Hey Mixolydian,
I think everyone has offered you really good advice. I couldn’t imagine God telling you to get rid of them.
The only person, from within the Tradition (although with whom I disagree with on certain things), that would say anything close to “get rid of your icons” was Evagrios of Pontus. He pushed for a “perfection” where the monk was supposed to eventually get rid of all mental images of Jesus when praying. Yet, he himself would pray the Divine Liturgy, most likely, in an ornate, icon-filled Church building, and said nothing that I’m aware of against this. I wouldn’t put to much stock in Evagrious though. Not saying anything against him or his holiness, but some of his ideas were philosophically influenced, and the agreements among all the Fathers are a higher source than that which would concern the particular ideas contained within certain of them.
I think you may be similar to the way I was. I always agreed with the Church’s teaching that we only venerate icons, not give adoration to them, that the veneration we give to them passes from them to their prototypes (Christ and the Saints in heaven), that the icon image shares in the reality of its prototype, etc. But, deep in side, though I agreed, that old “idolatrous” itch would still trouble me, and I would have to just keep persevering through this. I won’t lie to you. Sometimes I had great moments in prayer before icons. Other times, I had conflicting moments.
Very recently, however, I did an in-depth studying of idolatry and what it actually is. I’ve posted it several times within different forums on this site, and I’d love to share it with you again.
FROM A RESPONSE TO ANOTHER TOPIC THAT I PUT UP ON THIS SITE: “ancient idolatry involves a belief that there is one God, but he’s too important, ignorant, or perpetually angry with people to be involved with them. In order to deal with this, ancient pagans, knowing that they did not have a Divinely revealed and established covenant with him, and, probably on account of the fact that they did not therein know him, or, because they rejected his true covenant high priestly representatives (such as the Hamites rejecting Shem and building the Tower of Babel), deified their kings (ancestor worship), made the sons of the deified kings into “living images” of the new “gods.” When these kings died, people believed that they could conjure the spirits of these dead “gods” (although, in reality, these were the demons, according to the Book of Enoch OR the fallen angels pretending to be the souls of dead kings, according to Catholic Tradition) into stone or wood items of worship, idols, which were also “images.” The people then offered sacrifices (signifying total dependence) to these, and inquired of them for secret knowledge or power. Idolatry is always associated, even in the Bible, with magic (the use of ritualized actions, names, incantations, in association with an idol, to manipulate reality to a desired end, rather than depending upon the True God to work for what one prays or asks Him for), animism (the propitiation and magical use of the souls that were believed to be in all things, or of disembodied spirits), fetishism, etc. Technically, then, idolatry is the worship of death itself, dead persons, deliberately against the Living God who also eventually incarnated and rose from the dead! Our faith is the fulfilment of the distorted longings of the pagans, making straight their crooked lines, as well as the ultimate antidote to idolatry! The reason I wrote this long explanation is because, knowing this, it is liberating to never again doubt the valid use of icons and statues in our parishes! The Saints are more alive than us (in the fullness of Grace, alive in the Heavenly Temple with the Living Lord, unlike fallen kings or evil spirits) and we certainly DO NOT conjure the wicked dead and evil spirits into icons or statues! And, besides, we don’t offer icons or statues actual sacrifices! lol”
BACK TO OUR CURRENT CONVERSATION: if you realize this, you will totally never worry again about idolatry, if, in fact, you were like me with that trouble, maybe subconsciously, in the back of your mind.
Realize this too: Moses, in Deuteronomy 4:12, explicitly states that the very reason that the people couldn’t make “images” for prayer (although they could make them for artistic decoration, such as in the First and Second Temples) was because God had, then, not revealed his form. But God did later in His Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection.
Here’s a way to test these feelings. Meditate on these questions: how do you feel about non-Liturgical prayer with other Catholics or Christians? How do you feel about praying with others, specifically, at the Liturgy? If you feel absolutely no problem with praying alongside, and even praying by means (think of the Priest or Bishop) of, these people, who are not mere icons but true Members of the Body of Christ, since we are the Holy Spirit Temple within Whom walks and dwells the Resurrected Lord Jesus with the Father in Him and the Queen Mother beside Him as the Ark…these people who are, therefore, also Sacraments…then how much less should you have a problem with praying with icons. And if what I said about the Members of the Church excites you, but still, maybe, is a little uncomfortable, this is the amazingness of our Faith.
God Bless!
