Yes I understand it. I do not believe the statues are worshiped as a God. It is not that same as in ancient Sumeria where that statue was believed to be the God. However, I do stand by my statement of a very fine line.
I must disagree with the fine line here, either you believe that God is in the Statue or you do not believe that God is in that statue, or Image, or tree, or whatever word/item you wish to use:
Idolitry (Sumeria where that statue was believed to be the God… or many other religions thru history) is so vastly different than what Catholics do in veneration. In no way, shape, form, or intent do Catholics believe that any Saint inhabits that object nor do we give any saint, even the Holy Mother, the same love and adoration as we do God. These holy images and Items are there to help us to focus on God and how God wants us to conduct our lives.
Perhaps the words of Saint John Damascene - Doctor of Christian Art
(The bold is by my hand, not in the original text)
It is disastrous to suppose that the Church does not know God as He is, that she degenerates into idolatry, for if she declines from perfection in a single iota, it is as an enduring mark on a comely face, destroying by its unsightliness the beauty of the whole. A small thing is not small when it leads to something great, nor indeed is it a thing of no matter to give up the ancient tradition of the Church held by our forefathers, whose conduct we should observe and whose faith we should imitate.
(…)
we have passed the stage of infancy and reached the perfection of manhood. We receive our habit of mind from God and know what may be imaged and what may not. Especially since the invisible God took on flesh, we may make images of Christ who was visible and picture him in all his activities, His birth, baptism, transfiguration, His suffering and resurrection.
(…)
We proclaim Him [GOD] also by our senses on all sides and we sanctify the noblest sense, which is that of sight. **The image is a memorial, just what words are to the listening ear. **What a book is to those who can read, that an image is to those who cannot read.
The image speaks to the sight as words to the ear; it brings us understanding. Hence, God ordered the Ark to be made of imperishable wood, and to be gilded outside and in, and the tablets to be put into it, and the staff and the golden urn containing the manna, for a remembrance of the past and a type of the future.
Who can say these were not images and far sounding heralds?
(…)
You see that the law and everything it ordained and all our own worship consist in the consecration of what is made by hands, leading us through matter to the invisible God.
Once again, Saint John Damascene use the word “image” to apply to any art in an form, and by inference, to the holy relics, one should not get caught up in semantics.
Burying a statue of Joseph in hope that you can sell your house is not the least bit superstitious?
Depends on the intent of the person who used the statue:
- If one is simply asking for St. Joseph to pray to the Lord our God to help us with the sale of the property per God’s will then, no, it is not superstitious. In this case it is no different than any other prayer or even the earthly act of asking a Realtor to market your home and your friends to spread the word to anyone interested in purchasing the property.
- On the other hand, if you are doing this with the expectation of some magical influence, then yes, it would fall under the definition of superstition… the same way as carrying a “Lucky Rabbit’s Foot,” lucky dollar, lucky pair of socks, etc…
(edited… silly spell check… and I missed a point in logic… think I would learn to how to proof read
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