YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 358
Ave Maria series
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 However, since God himself acquired a human face in Jesus Christ, the prohibition against images was repealed in Christianity; in the Eastern Church, icons are even regarded as sacred.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 among 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]
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 Kings7:23-26.)69–CCC
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. –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
JP Shroud of Turin
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