Catholic churches shouldn't have statues!

[patrick457]

I recently came to realize one thing: it’s difficult to be attentive to and remember those whom you cannot see. It is quite easy to lose track of God because of the fact that you never see Him. Human beings apparently have a need of something physical, something that they can see, hear and feel (once you think of this, the whole concept of the Incarnation - where the once-unseen God is now seen by mortal men - becomes a bit easier to grasp). Through personal observation I have come to the conclusion that when you never see someone, it becomes much more easier to forget his/her existence - after all, he/she’s not there watching you! Which is why I think the icons and statues serve a good purpose: they serve as visible reminders that the invisible God is always watching His children, even if we can’t see Him.

One of the things that led me to this observation is the two viewpoints in Jewish tradition as to why the Israelites needed the Tabernacle, the Ark, and all the other physical furnishings in the first place: Rashi is of the opinion that God, because of the sin of the Golden Calf, realized the Israelite (and the human) need of a physical outlet and commanded that they build the Tabernacle and construct the Ark as a way of fulfilling and expressing this need. Nachmanides, meanwhile, thinks since that the Hebrews were commanded to build the Tabernacle even before the Calf was molded, the Tabernacle therefore was God’s method of achieving continuous revelation in the Israelites’ camp rather than filling a human need. Personally I think that their opinions were both right.

 

[brian24]

I have also been wondering about this recently, and I have been reading the Catechism. Whenever I have a question regarding the teachings of the Church, I just pop it open and look it up. Every Catholic should have a copy of the Catechism. It truly is a great read.

Referring to Holy images:

1159 The sacred image, the liturgical icon, principally represents Christ. It cannot represent the invisible and incomprehensible God, but the incarnation of the Son of God has ushered in a new “economy” of images:
Previously God, who has neither a body nor a face, absolutely could not be represented by an image. But now that he has made himself visible in the flesh and has lived with men, I can make an image of what I have seen of God … and contemplate the glory of the Lord, his face unveiled.

1160 Christian iconography expresses in images the same Gospel message that Scripture communicates by words. Image and word illuminate each other:

We declare that we preserve intact all the written and unwritten traditions of the Church which have been entrusted to us. One of these traditions consists in the production of representational artwork, which accords with the history of preaching the Gospel. For it confirms that the incarnation of the Word of God was real and not imaginary, and to our benefit as well, for realities that illustrate each other undoubtedly reflect each other’s meaning.

1161 All the signs in the liturgical celebrations are related to Christ: as are sacred images of the holy Mother of God and of the saints as well. They truly signify Christ, who is glorified in them. They make manifest the “cloud of witnesses” who continue to participate in the salvation of the world and to whom we are united, above all in sacramental celebrations. Through their icons, it is man “in the image of God,” finally transfigured “into his likeness,” who is revealed to our faith. So too are the angels, who also are recapitulated in Christ:

Following the divinely inspired teaching of our holy Fathers and the tradition of the Catholic Church (for we know that this tradition comes from the Holy Spirit who dwells in her) we rightly define with full certainty and correctness that, like the figure of the precious and life-giving cross, venerable and holy images of our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, our inviolate Lady, the holy Mother of God, and the venerated angels, all the saints and the just, whether painted or made of mosaic or another suitable material, are to be exhibited in the holy churches of God, on sacred vessels and vestments, walls and panels, in houses and on streets.

1162 “The beauty of the images moves me to contemplation, as a meadow delights the eyes and subtly infuses the soul with the glory of God.” Similarly, the contemplation of sacred icons, united with meditation on the Word of God and the singing of liturgical hymns, enters into the harmony of the signs of celebration so that the mystery celebrated is imprinted in the heart’s memory and is then expressed in the new life of the faithful.

End reference.
Note: The indented portions are references from writings of either the papal encyclicals or writings of the saints or something close to that. If interested in seeing the references, which are cited in the text but I did not include due to their uselessness in my copy, the entire catechism can be read for free here : scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

From this, it is clear that Catholics use icons and statues and painting within the churches to bring us closer to God. It is in no way worshiping another God or even another person. The way I look at it with the saints is that they are humans who lived life as close to God’s Word as they could, and it gives me something to strive for, God being the center of the focus, not the saint.

Anyway, I hope this sheds some light on the teachings of the Church regarding holy images.

 

[wisdomseeker]

How then can you have statues!? I love the statues of the sacred heart of Christ and the images of Mary but the bible says that they shouldn’t have been made! How then can you look at this scipture!?

Do Catholcs just ignore this scripture?

These statues makes the House of God beautiful and reminds us Catholics of Jesus and His people throughout the life of the Church.

The Gospel needed to be shown to all peoples. the statues and Icons tells the Story of God and His people. dont be scared. you have heard from heretics who have tried to discredit the CC for centuries. if you have never heard, you would not be confused now.
dont be afraid, this is the Holy Church of God, you cannot go wrong by obeying her.

lets love and preserve the beauty of the Holy Church by bringing back the statues of Jesus and Saints.

 

[Warrenton]

How then can you have statues!? I love the statues of the sacred heart of Christ and the images of Mary but the bible says that they shouldn’t have been made! How then can you look at this scipture!?

Do Catholcs just ignore this scripture?

Of course we don’t ignore it.

We need to approach the question within the proper framework.

Under the law, as St. Paul tells us, nothing was holy but that the Lord explicitly blessed it.

The law was holy, but men could not maintain it. That is why he said the strength of sin is the law.

It is obvious then, that images could not be intrinsically holy, because apart from the law, there was nothing that was holy.

Plus, images tempted people to worship created things, as St. Paul tells us in Romans.

We do know that God told the Jews to make images of angels, as we read in the instructions for building the ark of the covenant, which occurs in Exodus. The ark had images of seraphim on either side. I believe that the temple also had certain images of the angelic host.

Why were those images permitted? Because angels reflect the holiness of the Lord.

After Christ, His saints are made holy through his divinity. The parables He told are the Word of God. These things may be depicted, as may his saints, because like the seraphim that adorned the ark, they reflect the glory of the Lord.

 

[followingtheway]

Not all statues are forbidden by the Bible and called “idols” take a look at this…

[BIBLEDRB]Ex 25:18-22[/BIBLEDRB]

[BIBLEDRB]Num 21:8-9 [/BIBLEDRB]

God bless

David

 

[Cat_Herder]

This is part of The Basics that every Catholic should know.

Recall that the prophet through whom God gave the “no graven images” commandment was Moses. Guess what else God had him do.

[BIBLEDRB]Num 21:8-9[/BIBLEDRB]

He made a graven SERPENT and the Israelites used it ritually at the command of God. Yes, a serpent. (Look at Genesis 3; on the eighth day, God created irony.)

The serpent, as it turns out, was actually a type of Christ Himself.

[BIBLEDRB]John 3:14[/BIBLEDRB]

Now, how do you lift up Christ like Moses lifted up the serpent? By making a crucifix. (Not by making an empty cross.)

Statues of angels? That’s in the Bible too.

[BIBLEDRB]Ex 25:18-19[/BIBLEDRB]

Statues of saints? They’re the same as angels.

[BIBLEDRB]Luke 20:36[/BIBLEDRB]

 

[rom422]

How then can you have statues!? I love the statues of the sacred heart of Christ and the images of Mary but the bible says that they shouldn’t have been made! How then can you look at this scipture!?

Do Catholcs just ignore this scripture?

Zundrah,

The Bible prohibited the worship of statues. It did not prohibit the use of statues in worshiping the true God. Using statues and images is not the same as worshiping them. As many posters in this thread have pointed out, God Himself commanded and endorsed the making of these statues and images as means of giving Him glory and worship.

I think that part of the reason why statues and images were popularly used in Catholic Churches is because they were often used by preachers to explain the faith to the people. Note that the printing press was not invented until about 1450 A.D. So, for about 15 centuries prior to the invention of the printing press, very few people had copies of the Bible. The only ones who had them were convents, monasteries and religious houses, and maybe some rich nobles who managed to get a copy in their mansions. At that time the bibles were being hand-copied painstakingly by monks and by those in the religious life. So, if people did not have bibles to read, the preachers who had to explain the faith to the people found great help in these images, just as teachers today use visual aids to help them explain their subject matter to the pupils. Therefore, the images are in the Catholic Churches, not to promote idolatry, but to promote the faith, as well as to glorify God in His angels and in His saints.

I also read your post about Mary. Honestly, I sometimes wondered myself whether Christ was jealous that I pray a lot to Mary, and not as frequently to Him. But I always ask her to pray for me, is it not? So I tried to dispel my doubts by saying that, after all, I cannot love Mary more than He Himself does. If He loves Mary with all the love of His heart, couldn’t I love Mary as much? Also, was it not St. Elizabeth who first said, “Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb”? Don’t you notice that she blessed Mary first before Jesus? I guess in matters of the heart, where love is the unifying factor, who is greeted first or more often does not really matter. For Christ knows how to view our love for Mary as nothing but a shortcut to His heart.

Just my thoughts.