INSTRUCTION ON SWEARING To swear is to call upon God, upon His truth, His justice, or other attributes, or upon His creatures, in the name of God, as witnesses of the truth. Is swearing lawful, and when? Yes, when necessity demands it, and when the matter sworn to is true and just: when a man thus swears he imitates God, honors Him as all-holy, all-wise, all-just, and contributes to the triumph of justice and innocence. On the other hand, great sins are committed: 1. By those who swear in a false and unjust cause, which may be, besides, of little moment; for they call upon God as a witness to falsehood and wrong, thus violating His truth and justice. 2. By those who swear in a good cause, but without necessity or a sufficient reason ; for it is cer tainly unseemly to call God as witness on every trivial occasion. 3. In like manner, they sin grievously and constantly who have become so habituated to swearing as to break out into oaths, without so much as knowing or thinking whether the thing is true or false, whether they will keep their word or not ; where by they expose themselves to great danger, both because they run the risk of swearing falsely, and also because they frivolously abuse the name of God, of His saints, and of His works. Every one, says Saint Chrysostom, who swears often some times swears falsely; just as he who talks a great deal some times utters things unseemly and improper. For this reason, according to the opinion of Saint Augustine, the Saviour forbade Christians to swear at all (Matt. v. 34), that they might not fall into a habit of swearing, and, by reason of that, into swearing falsely. Whoever has this habit should take the greatest pains to overcome it. To accomplish which, it will be useful to him to reflect: 1. That if we have to render an account for every idle word we speak, how much more strictly will we be judged for needless, idle, and false oaths! “ Remember thy last end, and thou shalt not sin.” 2. To remember that persons who swear so lightly are generally less believed than others. 3. To repent each time that he swears, and to punish himself by a penance.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 16:40:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015