Images-Statues

[Huiou_Theou]

Hi lina,

Psalms 95:6 “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.”

Notice that worship happens while the person is bowing down.
It doesn’t say worshipping IS bowing down.

Kneeling, in the Hebrew sense (and Greek) was admission of inferiority. A conquerer would require the conquered to kneel.
Hence, all knees will bend before God (even those who refuse him worship).

The ARK, not only was inanimate, but on top of the ark were carved statues. And the later place of worship, The temple, was decorated with images of angels. etc.

I hear the objection that “no one knows” what Jesus looks like.
Indeed, we don’t know what he looks like now.
I have pictures of my mother from some years ago, she doesn’t look like that now either. I doubt Lincoln now looks like the statue of him in washington D.C.

We do have an idea of what Jesus looked like.
He was a Jewish male.

Do some research. His burial cloth was rolled up in the tomb.
There is good evidence we have that cloth – the shroud of Tourin.
The same face is preserved on another artifact – the mandylion.
So, even if it isn’t perfect – we do know what he looked like.

 

[Kyenta]

Photoalbums and pictures of your loved ones are something you cherish. Not the paper it’s printed on but the “image” it represents. You adore looking at the picture of your child. You can even hang photos of your family on buletin boards or frame them around your house to remind you of them even when they are not around. You don’t become emotional over the frameor the glass, but the face that captures your love.

It’s the same thing with us Catholics and our statues. Since Kodak wasn’t invented during Jesus’ time, we have no photographs of our Beloved Lord or the Virgin Mary. No image of St. Francis of Assisi or St. Joseph.

The statues represent the beautiful and extraordinary love we have for the Holy Family. Instead of staring into nothingness like other denominations, we can look at the well crafted statue representing Jesus Christ and pray completely from our hearts. We can see the Crown of Thorns visualized on the Crucifix on our Lords delicate head and feel the emotion of what He suffered on our account.

I know many people who carefully treat their bibles with devoted gentleness. It’s not due to the material or paper but the fact that this is Gods words to us, thus we cherish it.

I keep religious statues in every room in my house and it reminds me of whom it represents and I smile when I look upon them with affection. This can only greatly please Our Lord to know how much we respect Him and are reminded of Him every moment of the day.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I love You

 

[AuntMartha]

Excellent post, Kyenta.

 

[Church_Militant]

Lina:

In the Quick Question section I read that Catholics do not worship statues because only God is deserving of adoration. When a Catholic bows to a statue, he is not worshiping it any more than King Solomon worshiped Bathsheba when he bowed to her in 1Kings 2:19.
First, to me there is a difference between bowing to a living being and bowing to something that has been made with human hands. I believe the act of bowing and kneeling are forms of worship.
Psalms 95:6 “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.”

You couldda saved yourself the post and all this by simply doing a search first since this whole issue is beat slap to death on this thread:
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=40742
Pax tecum,

 

[Aris]

Lina:

How can anything made with human hands represent the one and only awesome LORD GOD?

Because God became flesh. He took human form.

 

[Katie1723]

My partner is SDA and they have a real hard time with the whole “graven images/holy cards” thing. I asked my priest if he had a simple answer for me on this. He said"Just tell him you keep pictures of loved ones around don’t you?" I have many pictures and on occasion I have been known to talk to them. Worries me a bit as sometimes I swear they smile back at me !
~ Kathy ~

 

[Servant1]

Mickey:

Servant1 did an exellent job explaining icons. If I may add one thing. Because of the high illiteracy rate amongst the early Christians, icons were used to pictorially teach the Scriptures to those who couldn’t read.

And are to this day in places where the scriptures are rare or other circumstances indicate it.

Story told to me by a wonderful Orthodox Bishop years ago… He was visiting a church in Russia… Bibles were hard to get… visitors came to the church… a 10 year old boy who knew the icons of the church was taking the visitors around… by telling the meaning of each icon, he told, sequentially, the story of salvation to these visitors. Pretty eloquent testimony. And a sanctifying act in itself. These icons are holy.