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Dialogue on the Catholic “Worship”

of Statues

 

Does the reverence Catholics show toward 

holy images amount to worship of them?

 

Gary Hoge

 

God rejected Israelite worship through an idol, neither does He accept “Christian” worship through an idol, God does not change.

 

Have you ever said the Pledge of Allegiance? If so, why do you worship a piece of cloth?

 

In your analogy you are comparing apples to oranges. The flag is not God, pledging allegiance is not worship or veneration, it simply is a pledge to obey.

 

An icon is not God either, and we don’t even pledge allegiance to it. Nor do we pledge to obey it, though we might pledge to obey the one depicted in the icon, if that one were Christ.

 

Gee, it’s kind of like when we say, “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States,” and we don’t really mean that we’re pledging to obey a piece of colorful cloth, rather, we mean that we’re pledging to obey that which the cloth symbolizes, namely, the lawful authority of the United States.

 

If law were represented by a symbol, and it is understood by all that this symbol is just that, and not a god, then there is no problem with looking up to it and pledging allegiance.

 

Now put two and two together: “If God is represented by a symbol, and it is understood by all that this symbol is just that, and not God, then there is no problem with looking up to it and pledging allegiance.” I think you understand this concept, even though you seem to be working very hard not to.

 

It is not a god nor is it even imagined by any to be a god. There can be no idolatry if there is no god involved.

 

Same deal with a statue or icon. I have been moved to contemplate the truths of the Gospel, for example, while reflecting on the beauty of a stained-glass window that depicts a Gospel scene. And yet, amazingly, I have never wondered whether the window itself might be God. Somehow I have always just known that a window is not God, nor is a statue, nor is an icon.

 

God being worshipped through icons today can be rightly compared to God being worshipped through images in Hosea 8:5-7, for act is exactly the same.

 

No it isn’t. In the Old Testament, the people didn’t worship God through images, they worshipped images as God. That is the crucial distinction you’re failing to make. Remember the golden calf? “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”