CATHOLIC TEACHINGS REGARDING THE WORSHIP OF STATUES

CATHOLIC TEACHINGS REGARDING THE WORSHIP OF STATUES

It is not uncommon to hear Protestants accusing Catholics of worshipping statues because they have images of Christ and the saints in their Churches and in their homes. They quote the Holy Bible, "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them...” [Exodus 20:4-5] They accuse Catholics of being idolaters because they violate God’s commandment. How easy it is to charge falsely when you do not understand the actions of a person or a group!

God did not forbid the religious usage of statues; He forbade the worship of statues. There is a difference between the two. In one Bible passage, we read of an instance when God commanded the making of statues, “You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends. The cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be turned toward the mercy seat.” [Exodus 25:18-20]

In 1 Chronicles 28:11-18, we read of the instance when David gave Solomon the plans to the Temple. Then in verse 19, we read, “All this, in writing at the Lord’s direction, he made clear to me - the plans of all the works.” The building of the Temple and the Altar of incense was done because God had commanded it to be done.

In Numbers 21:8-9, we read, “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’ So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.”

This serpent on a pole was symbolic, represent Jesus Christ on the Holy Cross. Equally, when Catholics look at a crucifix or a picture of Jesus on the Cross, they are reminded that the Lord Jesus is their Saviour. He is the way, the truth and the life. No one lives unless he goes through Jesus Christ. As the serpent on the pole was part of a Jewish religious ritual, the crucifix is part of the Catholic liturgy.

As the Holy Bible teaches, God the Father has no form. He is Spirit. When God spoke to Moses at Horeb, it was in the midst of the burning bush. When the time was right, God revealed Himself to the world in physical form. “He is the image of the invisible God...” [Col. 1:15] “For in him (Jesus) all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” [Col. 1:19] “For in him (Jesus) the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” [Col. 2:9]

The Holy Spirit also revealed Himself in visible form, as a Dove at the Baptism of our Lord Jesus [Mt 3:16, Mk. 1:10, Lk 3:22, Jn 1:32] and as tongues of fire on Pentecost Day [Acts 2:1-4].

Images, icons, statues, they are all reminders of God’s Three Divine Persons. Catholic do not adore or worship these images, icons and statues. They adore and worship He who is represented by these man made objects.

If a mother dies in childbirth, her picture is the only thing that the child has to communicate to him what his mother looked like. This does not mean that the child adores his mother. The picture serves as a reminder.

Equally, Jesus left this earth before all of us were born. A painting of Jesus serves the purpose of reminding us of what He looked like. It serves the purpose of reminding us to adore Jesus, to obey Him, to serve Him, to plea to Him on behalf of others, etc...

Pictures and Statues of saints remind us of their lives, their virtues and the blessings they received from God. The objects remind us that we can pray to the Saints in the sense of asking them to intercede before God on our behalf. For who is in a better position to obtain a favor from God than the Saints who are face to face with God? This certainly does not mean that we adore the Saints. Nor does it mean that we are praying to the Saints in the hope of obtaining the favors from them; the favors come from God through the intercession of the Saints.

When a Catholic bows or kneels before the picture or statue of a saint, this is no different than when a person bows or kneels in the presence of the king of a nation. It is a way of showing respect towards the saint who has been elevated before God.

The Catholic Church throughout its history, like other Christian churches, has always condemned all forms of idolatry. Catholics know that objects are not gods to be worshipped. This truth is taught to them from the moment that they can walk.

As for the making of religious objects to remind Catholics of what is Divine, Sacred, holy and invisible, such is encouraged in the Holy Bible.

http://www.catholicdoors.com/

HOW TO RECEIVE CHRIST WITH LOVE

How to Receive Christ With Love

JOHN A. KANE

In Holy Communion, we touch and taste our Lord and our God. A very significant sentence of St. Augustine, in which he records Christ’s words to him, defines the chief effect of eating the Bread of Angels: “Thou shalt not change me into thine own substance, as thou changest the food of thy flesh, but thou shalt be changed into mine.” There is not, and there never can be, a closer union. The reality of Christ’s Presence is a fact founded on His infallible word and almighty power. But bewildering is our perplexity when we try to ascertain the mode of His eucharistic indwelling. The nearer He approaches to us, the more incomprehensible He becomes; the greater our effort to understand, the more profound our obscurity. When our minds strive to progress beyond the limits marked by faith, they are baffled and confounded. The divine brilliance of light surrounding our guest impairs the soul’s vision.

As their Creator, God abides in creatures. Man cannot be independent of God. For the creature to attain both his natural and supernatural ends, the Creator must dwell in him. Even irrational creatures fall under this essential law of cre­ation. God is everywhere: by His being or essence, because He is the cause of all being, all existence; and by His knowledge, because “all things are naked and open to His eyes”; by His power, because all things are subject to Him. “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.”

But the Incarnation inaugurates an entirely new mode of the Divine Presence. Through this mystery, man becomes one body with Christ in the embrace of a common nature. Holy Scripture beautifully unfolds the eternal import of this prodigy of divine love: “God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him may not per­ish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him.” “This is eternal life: that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.”

In this wholly new manner of the Divine Presence, how low Christ descends to exalt the creature! St. Paul’s words to the Philippians on this subject are sublime in their simplicity: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the Cross.”

As an earthly king, realizing that he is God’s representative, and having at heart therefore the dearest interests of all — but especially of the poorest of subjects — as such a one conceals his royal raiment beneath attire as shabby as theirs, in order to be more accessible as he distributes his gifts to them, so the King of kings wraps in fallen nature the eternal glory of His di­vinity, to raise man in new bonds of love to a higher life, to give him the gift greater than which God Himself cannot give.

So, too, the words of Christ: “If anyone love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him” put the soul into a relationship with God far closer than that by which the Cre­ator is everywhere in His creation. God dwells in man in a spe­cial way, it is true, because man, being rational, is the only creature who can know and love the Creator. But the Divine Presence connoted by the Incarnation differs essentially from its consequences. In this instance, Christ is the almsgiver of Heaven’s largess, revealing Himself under conditions entirely new, and in a manner that, until the fullness of time had come, could not be realized.

By this mystery, man’s sin was forgiven, the supernatural life of his soul restored, and his nature justified and elevated to the most loving companionship with God. The creature was endowed with the capacity for growth into the likeness of his Savior so that, by the acquisition of His virtues, the mind that is in Christ should also be the mind that is in him.

But even beyond the restoration of man’s nature to its pri­mal supernatural righteousness, and his ability to reproduce the virtues of Christ in his soul, there is, through the Incarna­tion, the living consciousness of the union between God and man, and the joy accruing to the creature from the personal love of Christ, dwelling in such close intimacy with him. This is the crowning glory of this preeminent mystery — just as the harmonious blending of colors, producing the most delicate tints and finest shades, completes over and above the rough outlines, the masterpiece of the artist.

All these marvels coalesce in the Holy Eucharist. This sac­rament was instituted to confer on us, not merely particular graces, but all the gifts of the life of the incarnate God as well. Never has God revealed Himself with such energizing fullness. Such a revelation does not, however, contravene the bestowal of a definite grace in answer to a special request. Christ can mani­fest Himself to us in the manner best suited to our spiritual de­velopment because He is the infinite archetype of all the forms of holiness; the source of sanctity in all the varied expo­sitions of its comprehensive unity.

Reflection on these stirring truths will impel us to receive Him with a love that will satisfy His yearning to be one with us. He must be one with us in order that, sharing His eucharistic life, and profiting by its treasures, our weak, changeable nature may be transformed and our faculties supernaturalized, and we may be fashioned into His likeness.

What Christ by His sacramental presence does in us, we should do in the world around us. As He transfigures us with His grace, we, too, must elevate and ennoble all who come within the sphere of our influence. We fall short of the divine purpose in the institution of the Holy Eucharist if we fail to dispense the beneficent effects of the Life of all life. Conscious of the marvelous expansion of its power, we will do everything we can to requite the love of Christ for us by always being His representatives in the world’s wilderness of sin.

This thought, that we must be other Christs, should inspire our words and actions. Briefly, we must glorify Christ by emp­tying ourselves for others, as He glorifies the Father by empty­ing Himself for us. What a mission of purest love would be ours if we daily endeavored to kindle in the souls of our brethren the fire of love which our Savior came to cast on earth, and longed so ardently to see kindled!

How else can we make possible the eucharistic life of our Lord and Master in our own souls? Christ came to restore to His Father the souls of sinners. Only by continuing this work, only by love of our neighbor, will we be saved, for our sacrifices, and the helpfulness of our charity for others, will decide our eternal destiny.

“‘Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me.’ Then shall the just answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry and fed Thee; thirsty and gave Thee drink? And when did we see Thee a stranger and took Thee in? Or naked and covered Thee? Or when did we see Thee sick or in prison and came to Thee?’ And the King answering, shall say to them: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.’ ” The doom of the faithless will be ours if the eucharistic life ends only in selfish possession.

Our expression of responsive love and gratitude after each Holy Communion should be to glorify the sacramental Savior by the revelation in all our dealings with others of the effect of our union with Him.

Editor’s note: This article is excerpted from Fr. Kane’s Transforming Your Life through the Eucharist, which is available from Sophia Institute Press.

Original Link:

http://catholicexchange.com/receive-christ-love

WHY DO PEOPLE BECOME CATHOLIC?

WHY DO PEOPLE BECOME CATHOLIC?

St. Peter's Square, Vatican City

His Holiness, Pope Francis, 

The Present Pope of the Catholic Church

We recently hosted a talk by John Beaumont, author of The Mississippi Flows into the Tiber: A Guide to Notable American Catholic Converts to the Catholic Church. It’s a wonderful compilation of convert stories that includes a few folks associated with this fine magazine. John recounted a number of them. He ended with an arresting question: Why do people convert to Catholicism? There’s no one answer, of course, but many reasons, which John winsomely summarized.

My Protestant friends sometimes accuse First Things of encouraging Catholic triumphalism. We’re not entirely innocent. How can we avoid an atmosphere of triumphalism, given the profound influence Catholicism exercises over so many who are associated with the magazine, beginning with our founding editor and including our current one, yours truly? We love the Catholic Church, and one invariably wishes to champion that which one loves. And so, in that spirit—and with the urgent reminder that there’s no reason Protestants don’t share in these reasons in their own ways— I’ll recount John’s summation, adding my own observations.

1. Visibility 

Catholicism attracts because it’s visible. That’s obvious in the case for the architecture of Catholic churches, which aside from a short period of modernist banality brashly claims space as sacred. Men and women in religious orders wear distinctive outfits. Priests consistently set themselves apart with clerical collars. Even the bulky, sometimes exasperating institutional bureaucracy of the Catholic has a reassuring solidity. This multifaceted visibility is especially powerful in our culture, which so often reduces faith to a private opinion or inward sentiment. The scriptures speak of a New Jerusalem, a city of God. Catholicism foreshadows that city with its very real and tangible buildings, uniforms, rituals, laws, and ensigns.

2. Universality 

The Church is universal, spanning the entire globe. Or more simply: Catholicism is catholic. This breadth makes the gospel more credible. The universality of the Church demonstrates that ours is a faith for all men and all seasons. It’s not a European or African or South American religion; it’s not an ancient or medieval or modern religion. The Church’s universality has a special appeal to those of us aware of the failures of postmodern Western culture. We feel the intellectual and moral decadence of our times, and we know this deforms our reason and conscience. Here the universality of the Church is a source of grace. To enter the Church is to enter a larger world. We don’t stop being postmodern Americans—instead, we become more than that. The Church’s catholicity delivers us from our parochialism, which in America often comes in the form of a false universalism.

3. Endurance

There’s a joke about a papal representative who meets with Stalin. The Man of Steel announces his intention to destroy the Church. The cleric responds, “Good luck. We’ve been trying for two thousand years and haven’t succeeded.” The Church’s endurance, the continuity of teaching and ministry, is nothing short of miraculous—especially during times of high status, prominence, and privilege when worldly seductions are powerful. At the very times when the papacy fell captive to corrupt Renaissance popes, the Holy Spirt was stirring up a piety that gave birth to great new religious orders.

4. Authority

In our age of exalted individualism and false views of freedom, the Church’s authority is often seen as a liability. It is in fact the opposite. When we are going headlong in the wrong direction, we need to hear a sharp word spoken with authority: Stop! When we wallow in skepticism and postmodern ennui, we need the galvanizing force of authority. As John Henry Newman recognized, the authority of the Church is a great asset: It heals the wounds of the pride of man.

5. Beauty

The Church’s beauty has its own power as well. Her musical, artistic, or literary legacy caresses us with the truth of God in Christ. Catholicism’s neglect of those legacies in favor of an easy, banal contemporary aesthetic is one of the great evangelical failures of recent decades. The Lord walks with us along the dusty road of our humanity, it is true. But he does so to raise us up to dwell with him in the beauty of holiness.

6. Hierarchy

Even as a non-Catholic—even attending worship services run by Jesuits!—I was struck by the dignity of the Mass. Although the Second Vatican Council emphasized the dignity of the laity, there remains a rightful hierarchy at the Mass, one that echoes in countless ways the Temple in Jerusalem and its high priests. The priest stands at the altar, representing the congregation—representing all humanity—as he brings his own voice in union with Christ in the word of institution (This is my body . . . This is my blood . . . ) This hierarchy of laity, priest, and Christ is felt at every Mass, not matter how far contemporary churches depart from the traditional relations of congregation, priest and altar. This hierarchy encourages a spiritual elevation, an ascent of the soul to God in prayer.

7. Saints

The saints offer a great cloud of witnesses. Reading St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s spiritual autobiography, “The Story of a Soul,” helped me see the genius of the garish, often lachrymose piety of nineteenth century bourgeois French Catholicism. As Christ taught: We must first be as children. A desiccated East Coast intellectual, that’s what I needed to learn. And there are countless saints to teach others what they need to know. For someone else with handicaps different from my own the strict logic of St. Thomas opens up new spiritual horizons.

8. Moral witness

John’s final reason why some are drawn to the Catholic Church is her moral doctrine. Secular folks find this quite baffling, imaging that the Church’s teachings, especially on sex, must be felt as a severe burden. Well, yes, the Church’s moral doctrine is burdensome in the sense that moral truth is always hard for fallen men and women to hear and unbend their deformed lives to conform to. But the Church’s courage to speak the truth also inspires. Human beings don’t want moral mediocrity. We desire to live in accord with higher standards, certainly one’s higher than those our age offers. The Catholic Church satisfies this desire. She does not indulge our weaknesses. She does not underestimate our freedom.

As I said at the outset, I see no reason why Protestants can’t find many of these qualities in their own churches. I don’t think its triumphalist of me—or at least not perniciously so—to say as a Catholic convert I’m thankful to have found them in mine.

R. R. Reno is editor of First Things. He is the general editor of the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible and author of the volume on Genesis. His previous articles can be found here.


Become a fan of First Things on Facebook, subscribe to First Things via RSS, and follow First Things on Twitter.

FIVE LESSONS FOR FATHERS, EXCERPTED AND ADAPTED FROM “BE A MAN!” BY FR. LARRY RICHARDS.

Five Lessons for Fathers

Five Lessons for Fathers

Excerpted and adapted from “Be a Man!” by Fr. Larry Richards.

1. Husbands are called to love God primarily through their wives. Your wife is the sacrament of Christ to you. You are the sacrament of Christ to your wife. Do at least one unselfish act for your wife every day. Surprise her. When was the last time you treated her the same way you did when you were still trying to get her to marry you?

2. Communicate your love. Make the decision to never let your wife or your kids go to bed or walk out the door without telling them first that you love them—life is just too short! It will change your family. It will change the world. You will never in your life regret that you told your wife and your kids and the people you love that you love them—never. You won't be lying on your deathbed one day saying, "I can't believe that I daily told my loved ones that I loved them. What is the matter with me?”

3. Some people think that the best father you can be is a strong disciplinarian. Absolutely, I agree. But just as much as you discipline your children, you must also build them up. You are the sacrament of Fatherhood to your children just like St. Joseph was the sacrament of Fatherhood to Jesus. Just as God used St. Joseph to form Jesus Christ in His humanity, so too does He want to use you to form your children.

4. You lead by example. You must be a man of prayer. For it is only as a son who listens to his heavenly Father that you can bring the will of the Father to your family. If we are not holy ourselves, then our families will not be holy. It is that simple. God is going to speak to men, women, and children, but He is speaking especially to men to help us be His very image.

5. Many men have let their wives be the spiritual leaders of their families, but this is not the way God created it to be. Now this does not mean that you are the master of your wife and family; it means, like Jesus Christ, you are the servant leader of your family. You need to be the spiritual leader by being a man of sacrifice. You exist to give your life away for others, like Jesus did. That means you give your life for your family first and foremost.

BE A MAN by Fr. Larry Richards is available in softcover, e-book, and audio download: http://goo.gl/MoyjR