CRITICISMS ON THE USE OF IMAGES IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH INTRODUCTION On many occasions and in all the epochs of Christendom,

the Catholic Church has been persecuted on her stern tenets of Faith. She has been nailed, beaten, stoned in many of her faithful who have suffered the wrath of paganism and false charges against their faith. The Church has been challenged in matters of the Eucharist, Resurrection, and eternity, just to mention a few. More definitively, criticism of the Catholic Church includes critical observations made about the current or historical Catholic Church, in its actions, teachings, omissions, structure, or nature; theological disagreements would be covered on a denominational basis. Criticisms may regard the concepts of papal primacy and supremacy, or aspects of church structure, governance, and particular practices. Since the Catholic Church is the largest Christian church representing over half of all Christians and one sixth of the worlds population, these criticisms may not necessarily represent the majority view of all Christian and secular believers. In all these attacks, however, she remains triumphant and victorious. The criticism that this write-up investigates is the charge against the Catholic Church on her use of religious images and statues especially as articles of prayer and devotion. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT AND THE USE OF IMAGES IN JUDAISM Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them (Exodus 20:3-5). Some Protestants will often look askance at images and statues. They will often say that Catholics violate the 2nd commandment. They will say that the Catholics do away with a commandment to validate what it calls idolatry, with the erection of statues and so forth. Do Catholics violate Gods command? It is of course obvious that the emphasis of this law is in the first and last clauses - no strange gods, thou shalt not adore them. Still anyone who reads it might see in the other words too an absolute command. The people are not only told not to adore images nor serve them; they are not even to make any graven thing. One could understand so farreaching a command at that time. If they made statues or pictures, they probably would end by adoring them. How likely they were to set up a graven thing as a strange god is shown by the story of the golden calf at the very time that the ten words were promulgated. In distinction to the
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nations around, Israel was to worship an unseen God, there was to be no danger of the Israelites falling into the kind of religion of Egypt or Babylon. Whatever one may understand the mysterious ephod and theraphim to have been, there was the brazen serpent (Numbers 21:9), not destroyed till Ezechias did so (2 Kings 18:4), there were carved and moulded garlands of fruit and flowers and trees (Numbers 8:4; 1 Kings 6:18; 7:36); the king's throne rested on carved lions (1 Kings 10:19-20), lions and bulls supported the basins in the temple (1 Kings 7:25, 29). Especially there are the cherubim, great carved figures of beasts (Ezekiel 1:5; 10:20, where they are called beasts), that stood over the ark of the covenant (Exodus 25:18-22; 1 Kings 6:23-8; 8:67, etc.). This confirms therefore, that already in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward salvation by the incarnate Word: so it was with the bronze serpent, the Ark of the Covenant and the cherubim. (Nm 21:4-9, Wis 16:5-14, Jn 3:14). THE QUESTION AT HAND: WHAT WORSHIP DO WE GIVE IMAGES? Surprisingly, the Catholic principle states that we worship sacred images. Worship by no means implies only the supreme adoration that may be given only to God. It is a general word denoting some more or less high degree of reverence and honour, an acknowledgment of worth. (Catholic Encyclopedia, veneration of images www.newadvent.org). In the Catholic tradition, it is good to state, that there are three degrees of worship. Latreia, Dulia, Hyperdulia. The first is Latreia which is the worship given to God alone for his supremacy and greatness. Dulia is the second Commonly, the use of images by some other cultures directly communicates the sense of idolatry whereby, they worshippers of that tradition or religion as it is called worship the idols and images set before them. Hence, Catholicism is highly suspected as one of those religions that worship idols. But a great understanding of the Catholic use of images as articles of devotion reveals that there is a difference in such idolatry usage and a devotional usage of images. The first precept of the Decalogue condemns the idolatry usage of images and confirms the devotional usage as it is seen in the later chapters of Exodus (Ex. 25). Hence, 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
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venerates the person portrayed in it. (Council of Nicaea II: DS 601). 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 towards the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends towards that whose image it is. (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II, 81, 3 ad 3). The fathers of Nicaea II further distinguish between Absolute and Relative worship. Absolute worship is paid to any person for his own sake. Relative worship is paid to a sign, not at all for its sake, but for the sake, but for the sake of the thing signified. The sign in itself is nothing, but it share the honour of it prototype. This distinction of the fathers of the council captures the Catholic understanding and usage of Icons. Furthermore, this reverence will be expressed in signs determine by customs and etiquette. It must be noted that all outward marks of respect are only arbitrary signs, like words, and that signs have no inherent necessary connotations. They mean what it is agreed and understood that they shall mean. For instance, an insult to the sign (a flag or statue) is an insult to the thing of which it is a sign. The flag is not the state but it stands for the reality of the state. Hence, due respect is accorded to the state by singing the national anthem, looking up to the flag. Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons- of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angles, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the son of God introduced a new economy of images. (CCC, 2131) CONCLUSION: MANY WILL RISE WITH NEW DOCTRINES, NEVER YOU LOSE FAITH The fact cannot be denied that some persons out of emotional attachments often misuse or abuse images and statues that are meant for prayer. However, we must not forget that saintly and holy images and statues are very prominent to our spiritual life especially in our prayers. They are importantly employed in religion because man by nature is finite and we are quickly drawn to finite things. Hence, with the presence of images and statues, we easily gazed on the heavenly realities that they stood for. We make supplications to saints because they are friends of Jesus and the prayer of the righteous man is acceptable to God.
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