Statues, the fine line

[Bloved]

I have some concerning questions about the church. I am trying to better understand it now that I am older and wish to have her more in my life.
This question has to do with praying in front of statue replicas. When Moses came down from the mountain he was very angry at his people praying to their statue.
Now how does that differ from the statues Catholics pray in front of? I have seen many people get emotional in front of statues of Mary and Jesus and feel this is very wrong. I understand a statue is just a representation but not even close to what the actual person looked like ? It is very confusing and concerning to me that people feel the need to pray in front of statues, especially when they believe they cry or have some power. The line seems blurred to me. Any help.

 

[FabiusMaximus]

I have some concerning questions about the church. I am trying to better understand it now that I am older and wish to have her more in my life.
This question has to do with praying in front of statue replicas. When Moses came down from the mountain he was very angry at his people praying to their statue.
Now how does that differ from the statues Catholics pray in front of? I have seen many people get emotional in front of statues of Mary and Jesus and feel this is very wrong. I understand a statue is just a representation but not even close to what the actual person looked like ? It is very confusing and concerning to me that people feel the need to pray in front of statues, especially when they believe they cry or have some power. The line seems blurred to me. Any help.

I can see where people can get derailed if people begin to think there is something special about the statue, and not what the statue represents. If people begin to assume the statue has any real power of its own, there’s trouble.

The fact is, I’ve only seen statues being used in terms of focusing on who it represents. I mean, objectively, what is the difference between someone praying in front of a statue and a person kneeling and kissing a flag of his country? Would you think that the latter is worshiping his flag? No, you’d probably assume that that person loves his country very, very much. As you should. I get all teary-eyed in front of the Iwo Jima replica memorial in my city, because it represents so much. I’m in awe of it. But to me it’s not worship.

Personally, if I see a huge statue of Jesus, I smile because of what it represents. Our Lord and Savior. I don’t see the statue itself as being particularly special.

 

[John_2029]

The Israelites got into trouble because they worshipped the golden calf - they treated it as if the statue itself was a god.

Statues and other images in church are not worshipped. They are merely representations of Jesus and the saints. We use them to focus our prayers heavenward toward Jesus and the actual saints they represent. I’ll wager that if you asked someone who was praying in front of a statue whether they thought the statue was the person (i.e. the saint resided in the statue), they’d look at you and say “of course not! I’m just using the statue as a means to focus my prayers”.

Yours in Christ,

 

[followingtheway]

When Moses came down from the mountain he was very angry at his people praying to their statue.

Catholics DON’T pray to statues!!! We pray to the person they are of…we just kneel in front of them just like when an actor bows before an audience. Just like someone kisses the picture of their dead relative, that kiss for the relative, not for the picture. Just like our prayers are for the saints not for the statue!!

 

[Bluegoat]

Images, when properly used, are a way to keep us from creating our own, mistaken, interior images.

Some people are very visually oriented and learn best through images. But even others have a tendency to create their own images when the hear something read, or think about an abstract concept, or pray.

This would be fine is the pictures we created were all correct, but people can actually get some really incorrect ideas, without really realizing they are doing it. Most of us are aware if we, say, put Scripture in our own words that is something to be careful of. But we are not always that careful about mental images. (In fact, it may be those who are less visually oriented who are least aware of their own mental images.)

But incorrect mental images can actually lead to some real theological errors. So the Church has found that giving people images that are theologically correct (which doesn’t mean realistic necessarily) is the best way to avoid this problem. And it is also a really good way to teach some concepts.

All of this assumes people are being taught that the images are only representational, and that they are in fact theologically correct. Bad images are probably worse than none.

 

[twopekinguys]

I have some concerning questions about the church. I am trying to better understand it now that I am older and wish to have her more in my life.
This question has to do with praying in front of statue replicas. When Moses came down from the mountain he was very angry at his people praying to their statue.
Now how does that differ from the statues Catholics pray in front of? I have seen many people get emotional in front of statues of Mary and Jesus and feel this is very wrong. I understand a statue is just a representation but not even close to what the actual person looked like ? It is very confusing and concerning to me that people feel the need to pray in front of statues, especially when they believe they cry or have some power. The line seems blurred to me. Any help.

All of the other replies have pretty much summed up that we don’t pray to, or worship statues, so I’ll bypass that.

As far as seeing people getting “emotional”, remember, you have no idea what is going on in that person’s life. For example, when my Mother passed away, I lit a candle, knelt, and prayed in front of a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I bawled my eyes out, considering I lost my Mother a day after Christmas…

Nobody knew what I was praying about, except me and the Lord, so as you can see, it is best not to jump to conclusions when you see people praying. In front of a statue or not.

I understand that it can make someone uncomfortable if they don’t understand fully what is going on, but remember not to put your spin on it.

 

[Viola_Incognita]

The Israelites were forbidden by God to have images like the cultures around them. They were forbidden to worship other gods, such as the god represented by the golden calf.

At that time, God had not revealed Himself with a human face. Now we can see God’s face in Jesus.

Our images of Jesus (Mary and the saints) help us to lift our minds and hearts to God. All of the art and beauty in our churches helps us to lift our hearts and minds to God.

As for believing that statues “cry or have some other power,” that’s a whole different subject which is for the Church to discern. If it makes you uncomfortable, that’s OK. You do not have to go there.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Before Christ freed us from the power of sin and death, even the ‘good’ people (those who died free of grave sin) didn’t go to heaven to be with God. They couldn’t. Heaven was ‘barred’ against them.

But when Christ died and saved us, He made it possible for those who died free of sin to go to heaven AND (as Scripture tells us) in Heaven **those souls are united to Him perfectly. **

So now we know that those who die in Christ live with Him, and in Him, forever.

We can confidently ‘pray’ (which only means to communicate, but all we do, from our first breath on, is ultimately ‘for’ God if it aligns with His will, or ‘against’ God if it rejects Him) to those who are so united with Christ that they are part of His Body (again as Scripture).

In worshipping God, we make sure that we fulfil the second great commandment of ‘loving our neighbors as ourselves’. We rejoice when any member of the Body of Christ is honored (as Scripture tells us). Those who have given us example of great love for Christ are His saints, united to Him in heaven, ALIVE in Him, just as we hope to be.

Now on earth we can look to pictures of our loved ones as well as seeing them ‘face to face’, and we can communicate “pray” with them as well. But we are still imperfect, seeing ‘in a glass darkly’ while those in heaven see face to face.

Since we only have imperfect means, we use what we have. We don’t have the perfect vision that the saints have, or the glorious heavenly soul, but we have physical faces and bodies, and on earth, they did too.

So we can make a painting, or a statue, or a picture of a saint with a ‘physical face and body’ and thus have a visual ‘aid’ as well as a visual REMINDER to all Christians of those who are more alive in Christ than we are, if ‘dead’ to this earth. In just such a way a person perhaps lost on a desert island might make a sand sculpture or find some way of making little ‘representations’ of his or her loved ones. . .not to worship them, but to have some tangible physical ‘reminder’ of their presence and his love for them and theirs for him.