Dear friend:
You ask me why Catholics “venerate images.”
You will find the answer in the teaching of Saint Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae:
The worship of religion is not directed to images in themselves as realities, but regards them under their proper aspect as images that lead us to God incarnate. Now the movement that is directed to an image as such does not stop at it, but tends toward the reality of which it is an image. (Summa theologiae, II-II, 81, 3, ad 3.)
Man has always used paintings, figures, drawings, sculptures, etc., in order to make himself understood or to explain something. These means help us to visualize the invisible; to explain what cannot be explained with words.
When man fell through sin and lost intimacy with God, he began to confuse God with other things and to offer them worship as if they were gods. This worship was often represented by idolatrous sculptures or images. The Decalogue’s prohibition against images is explained by the function of such representations.
Does the Bible forbid images?
The First Commandment: Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, do not act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure… (Deut 4:15-16) (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church #2129ff.)
The Israelites were a minority surrounded by idolatrous peoples. God wanted to protect them from those practices, but they frequently fell into them. The prophets, especially Hosea, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, spoke in God’s name to forbid idolatry, and many reforms were carried out to purify evil practices (cf. 2 Kings 23:4-14).
Nevertheless, already in the Old Testament, God ordered or permitted the institution of images that would symbolically lead to salvation through the Incarnate Word. Two examples: the bronze serpent (cf. Num 21:4-9; Wis 16:5-14; Jn 3:14-15), the Ark of the Covenant and the cherubim:
Ex 25:18-20: “You shall make two cherubim of hammered gold; you shall make them on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end and the other cherub at the other end. The cherubim shall form one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends. The cherubim shall have their wings spread out above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, facing one another, their faces turned toward the mercy seat.”
Images and Christians.
The first Christian communities represented the Savior of the world with images of the Good Shepherd; later there appeared those of the Paschal Lamb and other icons representing the life of Christ. Images have always been a means of making known and transmitting faith in Christ, and the veneration and love for the Blessed Virgin and the Saints. The catacombs bear witness to all this, where images made by the first Christians are still preserved. The one you see on the right is from the catacomb of Saint Priscilla.
It was painted in the first half of the 3rd century
The Son of God, by becoming incarnate, inaugurated a new economy of images.
Some object that the Church changed the teaching of the Old Testament. This is not true. Rather, it is Jesus Christ himself who took what was old and gave it a more perfect interpretation in his own Person.
Whereas before Christ no one could see the face of God, in Christ God became visible. Before Jesus, images often represented idols and were used for idolatry. In the fullness of time, the true God willed to take on a human image. Jesus Christ is the visible IMAGE of the Father.
The Catechism tells us in #476:
“Since the Word became flesh in assuming a true humanity, Christ’s body was finite (cf. Lateran Council in the year 649: DS 504). Therefore the human face of Jesus can be ‘portrayed’ (Gal 3:1). At the seventh Ecumenical Council (Council of Nicaea II, in the year 787: DS 600-603), the Church recognized as legitimate his representation in holy images.
John 14:9: “Jesus said to him: ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”?'”
The Christian use of images is not contrary to the First Commandment, which proscribes idols. Indeed, the honor given to an image passes to its prototype. Whoever venerates an image venerates in it the person represented in it. The honor paid to sacred images is a respectful veneration, not adoration, which belongs to God alone.
Founded on the mystery of the Incarnate Word, the seventh Ecumenical Council, held at Nicaea in 787, permitted the institution of images (This council did not establish the use of images, which, as we have seen, goes back to the beginning of Christianity; rather, it affirmed the practice).
The images of the Blessed Virgin and the saints.
The Catholic Church venerates the saints but does not adore them. To adore anything or anyone other than God is idolatry. We must know how to distinguish between adoring and venerating. Saint Paul teaches the need to remember with special esteem our predecessors in the faith. They have not disappeared into nothingness; rather, our faith gives us the certainty of heaven, where those who died in the faith are already victorious IN CHRIST.
The Church respects images in the same way that one respects and venerates the photograph of a loved one. We all know that looking at a photograph is not the same as looking at the person himself in flesh and blood. Therefore, Catholic tradition is not against the Bible. The Church is faithful to the authentic Christian interpretation from its origins.
It is not surprising that some persist in accusing the Church without wanting to understand the reasons. The same thing happened with the Pharisees 2000 years ago. They accused Jesus and his disciples for their practices without wanting to see reality. They came to him with many twisted questions, accusing him.
Source: Corazones.org
