It is true that almost all the churches that we visit or go to worship God have images. We can see the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. Patrick, St. Francis of Assisi, and so on. But these images are not our central reason to worship.
God said that we cannot worship other gods, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall not have other gods beside me” (Exodus 20:2–3). We do not worship statues or images, but we take them as a reference for our spiritual life. The images were created originally in the Catholic Church to help people in catechesis to better understand the life of God, Jesus, and saints. The stained-glass windows, for instance, helped people to know much better the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ because the Bible was read only by the clergy, monks, scholars, and very important people, such as kings.
Do we have images in our churches? Yes, but we do not adore them. Once again, we see the saints as reference for our lives. If these men and women were able to go to Heaven, following Christ and each one of His commands, we will also be able to go to the house of our Heavenly Father. God calls us to Holiness. There are many biblical texts in which we can find how God invites all of us to be holy. I am only going to talk about two of them. The first one is found in Leviticus 19:1-2, “The LORD said to Moses: Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: “Be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy.” The second one is in Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” In other translations we can read “Be holy, just as your heavenly Father is holy.” Both translations have the same meaning, to imitate the holiness and perfection of God, our Father.
Besides this, we have the images of the saints because we believe they are in heaven and can intercede for us. In the Apostles Creed we say, “I believe in… the communion of saints…” That communion means the saints are now with God in Heaven. For this reason, we have saints for each day, in which we celebrate the Eucharist in their honor. I want to highlight this: they can intercede for us, but they are not God; therefore, we do not adore images, but the images remind us that the saints are in heaven and intercede for each one of us.
Remember! Catholics do not adore images. The only one who is adored is God, who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
God bless you, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always!
Fr. George
