Getting too Physical with Statues?

[Mrs_Mac]

Hello, everyone. Please feel free to move this question if I asked it in the wrong forum.

Yesterday I attended Feast of the Assumption mass at the Friary of the Capuchin Franciscans in my city. The Church has a lot of beautiful classic artwork and statuary. Well I saw certain forms of veneration occurring that I had never seen before. For example, one man went up to a life-size floor-level crucifix, leaned up against the corpus of Christ and stretched his arms outward in what could be described as a Madonna-esque pose. Then he went around to all the statues and stations of the cross and similarly leaned his body up against them, his arms upward, touching them as high as he could.

There were other forms of physical veneration occurring but that was the most noticeable and memorable. I couldn’t help but feel that any Protestant present would have thought, “See, they really do worship statues!”

In my parish, many people venerate the Cross on Good Friday with a kiss, but that is the extent of the physical veneration I have seen.

I realize this may be a cultural variation and be completely acceptable.

Does anyone have any thoughts? I have not seen this topic addressed before on these forums.

Blessings,

Mrs_Mac

 

[lizaanne]

If my husband died, and I had a life size likeness of him, I’m sure there would be times that I would be so overwhelmed with emotion that I wanted to hug whatever I could get of him to feel somehow closer. This is not worship of a statue - this is a material being trying to somehow be as close as possible to the spiritual. Sometimes we have to, in our limited capacity as humans, use what ever means necessary to do that, and sometimes that means placing our head in the lap of a marble Jesus.

~Liza

 

[Mrs_Mac]

Lizaanne, thank you for your very beautiful response. Like I said, I had never seen this before and it was a little jarring.

Blessings,

Mrs_Mac

 

[Philothea53]

If my husband died, and I had a life size likeness of him, I’m sure there would be times that I would be so overwhelmed with emotion that I wanted to hug whatever I could get of him to feel somehow closer. This is not worship of a statue - this is a material being trying to somehow be as close as possible to the spiritual. Sometimes we have to, in our limited capacity as humans, use what ever means necessary to do that, and sometimes that means placing our head in the lap of a marble Jesus.

~Liza

lizaanne - what a beautiful response. My mother used to say that having a crucifix on the wall in the living room or a statue of Jesus was no different to her than having pictures of her parents, children and friends. Your response was so much more beautiful. Thank you!

 

[Della]

What you witnessed probably wasn’t usual. Some people need to show their devotion much more overtly than most of us. Or, not to say it was the case, the man might be a bit off-balance. But, if showing such devotion helps him…

About Protestant reaction to outward devotion, I don’t see any reason Catholics should have to stop kissing crucifixes or statues, etc. in order to please the limited understanding of some Protestants. If they are going to fault us let them fault us for being overly zealous (in their estimation). Let them call it idolatry if it pleases them. We know better, and there is no reason why we should have to limit ourselves in order to please those whose minds are not open to reasonable explanation.

If you would bear with me, I have a story about showing devotion using statues. When I was a member of the Assemblies of God I used to slip into a Catholic church near my job for a few moments of prayer and quiet reflection at the end of my work day (it was the only church open in the area). One afternoon an older woman came in and kissed the hands of the statue of Jesus (Sacred Heart–something I didn’t know about at the time).

In spite of my revulsion at the apparent “idolatry” her simple devotion and obvious trust in God touched something deep inside me. I didn’t convert over it, but I look back on it now as one of those moments in which God was softening my heart towards the Church.

So, maybe our showing similar outward devotion may help those Protestants who think they know what Catholics are doing to see what we are really doing–acts of faith in God not worshiping statues or crucifixes, etc.

 

[dylanschrader]

I once heard of the story of two men who had arrived at the Catholic church, where one of them was going to give a testimony about his conversion to the Catholic faith. As they approached the church, he noticed the statue of Our Lady of Fatima–which included statues of the three children kneeling before her–and commented, “that’s the great thing about the Catholic Church: even the statues worship statues!”

 

[chicago]

What you witnessed probably wasn’t usual. Some people need to show their devotion much more overtly than most of us. Or, not to say it was the case, the man might be a bit off-balance. But, if showing such devotion helps him…

Actually, I don’t think it is all that unusual at all. I mean, really, isn’t venerating relics MUCH more extreme than physicality around statues? I have seen many Catholics (and, admitedly, perhaps it is a cultural thing or even a “cradle” thing) who have hugged statues, laid their heads on statues, extended themselves before statues, held hands of statues (there’s an angel on top of one Chicago parish church whose hand I’ve held), kissing statues, holding onto robes of statues, placing hands on them to hold and pray, and any number of other expressions. I believe that it is merely a matter of feeling comfortable and at home with these statuatory symbols as representative of the real persons. When we stripped churches of such expressions and limited their presence perhaps we lost the ability to so readily connect. There may also be something in the more reserved American sensibility. In some cultures (which we can, nonetheless find in immigrant populations) it is quite the norm to be more emotive and expressive in these ways. Their statuary is often even more “real” and less sacharine. Extremely bloody and broken corpuses on their crucifixes, for instance.

 

[Proletarian]

If my husband died, and I had a life size likeness of him, I’m sure there would be times that I would be so overwhelmed with emotion that I wanted to hug whatever I could get of him to feel somehow closer. This is not worship of a statue - this is a material being trying to somehow be as close as possible to the spiritual. Sometimes we have to, in our limited capacity as humans, use what ever means necessary to do that, and sometimes that means placing our head in the lap of a marble Jesus.

~Liza

Perhaps; providing that you never, not even for a second, lose sight of the fact that it is only a statue. There’s only so far we can justify veneration without it becoming OT style idolatry.

 

[chicago]

As human beings we are inherantly physical creatures. Which is why we need to touch, feel, caress, hear, taste, smell. The sensory assists us in making the spiritual realities more real to us and what comes natural. It fosters connectivity with the unseen.

 

[puzzleannie]

what chicago said
the use of created things as aids to worship, indeed as matter for sacraments where Christ uses them to transmit his grace, is grounded in belief in the Incarnation. First that everything that exists was created by, in and for Jesus Christ, Son of God, 2nd Person of the Blessed Trinity, who became man, was born, suffered, died all in the human manner, and rose again and is in heaven, in his human and divine natures, in his glorified body, and that we may expect our own bodily resurrection and glorification if we die in his grace.

The sacraments use material things to work signs and effect grace because Jesus did so on earth. Esp. of course bread and wine, but also water, mud, and so forth. We do not worship the material things themselves, but we do worship Christ present in the sacraments, esp of course as he is Body, Blood Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist, under the appearance of bread and wine. We worship Christ IN the Eucharist, we do not worship bread and wine which have ceased to exist except in external physical attributes, but their essence is now Christ whom we do worship.

Even sacramentals, including statues, which are not themselves material means of working sacramental signs, do have “grace by association” as reminders, and as catechetical tools, of Christ’s presence in creation. Yes those uninstructed and with simple faith may make expressions of devotion guided by childlike love, even when the don’t “know better” which seem extreme to those with a more developed or intellectual faith, but you would not criticize them anymore than you would a child, you would instruct gently.

 

[JKirkLVNV]

We have a statue of the Risen Christ in a shrine in our narthex. People go and hold the statue’s hand while they pray or kiss the wounds. I do as well. It’s just a way to thank Him for what He did for us.