religion.  One would think that the Israelites, knowing the true God, might have converted their pagan neighbors to the true religion by the influence of their teaching and example; but, on the contrary, they lost the true faith themselves, as nearly always happens in such cases.  How do we sometimes worship false or strange gods?  By making dress, money, honor, society, company, or pleasure our god—­that is, by giving up the worship of God and sinning for their sake, and thus making them god, at least for the time being, by giving them our heart, mind, and service.

316 Q. How does the First Commandment help us to keep the great Commandment of the love of God?  A. The First Commandment helps us to keep the great Commandment of the love of God because it commands us to adore God alone.

317 Q. How do we adore God?  A. We adore God by faith, hope, and charity, by prayer and sacrifice.

318 Q. How may the First Commandment be broken?  A. The First Commandment may be broken by giving to a creature the honor which belongs to God alone; by false worship; and by attributing to a creature a perfection which belongs to God alone.

“Creature”—­that is, anything created; anything but God Himself, for all other persons and things have been created.  If one knelt before a king and adored him, he would be giving to a creature the honor due to God alone.  “False worship”—­that is, worshipping God not as He directs us by His Church, but in some ways pleasing to ourselves.  For example, to sacrifice animals to God would now be false worship; to offer now any of the sacrifices commanded in the Old Law would be false worship, because all these were figures of the real sacrifice of the Cross and Mass, and were to put the people in mind that one day Christ the promised Redeemer would offer up the one great sacrifice of His own body and blood to blot out all the sins of the world.  And now that we have the real sacrifice it would be sinful to use only figures, and it would be a false worship displeasing to God.  So, too, all those who leave the true Church to practice a religion of their own have a false worship, for they worship God not as He wishes, but as they wish.

Heaven is a reward, and when we see how the saints labored to secure it we must be ashamed of the little we do for God.  Take out of a whole year—­that is, 365 days or 8,760 hours—­the time you give to the service of God, and you will find it very little.  Even the time you spent at Mass and prayers was filled with distraction and little of it entirely given to God.  Since this is true for one year, what will it be for all the years of your life?  Think of them all and you will perceive that God, who gave you all the time you had, and who on the last day will demand an exact account of it, will find very little of it spent in His honor or in His service.  Even the time wasted in school and instructions will all stand against you.  Time lost is lost forever,