Moral theology

(d) Distractions occur during prayer. Hence, an interruption is not a distraction, as when one who is praying is called to attend to some business or leaves off prayer for the moment to make a note of some important thought that came to mind. Neither is the breaking off of prayer a distraction, as when one starts to pray but feels so distracted or unwell as to give over for the time being the attempt to pray.

2171. Voluntary and Involuntary Distractions.—(a) Voluntary distractions result in the first place from purpose, as when one who is praying deliberately dozes at intervals when he feels drowsy, or deliberately turns over in his mind the points of an address he intends to give; they result in the second place from negligence, as when the person who is praying does not expressly wish to be inattentive, but hurries through his words with no pains to keep his thoughts on what he is doing or why he is doing it. Those who rarely speak or read about divine things, but give themselves much to foolish reading or talk, prepare for themselves many distractions, unless they counteract this by special aids to recollection, such as pictures or prayer books.

(b) Involuntary distractions are those that result neither from purpose nor from carelessness, but from human weakness. Thus, a person who is troubled with scruples or with a severe headache or nervous strain, who is worn out bodily or much worried mentally, or who is surrounded by noise or disturbance, is often physically unable to concentrate his mind for any length of time, no matter how much he may desire to do so. Indeed, St. Thomas says that it is hardly possible for anyone to say an Our Father without some distraction, and many persons are distracted against their will by every slight sound or movement that falls under their notice.

2772. Sinfulness of Distraction in Prayer.—(a) Involuntary distractions are not sinful, since one is not bound to the impossible. Hence, a penitent who has nothing except these distractions to confess may not be absolved, since there is no matter for absolution in his confession.

(b) Voluntary distractions are sinful, since, though one is free to address God at any time, one is bound to do this in a respectful manner and in spirit and in truth, as God requires. Communion with God is by means of the mind, and it is disrespectful to turn the mind away to other things when the communion has been sought. Besides, lip service is displeasing to God, just as burnt offerings were not acceptable when made without love. But the sin is of its nature only venial; for the intention to pray, together with the essential moral goodness of the act, is retained, and the defect consists in the circumstance that the intention is executed remissly (see 78).

2173. When is voluntary distraction a grave and when a venial sin? (a) It is a venial sin when one says a non-obligatory prayer, even with the express will to be inattentive, and also when one says an obligatory prayer (such as the Divine Office) with distractions due to carelessness, but without abandonment of the intention to pray. (b) It is a mortal sin when one indulges in distractions from contempt, and also when one says an obligatory prayer with distractions that last during a notable part of the prayer and that are deliberately entertained.

2174. Distractions during Divine Office are the absence of the attention which the Church requires under grave sin for satisfaction of the canonical obligation. There are two opinions about the kind of distractions that make recitation insufficient and gravely sinful.

(a) According to the older opinion, internal attention is required, but it seems that generally those who maintain this view do not hold that internal distractions alone deprive the Office of its sufficiency. Thus, they state that one who has had voluntary distractions may consider that he has fulfilled his duty, unless he is certain that he also adverted to his state of distraction and did nothing to end it.

2175. The External Acts of Religion.—We proceed now to those acts of religion which are performed in an outward manner. But it should be noted that just as devotion and prayer find external expression (as in vocal prayer), so the external acts of religion should proceed from internal devotion. The outward religious acts may be classified under three groups: (a) the acts in which one offers one’s body as a mark of veneration to God (adoration); (b) the acts in which one offers external goods, whether given (sacrifices, offerings, first-fruits, tithes) or promised (vows); (c) the acts in which one makes use of divine things to honor God (Sacraments, oaths, adjuration, praises).

(b) It is an acknowledgment of supreme excellence, and so it differs from veneration shown to creatures who are above us. Adoration (_latria_), therefore, is not the same thing as the sacred cult or veneration shown the Blessed Virgin (_hyperdulia_) and the Saints (_dulia_) on account of their supernatural grace and glory; much less is it the same thing as the civil cult shown to persons illustrious for natural qualities, such as acquired knowledge, political dignity or power, etc.: “The Lord thy God shalt thou adore and Him only shalt thou serve” (Matt, iv. 10).

2177. Unity and Variety of Adoration.—Adoration is but one, though it has various expressions. (a) The unity of adoration depends on the unity of its object. There is but one God to whom belong the various divine attributes, and the three Divine Persons share the same majesty. Hence, there is but one adoration. (b) The variety in adoration is in the expression. The higher expression of adoration is internal: it does not depend on bodily acts or places, and it is offered by Angels as well as by man. The lower expression of adoration is made through bodily acts, such as genuflections, prostrations, prayer with face to the east, and the use of sacred places for worship, all of which externals are employed as aids to devotion and symbols of the divine glory (Matt., xviii, 20; Luke, xix. 46). Some of the actions here mentioned are sometimes used in the religious or civil cult shown to creatures, but internal adoration belongs to God alone.

(c) It is made by a lawful minister, for sacrifice is a public act performed in the name of the community, and hence it may be offered only by those who represent the community. St. Paul declares that a high-priest is chosen from men to offer sacrifice, and that no one may take the honor to himself unless he is called as Aaron was (Heb., v. 4).

(d) It is made to God alone, since God alone is our First Beginning and Last End: “He who sacrifices to other gods besides the Lord shall be put to death” (Exod., xxii. 20). Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin or the Saints means that sacrifice is offered God in thanksgiving for their merits or in petition that we may imitate their virtues. Oblations may be made to men, but sacrifice may be offered only to God.

(e) It is through a real change of the thing offered, which thus becomes the victim of sacrifice; for the supreme act of worship reserved to God acts upon the substance itself of an external thing to signify that the worshipper offers his own being to God. The change in the thing sacrificed consists in its being made sacred, or set apart as the central object in the supreme act of worship.

(f) It is made in acknowledgment of God’s supreme dominion and of our subjection to Him; that is, it is an act whose direct and proper end is the exercise of the virtue of religion. Thus, sacrifice differs from acts of self-sacrifice such as continence, abstinence, martyrdom, even when they are offered in honor of God, for the direct and proper end of these acts is some other virtue than that of religion. The act of sacrifice may have no purpose except worship, but other virtuous acts have their own ends to make them praiseworthy, even when they are used as acts of worship.

2179. The Essentials of Sacrifice.—(a) The outward sign may be said to consist of matter and form. The matter is some sensible thing used as victim, whether it be inanimate (e.g., the bread and wine of Melchisedech), or animate (e.g., the paschal lamb), or human (e.g., Our Lord in His passion). The form is some sensible action that makes the victim sacred by dedicating it to sacrificial oblation (e.g., the breaking of bread, the libation of wine, the offering of the slain lamb, the voluntary and visible acceptance of death by Our Lord). In the Mass Christ is sacrificed, not as existing under His own appearances, but as present under the sacramental species and offered through His representatives; and hence in the Mass the Victim is sensible by means of the species that signify and contain Him, while the dedication by the Supreme Priest is made sensible through the words of the ministering priest who acts for Christ.

(b) The inner thing that is signified in sacrifice is primarily the offering of self to God, in recognition that from Him we have our being and in Him is our happiness. But secondarily it signifies the fruits we derive from union with God (e.g., the benefits of redemption and salvation). Thus, the sacrificial death of Christ is also a symbol of man’s death to sin and life in God (I Peter, iv. 1).

2180. The Obligation of Sacrifice.—(a) The internal or spiritual sacrifice is obligatory for all, since all are bound to offer God devotion of will, communion of mind, recognition of His supremacy. (b) The external sacrifice improperly so called, which consists in the practice of works of virtue, is obligatory for all in so far as commanded acts are concerned, but not when virtuous deeds are of supererogation. (c) The external sacrifice properly so called, which consists in an outward sign indicative of internal worship of God, is by natural law necessary, for reason itself shows to man that he is an inferior and dependent being, and so should acknowledge the superiority of God and his own submission by acts suitable to his nature as a being composed of body and soul, and for whom sensible things are signs of spiritual truths.

(a) Hence, the fact of the obligation may be unknown to an individual, since (though reason indicates it) it is not evident and rests upon a number of premises from which it has to be reasoned out. Unlike the duty of honoring parents, which is immediately inferred from natural principles, the duty of offering sacrifice is only remotely inferred, and hence admits of invincible ignorance (see 320).

(b) The manner of fulfilling the obligation, since not defined by natural law, has to be determined by positive laws, or, in the absence of these, by suitability to the circumstances in which one lives. Before the positive divine law was given, there was no obligatory rite for sacrifice and the oblation was not entrusted to any special body of men, and hence we read that in the times of the patriarchs there was great freedom as to the ceremonies and the ministry employed in sacrifice. But under the Mosaic Law the manner of sacrificing was minutely prescribed and its office entrusted to the sons of Aaron, even to the exclusion of monarchs; while under the law of Christ there is but the one sacrifice of the Cross perpetuated in the Mass in an unbloody manner, and the ministers who have power to offer sacrifice are only the bishops and priests.

2182. Is Sacrifice Superior to All the Other Acts of Religion?—(a) Sacrifice is not superior to the internal act of religion, for devotion or the internal sacrifice is the soul that animates and moves the external rites (see 2149): “The multitude offered victims and praises and holocausts with a devout mind” (II Par., xxix. 31); “Obedience is better than sacrifice” (I Kings, xv. 22).

(b) Sacrifice is preeminent among the external acts of religion. Some acts of religion are optional (e.g., vows, oaths, adjurations), but sacrifice is a natural obligation. Some acts of religion are obligatory, but marks of respect similar to them may also be shown to creatures (e.g., customary offerings, praises), whereas no kind of sacrifice may be offered to a creature. Some acts of religion are reserved to God, but they have no rite that is peculiar to the worship of God and that may not be exercised by all (e.g., acts of adoration), whereas sacrifice has a service reserved to God and which only priests can perform. Sacraments are primarily for the welfare of man; sacrifice is primarily for the honor of God. Non-sacrificial acts of religion may be performed in the name of an individual (e.g., adoration), whereas sacrifice is in the name of the community; other acts of religion may signify dependence on God for temporal and corporal things (e.g., offering of first-fruits), but sacrifice signifies the dependence of the soul itself on God for existence and beatitude.

(a) Thus, offerings are gifts; that is, they are offered to God without the compulsion of any law, or at least without any determination by law of the amount to be given. Natural reason teaches man that he should bestow something from his goods in this manner as a thank offering for the divine bounty, when there are representatives of God to whom the gift may be given. The gift should be a free-will offering (Exod., xxv, 2), unless there are special circumstances that render it a debt, such as contract, promise, custom, or the need of the ministers of the Church.

(c) They are not changed at all in the act of worship (e.g., an offering of sacred vessels or altar furnishings), or at least they are not changed into the sacred condition of a sacrificial victim (e.g., offerings of candles, incense, etc., that are consumed during Mass). Thus, simple oblation differs from sacrificial oblation.

(d) They are devoted to the service of God, since they are gifts made to Him. Hence, they are used in divine worship and, if consecrated (e.g., chalices, vestments), may not be used for other purposes; or they are used for the needs of the ministers of divine worship or of the poor, since those who serve the altar should live by the altar (I Cor., ix. 14), and Our Lord shared His purse with the poor (Matt., xxvi. 9, 11).

(e) They are given as a mark of honor to God, especially in recognition of favors received from Him. Thus, in the Old Law the people were obliged to give the first-fruits of their fields and crops to God, in thanksgiving for the gift of the promised land and of its fruits (Deut., xxvi. 10).

(a) Thus, those goods that are forbidden by positive law may not be offered to God. In the Old Law certain animals could not be offered to God, either because they were legally unclean (e.g., dogs were associated with pagan rites and were regarded as symbols of rapacity), or because they were of inferior quality (e.g., a blind or lame sheep or other animal worthless to its owner).

(b) Those goods that the offerer has no right to give away or that are unsuitable on account of circumstances may never be given as offerings to God. Thus, one may not make an offering to God of money that belongs to another (Ecclus., xxxiv. 21); a son may not give as a gift to God the money he should spend on his needy parents (Matt., xv. 3-6). Neither may one offer corrupted wine for the Mass, nor the wages of prostitution to the church if there will be scandal, nor gifts that are mean and contemptible, etc.

2185. Contributions.—Contributions to the support of the clergy and church causes are neither sacrifices nor offerings in the strict sense of these words, since they are given not directly to God but to the ministers of God. The manner of making contributions to the Church has varied with time.

(a) Thus, in the first ages of the Church clerics having the care of souls were supported by the voluntary gifts of the people. These gifts were made especially during Mass. Bread and wine and other things necessary for divine worship and the support of the clergy were brought at the Offertory (the origin of the present Offertory collection), while food for the agapae or for the poor was presented for a blessing towards the end of the Canon, or before Mass.