Madonna Mary
Don't Catholics Worship Statues?While cleaning out my shed, I found a tattered, black and white photo of my father. I was ecstatic. You see I have never met my father, altho from what I have been told he was a fantasti man. Five weeks after giving birth to me, my 21 year-old mother received detect that my father had been killed in action. He had been sent to Vietnam when my mom was seven months pregnant, so he never got a chance to hold me or even get to know me. Of course I revere this photo. The effigy of my young father, dressed in his uniform, and smiling broadly at the camera is something that I will always treasure. By looking at the photo I have a means to both honor and do not forget him. Am I in some way worshipping my father’s photo by giving it a prominent place on my mantle piece? Of course not. I recognise that it is just a picture, no matter how treasured, and that my real father is no longer alive. The same conception is unfeigned of Catholic artwork. No one thinks that a bit of plaster is the real Virgin Mary. Paintings, statues and religious art have no actual power. Some will argue that there will have to be no religious art at all. They will point to Exodus 20:4 that states you shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the world beneath or in the waters beneath the earth. Let’s pretend for a moment that this verse wasn’t exclusively taken out of context. Read in a literal sense it would mean that we may use no visual images at all, not artwork, not movies (which are visual representations of living things), not even photographs. Remember the verse itself makes no exception for non religious artwork. God, himself, commanded the Israelites to make statues to adorn his temple. Exodus 25:18-20 Make two cherubim of beaten gold for the ends of the propitiatory, fastening them sot that one cherub springs direct from each end. The cherubim shall have their wings disseminate out above, covering the propitiatory with them; they shall be turned toward each other, but with their faces looking toward the propitiatory. Considering that these statues were connected to the ark, it is hard not to call them religious in nature. The verse though is in truth taken out of context. The next verse reads Exodus 20:4 You shall not bow down before them (idols) or worship them. For I, the Lord, am a jealous God…. This makes defending the Catholic exercise very easy. We do not worship idols or statues. You may not in an unintentional manner worship something, worship has to be purposeful or else what is the point? I will most times have conversations with galore non-Catholic’s who will point out that Catholics do surely kneel in front of statues. Kneeling by itself is not an act of worship. This may be proven by a heap of examples. Men are surely not worshipping their intended bride when they kneel while proposing. We are not worshipping the sides of our beds when we pray before we retire. For a great deal of years society knelt in honor of royalty. This was not a form of worship but of respect. Today, bowing is mutual in Asia, yet no one believes that Asians are worshipping their friends and family. Even in the bible we find persons bowing down without aim to worship. Some examples are Genesis 19: 1-Lot bows his face down to the ground before the two angels and he is not corrected by them. Genesis 18:2 Abraham also bows to the ground in front of angelic guests. Again this is not worship but a way to exhibit hospitability and respect due to guests. In II Samuel 9: 8 we are old that Jonathon’s son bows to David. Just from studying the bible alone, we may deduce that bowing or kneeling is not, by itself, an act of worship. Just as I may look at the photo of my father and do not forget somebody that I never knew, Catholics may contemplate religious art and be reminded of the holy men and women who have passed on into heaven and whose lives stay an example for us all.
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Do you feel the divergence b/w names:Madonna,Our Lady,Virgin Mary,Mother of God,Theotokos?if yes-what is it? thank you for your answer...i am writing a paper on difficultnesses of translation from russian into english and want to find out what is the best variant that will suit to the most english-speaking people No. I know all but one of them are the Mother of Jesus, I never heard of Theotokos before. |
