Do Catholics Worship Images of Christ?....my thoughts.
And I sighed and ran for the bucket of water. The first thing that really bothers me is that this really should not be an issue for Protestants seeking to evangelize Catholics. As a Catholic I find this whole you-worship-statues thing to be seriously irritating because it suggests that I am incapable of defining what I worship and what I don't. I promise you that I am not shy about saying what I believe in and if I was worshiping a statue, I would loudly and proudly proclaim it. I am occasionally absent-minded. If you read this blog at all, you know I am the typo queen and proofreading is not my strong suit, but I am not a blithering idiot. I know what I worship and it isn't statues!! Or images! Or Mary for that matter. Here's a hint to all of you Protestants who want to see me leave the Roman Catholic Church. You would be so much more effective if you worked at changing my mind about something that we AGREE that I am doing, rather than wasting your time convincing me that I am doing something that I am not and telling me to stop doing that thing I am not doing to begin with. (If you have a glass of wine, that last sentence will make sense.) If you want to get me to leave the Roman Catholic Church, stop picking at the edges of what I believe in and YANK THE RUG out from under me and you can start by focusing on the things that I freely admit doing.Some Protestants continue to allege that Catholics worship images despite their constant denial. I happen to be one of those Protestants.
And as hideously offensive as sites like this are, at least they get it! Let's take the trivial stuff off of the table. I believe that in the Eucharist there is no longer bread and wine but Jesus present Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. I WORSHIP Jesus in the Eucharist. When I am alone in the Adoration chapel, I remove my shoes (holy ground), I cover myself, and I prostrate myself on the ground and worship my Lord. If I am guilty of idolatry, it is THERE and not over some picture. I know that if the Roman Catholic Church is wrong about the Real Presence I am guilty of the worst idolatry and anything I have done in relationship to a statue or a picture will pale in comparision. If I am going to hell for idolatry it will be because I believe Jesus, my Lord, my Sin Sacrifice, my Shepherd is truly present in the Eucharist and worship Him there and the Roman Catholic Church was wrong about that.
That brings me to my next point. I have long suspected that Protestants accuse Catholics of worshipping all sorts of things that they don't, because they [the Protestants] have not been exposed to worship as Jesus intended. So much is worship in a Protestant church if it happens on Sunday morning. (And I say this as a former Protestant.) Lead the congregation in singing songs that make us feel good about Jesus...worship led by the "Worship Team." Pray....worship. A pastor-led bible study....worship. It's no wonder that they look at a Catholic and say to themselves "If I did that, it would be worship; therefore, they are worshiping [that statue, Mary, that picture, etc.]" Since when should we get to define what worship is? Cain had his own ideas....got thumped. Aaron had some ideas....got thumped...along with everyone who agreed with him. Nadab and Abihu had their own ideas and got blasted!! Samuel lost his right to the kingship of Israel because he decided it didn't really matter enough to do it God's way and after all he had a really important reason like Samuel was selling indulgences and didn't show up in time! (Oh wait, I am mixing up my stories it was other people who decided that they had the right to re-define worship because they didn't like how quickly God's appointed representatives were cleaning up a problem.) When I look in the Old Testament I see very clearly that worship involves sacrifice and offerings and it's more about sacrifice than offering and in the New Testament, Jesus fulfills the Old Testament Passover meal (which had a sacrifice) and the Old Testament sacrificial system in Himself and decreed a new form of worship for the New Covenant. (Jesus in the Catholic Mass has a slightly more expanded version of that). Jesus said at the Last Supper, on the night He was to give himself freely to the executioners as our eternal sin sacrifice, "Do this in memory of me." There it is. That's how we are to worship Him....if you are not remembering Him in your worship as He decreed, if you are not eating from the Fruit of the Tree of Life (Jesus on the Cross); then, you don't have enough Jesus. Just as the Jews presented sin sacrifices in worship that prefigured the ONE Perfect Sin Sacrifice, Catholics enter into the eternally present worship in Heaven and re-present (not re-sacrifice) the ONE Perfect Sin Sacrifice. Yes I know that sacrifice happened only once, but we who are still stuck in these sinful bodies and trapped in time with these puny little brains and finite ability to understand need to remind ourselves of the price and feed our souls periodically. Kind of like having sex once was enough to seal the marriage covenant but renewing the covenant is a good idea for healthy marriage. I believe that the reason Protestants consistently accuse Catholics of worshipping things other than Jesus is because they don't worship Jesus enough. They have been confused with counterfeit forms of worship and are not properly anchored in Jesus. I know that statement will send more than a few readers for their own buckets, but what would you have me to say? That I receive Jesus, physically, actually, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity and that it doesn't really make a difference? (Why Holy Communion is not symbolic).
Ok those are my thoughts, now I would like to briefly address Dr. Mizzi's main point in the post I linked about and his "logical conclusion." Dr. Mizzi fairly states the Catholic postion and quotes from paragraph 2132 of the CCC:
The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honour rendered to an image passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it." The honour paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone: Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is.
And then says well if you venerate images of saints then you must be worshipping images of God because that is that is the "logical conclusion"....he says it with more words than that but that's the general gist. What he is missing is this. The veneration directed toward the image of a Saint is not to the image but the Saint. Just as I might kiss the picture of my husband as I call my husband to my memory (if I was a picture-kisser and I am not) I don't confuse the picture with my husband and my husband is not going to come home and accuse me of being unfaithful. It is NOT different with an image of Jesus. The image of Jesus might call to mind Jesus Himself and might call me to fruitful prayer and meditation on Jesus....not the image.....as I detailed in this post here. (Statues, Closets and the Council of Carthage) Really and truly. I am not making that up.
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Linked to you at Domestic Vocation (again).
I'll have to remember your comments on not trying to convert me over things I don't do the next time it comes up. Fortunately for me, the Protestants I usually come in contact with aren't anti-Catholic - they don't get it, but they aren't hostile to the Faith.
Keep up the good work! :) (Comment this)
Ever heard the Scott Hahn story about how he was lecturing at some church that had a tableaux of the apparition of Fatima on the lawn? Our Lady, the children, sheep, the works.
He or his companion said, 'Wow, is this a great Church or what? Not only can we worship statues, we have statues that worship statues!"
(This is a joke. This is only a joke. Please do not allow your hair to catch fire.) (Comment this)
I'd love it if you tackle some Crucial Questions. ;) (Comment this)
and loved the Scott Hahn story :) (Comment this)