 2nd commandment that we find, you know, in Exodus, it says that, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” You know, now the catechism of the Catholic Church says that this commandment, so together with the first commandment, which we covered last time, and also the third commandment, they all belong to the virtue of religion, which is a sub-virtue of the cardinal virtue justice, which simply is giving God His due. But more particularly, however, this commandment, it governs our use of speech in any and all sacred matters. And so basically, in other words, this commandment has to do with more than simply God’s name, which is what we’ll be getting into today.

How do we practice this 2nd commandment and keep God’s name holy?

Dennis: Yeah. This is a great question and there are a couple of aspects to this. And so first off, we’re to have respect and give reverence for the Lord’s name. And so in paragraph number 2,143 of the catechism, it says that among all the words of revelation, that there’s only one that’s unique and it simply is the revealed name of God. But then the catechism goes on to say that God confides His name to those who believe in Him, that He reveals Himself to them.

And it says that the gift of a name that belongs to the order of trust and intimacy. So when I hear these words, you know, I think of Moses on the top of Mount Sinai with our Lord when it says that God spoke to Moses face-to-face as a man speaks to his friend. And that’s how God reveals Himself to us and not just, you know, as a friend only, but also as a father and even as a spouse.

We see that over and over again in the Old Testament. When we put it into this context, we see why we’re not to use His name not only with malintent but even carelessly. Why we should only be using His name to bless, to praise, to adore, and to glorify it. And, you know, the catechism says that it would have a sense of the sacred, you know, which I think we talked about last time. You know, unfortunately, we’ve largely lost this today. But this isn’t all though. You know, by this commandment, we’re not only commanded to always speak with reverence of God, but also of His saints and all things holy.

And so if you remember from the last lesson on the first commandment, that holy means anything that’s been set apart for our Lord.

And so here we’re talking about anything that’s been blessed even, you know, like a church or a rosary, a Bible, any images of Jesus, any images of our lady or the saints. These are just to name a few, but this commandment, it also obligates us to be truthful and not only taking oaths and making vows, but also to the promises that we make.

So we find in, I think it’s paragraph 2,147, it says that the promises that are made to God, or made in God’s name rather, they engage the divine honor, fidelity, truthfulness, and authority. But then it says to be unfaithful to them is to misuse God’s name in some way. And so basically it says, you know, to make God out to be a liar. In other words, not only shouldn’t we lie, but we’re also not to needlessly drag God’s name into trivial and ordinary matters.

And so, you know, kind of what I’m thinking of here is let’s say I’m questioned by my wife if I took out the trash, you know, because I often forget to, right? I shouldn’t say, you know, “Honey, I swear to God, I took it out.” Or, you know, if I’m at work and I’m questioned by my boss whether or not I finished the project that he assigned to me, I shouldn’t be saying, you know, “Honest to God, it’s all set.” And so our Lord tells us to let our yes be yes, and our no be no. And so basically, we’re to always be mindful of God’s presence, even in our speech. Because remember, our Lord says in scripture that we’re gonna have to give an accounting to even every idle word we speak.

Pamela: Does that also include things like, you know, we say, “Oh my gosh,” you know, we do that? Or we even put it in our text, OMG, and we just think nothing of it. So all that adds up, right?

Dennis: Absolutely. It absolutely does. So it covers all those things. And I know a lot of times, and I’ll talk about that in a little bit, but we’re in a bad habit of doing it, you know? It’s just something that we’ve picked up, but yeah, we shouldn’t be doing that either.

Pamela: How do we sin against this commandment? And it seems so obvious because we just get into it and we take it so casually, but

How do we actually sin against the 2nd commandment?

Dennis: Sure. And this is, you know, a great question and it seems simple, but there’s a lot to it. So we can take the Lord’s name in vain. And when we do so, we either sin venially or mortally. Remember, all sin is so grievous that we should rather die than even commit just one venial sin. I’m not sure if we covered this when we covered the first commandment, but just as kind of a reminder, for a sin to be mortal, you know, three conditions have to be met.

First, it has to be grave matter. 2nd, you have to have full knowledge that it’s grave matter. And then finally, we have to make an act of the will, you know, a choice to do it anyway. And so I would say that most people sin venially when they take the Lord’s name in vain because there usually isn’t malintent, or they simply don’t know any better.

You know, often like we just said, they’re in a bad habit and this could lessen their culpability, you know? And now this isn’t to lessen the seriousness of it, or, you know, to excuse it. But I mean, like we were talking about, how often do we hear someone say when they, you know, either get scared, or surprised, or even in just normal conversations, they say, “Oh my God?” Or when somebody gets frustrated, you know, you hear them say, you know, “Jesus Christ,” right? They say the divine name. And even growing up, I’d often hear my grandmother say, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” when she was overwhelmed, upset, or aggravated.

So when either God’s name or a Saint’s name is used in these ways, these are often venial sins. You know, Pamela, just as an aside here, one of the things that I started doing sometime back is making a reverent vow of my head every time someone uses God’s name, you know, especially if it’s used carelessly or needlessly.

Then if they say it in a disrespectful way or as a swear, and I’ll talk a little bit more about this when I talk about blasphemy, but I’ll say a Hail Mary as an act of reparation for that person.

What actually began to happen is that I started noticing that the people who were the biggest offenders of taking the Lord’s name in vain, that they started to do it less and less. And now I very rarely hear it when I’m in their company.

So for all your listeners out there, this might be something if they’re not doing it already, that they, you know, start this practice. It’s been, you know, noticeably better.

Pamela: So you do this aloud or you do this, like, in your mind, you do this practice?

Dennis: No, in my mind for that person. Yeah. Because I think they would either think I was weird or I’d make them, you know, feel uncomfortable. You know what I mean?

Pamela: Yeah.

Dennis: So yes. I’ll do that, you know, just kind of in my mind when I, you know, have a moment, that type of thing. Now another venial sin that fall under this commandment is even making noble promises to God that we intend to carry out but fail. You know, for example, so let’s say I commit to spending an hour in meditation every day and I promise God that I’m gonna do it. Now whether or not it’s prudent or not, especially if I haven’t yet formed the habit of prayers besides the point, if I fail to carry this out, it’d be a venial sin, not mortal. It only becomes mortal if we promise in God’s name something that’s not true, or to do something evil.

You know, basically, we’re calling on God to be a witness to something that’s contrary to His nature. And now this leads us into the grave sins of breaking oaths, vows, and committing perjury, which falls under this commandment. And so we find in the Baltimore Catechism in question number 227, it says that, “We are not to take oaths lightly.” It says to make an oath lawful, there are three things that are necessary, okay? So first, we’re to have a good reason for taking an oath.

You know, for instance, when a politician takes office or when we’re sworn in a court of law to testify to the truth. 2nd, we have to be convinced that what we are saying under oath is true. Then finally, we’re not to take an oath to do something that’s wrong. And so just an easy example of this would say taking an oath to be a Free Mason or something like that, okay?

And so now this moves us on to vows. So what’s a vow? It’s simply a deliberate promise made to God by which a person binds himself under the pain of sin to do something that’s pleasing to God. And today, you know, the most common way we hear vow, we immediately think of marriage. But this obviously, isn’t the only instance when somebody might take a vow. You know, people can make a vow to God apart from a formal ceremony. And we see an example of this in Sacred Scripture with the Nazarite vow, right?

Pamela: Yeah.

Dennis: Now notice the difference between what I said earlier about noble promises to God and here, right? That we should never make a vow to God without our pastor or our spiritual director. You know, and the simple reason for this is that we could, you know, commit to things that are not beneficial to our state in life. And so an example of this would be that, let’s say, I have experienced a powerful conversion in my life. And I wanna spend now most of my time in deep contemplation of God. Now, this is obviously a good thing, but it’s not if I’m a married man, have three small children at home, and have a full-time job, right? So we shouldn’t be making vows without the direction of our pastor or spiritual director, okay?

And the next grave sin is committing the sin of perjury. And this is when we make a promise under oath with either no intention of keeping that oath or simply breaking it after having made that oath, right? So then there is the grave sin of blasphemy. And we find in paragraph number 2,148 of the catechism, and I’ll just paraphrase it here, it says, you know, that blasphemy primarily consists in uttering things against God, either inwardly or outwardly, you know, any words of either hatred, reproach, defiance, or simply speaking ill of God. What we were talking about even earlier, failing to show respect toward Him in our speech. And this extends, like I said also, to anything against Christ’s church, the saints, and sacred things as well.

Then the final grave sin that’s tied to the 2nd commandment is cursing. And cursing is simply calling down evil on a person, place, or thing. You know, so damning someone to hell or wishing some spiritual or bodily harm against someone. And I almost forgot, a mortal sin that would also fall under this commandment would be telling a lie in the sacrament of confession or withholding a sin that you know that you’re guilty of. You know, we also call that the grave of sacrilege, which we spoke about in the first commandment, but also falls under this here as well. And so like if, let say, I have four mortal sins when I’m walking into the sacrament of confession, I walk out with five now. So those are the main ways that we sin against this commandment.

Can you address also the frequent complaints that Catholics have somehow a different 2nd commandment when it comes to graven images?

Because according to the one that was handed to Moses, we were not supposed to have graven images. And now we have a whole host of images that we venerate, we don’t worship, but we venerate, and there are complaints now among various Catholics that we have changed the 2nd commandment.

Dennis: Yeah. And that’s a great point that you just made. We have to be very nuanced in the words, and the word that you used was venerate, not worship, right? And we covered that, you know, in the first commandment. This is a common question that we get. So let me start off by saying that as Catholics, we believe that the church or the sacred magisterium, so that’d be the Pope together with the bishops, that they have the authority to teach all that God has revealed.

And so in this case, the church gives us the official authoritative list of the 10 commandments that’s revealed in Sacred Scripture. You know, and we can find this list in many church documents, including the Catechism of the Catholic church. Now, this fact is important because nowhere in the Bible are the 10 commandments numbered. You know, this is commandment one, this is command two, it doesn’t do that.

So our Lord hasn’t explicitly said how they’re to be numbered. And so different efforts have been made over the centuries to number or to group them, okay? So two prominent figures in the early church were Saint Augustine of Hippo and Origen of Alexandria, okay? Now Catholics and Lutherans, they generally go with the numbering of Saint Augustine, and the Eastern churches and other Protestant denominations go with Origens. And now it’s important to know here that neither are wrong, okay? But as you were, you know, just saying, probably the biggest difference between the Catholic and the Protestant versions is in reference to Exodus 20:4, you know, which is part of the first commandment. And it begins in verse 3, and then it stretches through part of verse 5.

And it says this, it says that, “You shall have no other God’s before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that’s in heaven above, or that’s in the earth beneath, or that’s in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them.” So versus 3 to 5 make clear that this commandment isn’t simply condemning the making of statues, it’s condemning making gods that you bow down to or serve, you know, like the golden calf. So in a word, it forbids idolatry. And so this is covered by the first commandment, and obviously, the Catholic Church condemns this as well.

And so despite the initial appearance, we know that Exodus 20 is not a prohibition against making any likeness of anything in the strict sense, because, you know, we clearly see that God’s commanding or praising making images and statues in multiple other passages in Scriptures. You know, a simple example just comes five chapters later in Exodus 25, right after this so-called prohibition against making statues. It’s where God commands Moses to make two statues representing two angels, specifically the Cherubim, right? You know, they were to be placed over the mercy seat, you know, of the Ark of the Covenant.

And even we see images that He commands to be embroidered on the temple veil that separated the holy of holies from the rest of the temple. So we really have here an issue of numbering rather than content.

And in my opinion, this makes a great case for the need of a magisterium to teach us all that God has revealed.

Pamela: If you go through the entire…I think, you go through Leviticus, you go through all of those books, God is very explicit in the kind of the very intricate designs in the alter, on the ark on, you know, how the temple is to be made. It’s so elaborate, it’s chapters long. So obviously, He expects us to give us His best in terms of design, in terms of architecture, which we see in a lot of our churches all over the century.

Dennis: You know, and some of the things I think sometimes we forget, Pamela, is that sometimes we could be…I think over the top would be the wrong way, but sometimes we forget that we are human beings and what makes us a human being is that we’re made up of a body and a soul, right? And that oftentimes, it’s through our senses that we are kind of caught up to God, right?

That it’s through our eyes, it’s through our ears, our bodies. So this is why, you know, sometimes music will kind of raise our minds and our hearts to God. And this is why I often pray…I have a prayer table with an icon, a crucifix, a picture of the face of Jesus. Why? Not because I worship these images, but through these images, I move toward God, I guess, in a deeper way, you could say.

So, you know, sometimes we could be over the top when, you know, we start talking about images. And God obviously knew this, He created us and designed us, right?

Pamela: When we are doing an examination of conscience for this commandment, and, you know, we’re all, I think, preparing for Lents, so we’re all going through this now,

What are we gonna look for as we look for this 2nd commandment?

Dennis: Sure. You know, and I think I said this the last time, there are some great examinations of conscience out there, but I think the best one that I’ve found, you know, it’s actually not even on a Catholic College, it’s on a college website that I came across. I found it on the University of Minnesota Duluth’s website and they have a PDF on their Newman page under the sacrament of confession. It’s really outstanding.

It covers everything that we’ve spoken about today, but it also gives questions to really prompt our reflection. You know, questions like, and we might not often think of like simply as straightforward as do I love and have reverence for God’s name? Have I watched television or movies or listened to music that treated God, the church, the saints, or sacred things irreverently? You know, have I blamed God for any of my failings?

Do I try, you know, my best to fulfill the promises and resolutions that I’ve made toward God?

Especially those oftentimes we don’t think, maybe of my baptism and my confirmation. So do I remember, you know, what I’m responsible for that, you know, confirmation that we are sent out on mission to evangelize and to spread and defend the faith when necessary? So do I do those things? You know, have I used God’s name carelessly or in anger or surprise? Have I used foul language or belittled others in speech? You know, things like that. And so it continues with, you know, all the things that we have already spoken on, and you can actually find this examination on bulldogcatholic.net. I could send you that website, Pamela.

And also, I could even send you…and you might be able to link it to the show notes. At St. Phillips, we developed a couple of examinations of conscience, you know, not only one for adults, but we have also designed one for children when they’re preparing for their first pennants. So that usually covers, you know, grade two through grade five or six. And then we did a middle school examination of conscience for, you know, that age group. And then we also did a high school examination of conscience. So it’s fitting and age-appropriate. So we have those different types of examination. And I’d be glad to send PDF files to you that if also you wanted to link anywhere that you’d like.

Pamela: Yeah, that would be great. I mean, people can use it, especially now since we’re actually heading towards the 2nd half of Lent. But just a quick question because it came up during your examination list. So there are a lot of movies, there are a lot of songs, there are a lot of things that we are reading that have…in fact, you go through everything on YouTube, it has a lot of, I think, violation of God’s name.

So is this like a venial sin or is this…what are we supposed to do about this?

Dennis: Well, and this is a really good question. And I’ll tell you with my personality, I could tend to struggle with scruples, right? And so we could kind of go over the top with this because honestly, we are surrounded by this today. But if we know that, you know, explicitly there are movies where they just continually take God’s name in vain, or TV shows, or the music that we’re listening to, we really should turn them off or begin to listen to other things. And again, not that, you know, we go around with our palms over our ears if this happens, but just, you know, again, being mindful of what we’re listening to and what we’re watching.

And I find that the closer that we grow to God, the more we desire to…the more sensitive we become to more things. So my advice to somebody, you know, maybe just starting out their Christian walk, their relationship with God, this obviously wouldn’t be the very first thing that I would begin to have conversations with them about. It would be more, you know, the serious stuff where, you know, kind of some of the stuff that we talked about today, but this is just something to kind of be mindful of and to begin to purify in our lives.

Pamela: Okay. So this was great.

Do you have any last tips or any last words for anyone on the 2nd commandment?

Dennis: Well, and I think so one of the things that we’ve talked about last time, and again today is really just having a sense of the sacred that we have really lost, the sense of, you know, the transcendence of God that God is always present to us. And, you know, I love the writings of the mystics, like somebody like St. Teresa of Ávila who talks about, you know, our soul as like the castle and that God resides in the center of our soul.

And I think that when we reflect on that and keep that at the forefront of our mind, it not only helps us, you know, with our actions, but also by the very words that we speak and also what we are kind of taking in, what we’re listening to. And so I would really just kind of give advice to everybody. Something that’s been helpful to me is just really being mindful of God’s presence as much as I can throughout the day.

Pamela: Great. That’s great. And I’m glad you mentioned St. Teresa of Ávila because we’ve covered her, I think, with another guest, Charles, and he has covered her book as well on our podcast. So if anyone wants to listen, you can listen to the episode on St. Teresa of Ávila. So, Dennis, remind people where they can find you online and where they can find all the resources you mentioned.

Dennis: Sure. Thank you.

So we have our parish YouTube channel.

You can just go to YouTube and type in St. Philip Church, Greenville and our YouTube page will come up. And you can also go to our website which is saintphilip.com. So you can find me at either of those places. And also if you wanted to reach out to me personal, my email address is reled@saintphilip.com.

Pamela: And Dennis has covered all of the commandments, the 10 commandments, according to the…

Dennis: The Baltimore Catechism.

Pamela: Yeah, sorry.

Dennis: No, no, it’s fine. You know, it’s funny because I just got an email from somebody in England who happened to come across the videos that we did on the Baltimore Catechism, and he was saying that, you know, they don’t obviously have the Baltimore Catechism in England, but that he’s really enjoying the videos because much like you said the last time, it is very short, sweet, and to the point on the fundamentals of our faith.

Pamela: He’s got a whole bunch of videos there and I would definitely recommend you go and check it out because they are to the point, they’re very practical, and you can get all the information in one place. You don’t have to keep finding from place to place. So thank you, Dennis, for joining us today and talking to us back again about this topic about the 2nd commandment. I wish you all the best and happy Lent and happy Easter as well.

Dennis: Yes. Thank you so much, Pamela. The same to you and all your listeners out there. Thanks. It was great to be with you again.