YOUCAT Lesson 358
YOUCAT the catechism
for Catholic youth
358 Why does the Old Testament forbid images of
God, and why do we Christians no longer keep that commandment?
In order to protect the mystery of God and to set the people
of Israel apart from the idolatrous practices of the pagans, the First
Commandment said, “You shall not make for yourself a graven image” (Exodus 20:4). However,
since God himself acquired a human face in Jesus Christ, the prohibition
against images was repealed in Christianity; in the Eastern Church, icons are
even regarded as sacred. [2129-2132, 2141]
The origins of the Shroud of Turin and its
image are the subject of intense debate mong theologians, historians and researchers. Scientific and popular
publications have presented diverse arguments for both authenticity and
possible methods of forgery. A variety of scientific theories regarding the
shroud have since been proposed, based on disciplines ranging from chemistry to
biology and medical forensics to optical image analysis. The Shroud of Turin is
respected by Christians of several traditions, including Baptists, Catholics,
Lutherans, Methodists, Orthodox, Pentecostals, and Presbyterians. The Catholic
Church has neither formally endorsed nor rejected the shroud,
but in 1958 Pope Pius XII approved of the image in association with the devotion to the Holy
Face of Jesus. More
recently, Pope Francis and his predecessor Pope
Benedict XVI have both described the Shroud of Turin as "an icon"
and Pope Saint John Paul
II called the Shroud "a mirror of the Gospel".--Wikipedia
The knowledge of the patriarchs of Israel that God surpasses
everything (transcendence) and is much greater than anything in the world (still)
lives on today in Judaism as (it does) in Islam, where no image of God is or
ever was allowed. In Christianity, in
light of Christ’s life on earth, the prohibition against images was mitigated
from the fourth century on and was abolished at the Second Council of Nicaea
(787 a.d.). By his Incarnation, God is
no longer absolutely unimaginable; after Jesus we can picture what he is like:
“He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). 9
Transcendent (from Latin
transcendere=to go beyond): surpassing sensory experience; other-worldly.
Icon (from Greek ikona=image): An icon is a sacred image in
the Eastern Church that is painted according to venerable patterns by an
artist who is praying and fasting; it is
supposed to produce a mystical union between the observer and what is depicted
(Christ, angels, saints).
[2129-2132, 2141]
* 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. . . . "( Deuteronomy 4:15-16.)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."( Sirach 43:27-28.)67 He
is "the author of beauty."( Wisdom 13:3.)68 –Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Second Edition
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.( Compare Numbers 21:4-9; Wisdom 16:5-14; John 3:14-15; Exodus 25:10-22; 1
Kings 6:23-28; 1 Kings 7:23-26.)69 –CCC
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."( St.
Basil, De Spiritu Sancto 18,45:Patrologia Graeca 32,149C;
Council of Nicaea II: Denzinger-Schonmetzer 601; compare Council of Trent: DS
1821-1825; Vatican Council II: Sacrosanctum Concilium 126; Lumen Gentium 67.)70 The
honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration," not the
adoration due to God alone: --CCC
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.( St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II,81,3 ad 3.)71 –CCC
IN BRIEF
2141 The veneration of sacred images is
based on the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God. It is not contrary
to the first commandment. --CCC
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