7/28/2007

Iconoclasm: Or: Catholics Worship Graven Images NOT

View Poll Results: Allegation of Catholic Idolatry
I agree: Catholics worship Mary, the saints and statues 6 3.85%
That is completely wrong and here's why. 150 96.15%
Voters: 156.


Okay let's try this again...

Welcome!
A graven image according to the context of the 1st commandment is anything that a person would construct in order to give it the worship that is due only to God. Now, that said, it could also include anything that we choose to make more important than God in our lives, such as money, career, or power. The Catechism of the Catholic Church gets into it more here: http://www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/comm1.html#GRAVEN so you can peruse that at your convenience.

Islam forbids the display of ANY images (It's called Iconoclasm, this forbidding) and the iconoclastic heresies that have arisen in Christianity were the result of Islamic influence in about the 800's. you can find that history here at New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07620a.htm

Read the graven image part of the first commandment here:
Exodus 20:1-5

"1 And the Lord spoke all these words: 2 I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. 5 Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me:"

It is clear that the prohibition is not iconoclastic as you preach, but based upon the intent of the one making and using the image. Since NO CATHOLIC EVER kneels down before any image to worship it we are not idolators at all. We are not stupid enough to confuse a mass of rock, plaster, metal, or any other created thing with the almighty and ever living God of the Universe

New Advent entry on Iconoclasm.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07620a.htm


From the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

IV. "YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FOR YOURSELF A GRAVEN IMAGE . . ."



2129 The divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God by the hand of man. Deuteronomy explains: "Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure...."[66] It is the absolutely transcendent God who revealed himself to Israel. "He is the all," but at the same time "he is greater than all his works."[67] He is "the author of beauty."[68]

2130 Nevertheless, 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.[69]

2131 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 angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new "economy" of images. 2132 The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it."[70] The honor 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.[71]

If the making of images is wrong as the Moslems and these misgiuded iconoclasts say then how do they account for God COMMANDING the making of images to adorn the top of the Ark of the Covenant and the brass serpent that Moses lifted up to save the Israelites that had sinned and which in fact is mentioned in the NT as a type of the lifting up of Christ for our sins? The temple of Solomon is described as having been adorned with all manner of images yet God was pleased to be present there and did not condemn them for it.


5 comments:

Unitas said...

CM! I didn't know you had a blog!

It looks like you started one the same time I did hehe. Now I have a vast resource of brain nuggets I can rip off--er, I mean learn from :P

BTW, you've been blogrolled.

For Leman Russ, for the Emperor.

Blackie said...

Hey Unitas!

You're welcome to anything that helps!

You must play Space Wolves huh? Very good chapter.

My Guard just got their head handed to 'em by my oldest son's Tau. :(

I'm currently on turn 5 of a Cities of Death battle with my youngest son's Guard in which I think he'll find that I'll win this Gamma level Domination mission.

It helps to have your own table and terrain.

Unknown said...

Blackie, THANKS for posting your blog site link on CAF!! I bookmarked you and will refer to your blog....

tweedlealice said...

Salutations,
It is good for you to have this available for those who need it. When my husband was in VIET Nam, I wore his pajamas and green Army socks. I would hold his photo in lonely moments and kiss it. Now, everyone knows The photo was not my spouse. It helped with the loneliness. When we kneel before a statue or cross, it is a focus for our mind to not wander. The worship to God, in the form of His person of His Son, Jesus, on the cross, is a focus point. When we have the cross down and have a procession to kiss His feet, it's the same as when I kissed my husband's picture. Would we all want to grasp His hands? If you could hug Him, would you wish to be able to do so.? In my most tragic moments all I could do was lie in bed, hold my Bible, cry and say,"Jesus, repeatedly. If The wood of the cross wasn't so hard, I would have slept with it. Sadness was R/T my husband's PTSD. GOD was with us Next year will be 50yrs of marriage. As one can see, there is no idolatry just focus and comfort. I would pray to a favorite Saint, it is only to ask the Saint to continue my prayers, in heaven to God. in Christ's love
Alice.

Blackie said...

Dear Alice,
Thank you so much for this very close and personal comment because it very well illustrates the whole point of our icons and imagery.

May God bless you, your husband, and your whole family and the strong testimony of your enduring love and faith.
Blackie