The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 279: False Oaths (2025)

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

Together, with Fr. Mike, we continue our examination of the second commandment. Fr. Mike emphasizes that an oath engages the Lord’s name, and the Lord is the Lord of truth. We, therefore, have a duty as Christians to respect God’s name in matters of truth. He also emphasizes that everything we say is either in conformity to truth or in opposition to truth. Today’s readings are paragraphs 2150-2155. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture, and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in Ere is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 279. We're reading paragraphs 2150 to 2155. as always, I am using the Ascension edition of the catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the catechism of the Catholic

Church. You can also download your own catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications today is day 279. We're continuing to talk about the Lord's name and the holiness of the Lord's name. Yesterday we talked about the fact that God's name is holy and that we have to be incredibly careful when it comes to anything involving the Lord's name, when it comes to blasphemy, when it comes to respect for the Lord's name, when it comes to promises, and even going so far as to the abuse of God's name, all of those things are so important for us. We absolutely have to, have to avoid them and have to always treat the Lord's name, not just with respect, but as it truly

is, as it is holy. Now, today we're talking about taking the name of the Lord in vain, And we're looking at this. We're looking at how the Second Commandment forbids false oaths. We recognize that perjury can be an abuse of God's name or taking the Lord's name in vain. But we can actually, in some ways, in some context, we can make oaths that we can invoke the Lord's name when we intend to tell the truth. But we are never obliged. We are never obliged to take the Lord's name in vain. Right.

So just a quick thing to get out of the way. when someone says, you know, I said the name of God without meaning it. And I didn't say it in vain. I'm like, okay, that's kind of what in vain means. In vain implies or indicates taking the Lord's name without meaning it or like we're talking, we're going to talk about today, which is taking a false oath. So calling upon the Lord's name and not intending to follow through with whatever I promise or not intending to follow through with what I'm oathing for lack of a better phrase. Anyways, as we launch into today, let's call upon the Lord's name and in prayer, ask for him to send us His Holy Spirit, to guide us into all truth, to continue to guide us into all truth, to

open our hearts in our minds that we've been know His will and to do it with all our hearts. We pray, Father in heaven, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we ask you to please send your Holy Spirit into our lives and into the lives of those we love. Lord God, may your name always be glorified in our speech. Your name always be glorified in our actions. May everything that we say and everything that we do reveal you as you are and not serve to obscure your goodness, not serve to obscure your holiness, not serve to obscure who you are. Help every word we speak. Help every action that we choose to accomplish or act in this world, in this life, in this day before your glory. And for the salvation and sanctification of all of our brothers and sisters. We make this prayer in the

mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Once again, it's day 279. We're reading paragraphs 2150 to 2155. Taking the name of the Lord in vain. The second commandment forbids false oaths. Taking an oath or swearing is to take God as witness to what one affirms. It is to invoke the divine truthfulness as a pledge of one's own truthfulness. An oath engages the Lord's name. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and swear by his name. Rejection of false oaths is a duty toward God. As creator and Lord, God is the norm of all truth. Human speech is either in accord with or in opposition to God who is truth itself. When it is truthful and legitimate, an oath highlights the relationship of human

speech with God's truth. A false oath calls on God to be witness to a lie. A person commits perjury when he makes a promise under oath with no intention of keeping it, or when after promising on oath, he does not keep it. Perjury is a grave lack of respect for the Lord of all speech. Pledging oneself, by oath, to commit an evil deed is contrary to the holiness of the divine name. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus explained the Second Commandment. You have heard that it was said to the men of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not swear at all. Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from the evil one. Jesus teaches that every oath involves a reference to God and that God's presence and

his truth must be honored in all speech. Discretion and calling upon God is allied with a respectful awareness of his presence, which all our assertions either witness to or mock. Following St. Paul, the tradition of the Church has understood Jesus' words as not excluding oaths made for grave and right reasons, for example, in court. The Code of Canon law states, an oath, that is, the invocation of the divine name as a witness to truth, cannot be taken unless in truth, in judgment, and injustice. The holiness of the divine name demands that we neither use it for trivial matters, nor take an oath which on the basis of the circumstances could be interpreted as approval of an authority unjustly requiring it.

When an oath is required by illegitimate civil authorities, it may be refused. It must be refused when it is required for purposes contrary to the dignity of persons or to ecclesial communion. Right, there we have it, paragraphs 2150 to 2155. You know, again, as I said at the very beginning of this episode, there are sometimes when taking the Lord's name in vain is simply taking the Lord's name without meaning it, right? Without respect for the sacredness, the holiness, that, again, the sanctity of the divine name. But there's also these other ways.

And taking it in vain, meaning I'm taking this name, the name of the Lord, with no intention of following through on my oath here, no intention of following through on my promise. So here paragraph 2150 and 2151 talks about this. So there is the forbidding of false oaths. So explains this. Taking an oath or swearing is to take God as witness to what one affirms. It is to invoke the divine truthfulness as a pledge of one's own truthfulness. Again, isn't that that kind of idea of so help me God, right?

It's I'm invoking saying, okay, God is the God of all truth. God is the God of all truthfulness. Therefore, when I invoke his name, I'm taking that as an approval, as a pledge, as a promise of my, my truthfulness. So it goes on to say, an oath engages the Lord's name. And quotes this from Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 13. It says, you shall fear the Lord or God. You shall serve him and swear by his name. So we have a duty, a complete duty as Christians. To reject false oaths. That is something we have to, right? Because here is our God. Who is the God of truth? He is truth itself. And so our speech is either in accord with,

that truth or in opposition to that truth. So, you know, I don't know if we talked about this here in the catechism, but I will usually kind of present to our students a very quick, simple, everything I say is simple, not all quick, but everything I say is pretty simple, because I'm trying to get to the kernel of the issue. So if you're asking the question, what's the kernel, what's the most simple way you can express the definition of truth? I will always say, truth is simply can be defined in two words. Truth is what is. That's it.

Truth is simply what is. So a statement is either true or false to the degree that it conforms to what is, right? To the degree that it conforms to reality. So here is God himself. And so if God himself is truth, he is he who is, right? Even think of the sacred name of God. I am who am. So here is truth, what is.

Here is God who is truth, right? He who is, or as he's revealed his name, I. I am who am. We recognize that everything we say is either in conformity to truth, what is, which is therefore in conformity to God who is I am who am, or it is not in conformity. It is an opposition to what is or in opposition to or is obscuring what is. So it's either in conformity to what is or it's an opposition to or obscuring what is. Therefore, all of our words, all of our words have to be in line with the God. who is truth. And that's why false oaths are so, so deadly, is we're calling upon God to witness

a lie, right? That's what a false oath is. I'm calling upon God to witness a lie. Therefore, someone who takes an oath to tell the truth commits perjury, right? Because they make a promise under oath with no intention of keeping it or after promising that oath doesn't keep it. So sometimes people have a premeditated idea that, yep, I will take the name, I'll invoke the Lord's name and say, I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing about the truth. So help me God. And maybe they intend to do that, but then they don't. Again, that's perjury. Or they have this plan. They know they're not going to tell the truth. And yet they do invoke the Lord's name. So this is a grave sin, right? Because it's a grave lack of respect for the Lord of all speech. So pledging oneself

about this, paragraph 2152 highlights, pledging oneself by oath to commit an evil act is contrary to the holiness of the divine name. So think of any number of, you know, revenge movies where someone says, you know, I will have, essentially I'll have my revenge and they invoke the Lord's name. So help me God. You know, or by God, I will do such and such, you know, this evil thing. That once again, that is contrary to the holiness of the divine name. Now, keep this in mind. So even though Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 13, does say this, you shall fear the Lord of God, you shall serve him and swear by his name, Jesus, in paragraph 2153, says, okay, what about when Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount explains the Second Commandment and saying that, yeah, you've heard it was said

to men of old, you should not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn, but then Jesus says, but I say to you. Remember in the Sermin on the Mount? Jesus says all these, here's what you've heard it was said. Here's what I say to you. He says, do not swear at all. Let what you say simply be yes or no. Anything more than this comes from the evil one. So Jesus in this teaches that every oath involves a reference to God and that God's presence and his truth must be honored in all speech. Therefore, we have to have this incredible, incredible discretion, because we also recognize that St. Paul clarifies our understanding of what Jesus is saying when he says what he says in Matthew's Gospel in the Sermon on the Mount. Because St. Paul talks about this talk. St. Paul talks about the fact that there are good and right reasons. for making an oath.

In fact, St. Paul himself makes an oath. In 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 23, references that Galatians chapter 1, verse 20. So we recognize that scripture helps us understand. Here's sermon on the mount in Matthew's Gospel. And then here's St. Paul's letters, 2 Corinthians and Galatians, that help us understand. Okay, what does this mean? Is it a complete and absolute exclusion of ever making an oath? And the answer is no.

Now, paragraph 2155 highlights this. It says that, so keep you. this in mind, knowing that we can take oaths. The holiness of the divine name demands that we neither use it for trivial matters, obviously for just, you know, small things. That's what trivial matters means. I know you knew that. I don't know just saying it. Nor take an oath, which on the basis of the circumstances could be interpreted as approval of an authority unjustly requiring it. So because of this, if there is an illegitimate civil authority, so say, for example, you're living in underneath a tyrant, right, a despot. You're

You're living in a situation where there is an illegitimate civil authority and you're being asked to ascribe some kind of allegiance to that civil authority. You can, you can refuse to do that. Now, in fact, if that civil authority stands directly against the dignity of persons or ecclesial community, then you must refuse to take that oath. See, this is the whole core of this. There's a story of St. Thomas Moore, as it's recounted to us in the screenplay, a man for all seasons, where at one point his daughter Meg, Margaret is her name, but in the play he calls her Meg,

in the movie he calls her Meg, that she comes to visit Thomas Moore in the Tower of London. Now, Thomas Moore had been the Lord Chancellor of England, right, the second in command, under King Henry VIII. And at one point, King Henry the Eighth had divorced his wife, and married someone else, and he wanted every ecclesial official, like the bishops, as well as government officials, to acknowledge that the marriage was valid and that King Henry the 8th was the head of the church in England. And many bishops signed this thing out of fear of their own life. I don't know if any believed it, but they all took this oath, basically, in order to despair themselves, as well as

natural or civil authorities also took this oath. Now, two people, Bishop John Fisher and Sir Thomas Moore, they didn't take the oath. And so here Thomas Moore finds himself in the Tower of London. And at one point, according to the story, at least, King Henry the 8th allowed his daughter Meg to come visit him, to try to convince him to take the oath. And at one point, Thomas, where she's trying to convince him, she's talking to him, saying, listen, just say the words, but in your heart don't mean them. Like, again, say, take the oath. But in your heart, know that you don't really believe this. You don't really mean this. So let your actions be free of your intentions. And at one point, Thomas Moore, in the play, in the movie, he says, Meg, when a man

takes an oath, it's like he's holding himself, his very self in his hands like water. And he cups his hands like this. But if your father, if I'm paraphrasing, but if your father were to take this oath without meaning it, and he spreads his fingers, he says, not only would you, would you lose your father, I would lose my very self. Because that's the seriousness, the most significance of taking an oath that we don't mean. And that's one of the reasons why Christians, that we Catholics, have to be very, very clear about to whom we belong. When there's oaths of allegiance, we have to be so clear and so careful about to whom it is that we belong. Do we belong to the Lord or do we belong to the government? Do we belong to our choice of political party? Do we belong to our pet?

Whatever that thing is. Ultimately, if that thing stands against human dignity, if it stands against ecclesial communion, we must never ever take a oath like that. We must refuse taking oath like that. Because why? Not only for truth's sake, but for the one who is the truth's sake, right for him whose name we invoke whenever we take an oath and that's that's the heart of it not only truth itself right but truth himself that's one of the reasons why we have to be on guard of how how we speak is in particular we call upon the lord to witness an action we call upon the lord to witness a declaration we have to be absolutely clear and may never ever take a false oath hope that makes sense i think this is just so important tomorrow we're going to talk more about the lord's name

In fact, it's actually going to be about how we bear witness to the Lord's name by having a Christian name, by being called Christians. In this world, we are carrying him into this world. And so we have to be careful, not only how we speak, but also in how we live and pray. More on that tomorrow. But right now, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow.

God bless.