Blasphemy. Of this sin those are guilty who revile God, His saints, or speak contemptuously of objects connected with His worship.
The Emperor Julian the Apostate always spoke of the Son of God as the Galilean (at that time a word of insult) ; even at his death, which was occasioned by the thrust of a lance, he is said to have exclaimed “Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!” Ungodly persons are often heard to utter bitter revilings against God, especially in time of suffering and affliction, as if they did not deserve the trials He sends them. It is blasphemy to speak scornfully of God, or of His actions; or to attribute to a creature what is the prerogative of the Creator. The people sinned thus who when King Herod made an oration to them, cried “It is the voice of a god and not of a man” (Acts xii. 22). The Jews committed this sin. God says by the mouth of the prophet “My name is continually blasphemed all the day long” (Is. Iii. 5). To speak contemptuously of holy places and things is a kind of blasphemy, as a reflection upon God, Whom we are told to praise in His holy places (Ps. cl. 1).
Sacrilege is another kind of blasphemy. This consists in putting to an improper and degrading use what pertains to the service of God.
The King of Babylon, Baltassar, committed sacrilege when, in a state of inebriation, he commanded the sacred vessels that had been taken from the Temple at Jerusalem, where they were used in the worship of the true God, to be brought to serve as drinking cups at the feast. The mutilation of statues or defacing of crucifixes is a sacrilege. Would it not be considered a treasonable act to treat the crown or the portrait of an earthly monarch with contumely? Again, those who receive the sacraments unworthily, who appropriate to themselves Church property, or who commit a theft in church, come under the same condemnation. It is said that Jews and Freemasons have sometimes obtained consecrated Hosts, which they subjected to horrible profanation. Such conduct is simply satanic.
Blasphemy is essentially a diabolical sin, and one of the gravest transgressions.
Blasphemy may be called a sin peculiar to devils and reprobates, for as the Holy Spirit speaks by the mouth of the good, so the devil speaks by the mouth of the blasphemer (St. Bernardin). The blasphemer is worse than a dog; for a dog does not bite the master who is kind to him when he chastises him, whereas the blasphemer reviles God, from Whom he has received so many benefits, oblivious of the fact that God only afflicts him for his own good. When the saintly Bishop Polycarp was offered his life if he would blaspheme Christ, he answered: “For eighty-six years I have served Him, and He has done me nothing but good; how could I speak evil of my King and Master?” St. Jerome says that all sins are slight in comparison with this, for by all others one offends against God indirectly, but by this sin one offends against the Most High Himself, not against His image. “Whom hast thou blasphemed, against whom hast thou exalted thy voice? Against the holy One of Israel” (4 Kings xix. 22). All other sins arise from human frailty or ignorance, but blasphemy comes from the malice of the human heart (St. Bernard). Other sins bring some advantage to the sinner; pride desires to gain im portance, avarice money, intemperance the pleasures of the table, but this sin brings a man no profit, no pleasure. The Jews punished the blasphemer with death. St. Thomas Aquinas declares blasphemy to be a mortal sin, unless it is committed in a hasty moment without deliberation. “Oughtest thou not to fear that fire will fall from heaven upon thee and consume thee, if thou dost venture to asperse the name of the Almighty? Will not the earth open and swallow thee up? Deceive not thyself, O man, thou canst not escape the hand of an omnipotent God!” (St. Ephrem.)
God punishes blasphemy with severe chastisements in time, and with everlasting damnation hereafter; it is also punishable by human law.
“God is not mocked” (Gal. vi. 7). When King Baltassar profaned the vessels of the sanctuary, judgment fell upon him immediately: an unseen hand wrote his fate upon the wall. That same night the enemy entered the city; he was slain and his kingdom be came part of the Persian empire (Dan. v.). Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, blasphemed God; shortly after he lost two hundred thousand men in the war against the Hebrews, and was assassinated by his own sons. Michael III., Emperor of Constantinople, made public mockery of the sacraments on the feast of the Ascension; at night there was a tremendous earthquake, and some time later the emperor was murdered. An Israelite cursed God in the wilderness; he was put into prison till Moses had ascertained what was God’s will; and the Lord said: “Let all the people stone him” (Lev. xxiv. 14). As a man who throws a stone up to the sky, cannot touch, much less injure any of the heavenly bodies, but may break his own head if the stone falls back upon it, so blasphemous words do no harm to the Being against Whom they are directed; they only fall back upon the head of him who utters them, to his own perdition. Thus the blasphemer whets the sword to pierce his own heart (St. John Chrysostom). Our Lord says that whosoever reviles his neighbor shall be in danger of hell fire (Matt. v. 22); how much more he who reviles God! Under the Old Law, when God was not so well known, it was said: “He that curseth father or mother shall die the death ” (Exod. xxi. 17). How much more shall judgment overtake those who in this age of knowledge and enlightenment, curse, not their parents, but the Lord, their God!” They shall be cursed that shall despise Thee” (Tob. xiii. 16). “He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, dying let him die” (Lev. xxiv. 16). Blasphemy is also punished by the secular authority. St. Louis of France made it a law that any one who blasphemed God should be seared on the lips with a red-hot iron. This was done to a wealthy citizen of Paris, with the result that before long no blasphemous word was heard in the kingdom. St. Jerome on one occasion rebuked an ungodly man for his impious words; when asked why he presumed to do so, he said: “A dog may bark in his master’s defense, and am I to stand by silent when God’s holy name is blasphemed? I would sooner die than forbear to speak.”
That comment on “punishable by human law” was from a catechism last published in 1930. How times have changed.
What to do about it?
FATIMA HAS A CURE
At the first Apparition of the angel at Fatima, he gave use this prayer:
Do not be afraid. I am the angel of peace. Pray with me.
He knelt, bending his forehead to the ground. With a supernatural impulse we did the same, repeating the words we heard him say:
My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love You.
After repeating this prayer three times the angel rose and said to us: Pray in this way. The hearts of Jesus and Mary are ready to listen to you.
The angel gave another prayer as well. This prayer is fitting for the event today:
Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly.
I offer Thee the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity
of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world,
in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges, and indifference
by which He is offended. And through the infinite merit
of His Most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.
Amen.
May God have mercy on us! Mary, Queen of Angels, and She who shall crush the head of the serpent, pray for us!
For more information on how the Devil got such strength today, see Fr. Hardon’s analysis here.
For more tips from Fr. Hardon on how to defeat the devil, see this post.
This article, A Small Act of Reparation for Offenses to God, such as Public Black Masses is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
https://bellarmineforum.org/an-small-act-of-reparation-for-offenses-to-god-such-as-public-black-masses/
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