The mystery of the Church is not a mere object of theological knowledge, it is something to be lived, something of which the faithful soul can have a kind of connatural experience before arriving at a clear notion of it. The theological journey to clear the notion has met with many doctrinal question as old as the history of the Church itself.

Thus, the question “Do Catholics worship images?” has generated a lot of controversies among Christians within and outside the Catholic Church especially those who drift into underground churches in the hope of finding some ideal type of community. In recent times too, discussions of this nature have occupied pages of Newspapers. It was this same controversy that pushed the second council of Nicea in 787AD to define the use of images and statues in the Catholic Church. The Council proclaimed the efficacy of the intercession of Saints and approved the veneration of images (icons) and statues. This action assured the rightful place of sacred art in the religious life of the faithful.

This write up is an attempt to clear the illusions clouding the Christian understanding of the use of images in the Catholic Church, to define its origin, scriptural background and significance making a distinction between worship and veneration the two theological terms that people have ever confused with each other. And secondly to dispel doubts over the use of images in the Catholic Church.

Etymologically, the word image is a Latin word “imago” which means copy or likeness, picture, pattern or model. According to John A. Hardon in his pocket Catholic Dictionary, images are the representation or likeness of something.

Image can be of two types, secular and religious. The secular refer to the images or pictures we hang in different positions in our houses or rooms for decorations. Religious images refer to the sacramental, relics e.g. scapulars, rosaries, statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the crucifix etc which are used in the Catholic Church for liturgical celebrations. The latter of course is the area that concerns us in this discussion.

According to Cardinal Lercane, the veneration of images in the Catholic Church began in the very first days of Christianity in Catacombs and its use was defended by the Church against iconoclasm, which was then promoted by the Byzantine emperors – Leo III and Constantine V in the 8th Century, who violently attacked it. The chief defenders of the images during the controversy prior to the Vatican II were St. John of Damascus (C 789 AD) who lived outside Byzantine Empire under Arab rule and St. Theodore the studier (749 – 826 AD), Abbot of the Monastery of studios in Constantinople. Gregory II resisted this attack hence the second council of Nicaea condemned the heresy and affirmed the Orthodoxy of the veneration by 787 AD.

Among the issues raised by the controversy was the charge of. Idolatry made against the Christians who were the “image-venerators”. It was this issue that demanded for the response which drew a clear and emphatic distinction between “lateria”- the worship that may rightly be ascribed to the three persons of the Trinity alone, and “Schetike time” the relative honour that may be given to created persons or objects associated with God. Thus, for the defenders, images are not to be worshipped but merely honoured.

Across the ages, the Church has continued to maintain this tradition and
this is the reason why the Vatican 11 Council Fathers upheld the tradition in this words.

“The practice of placing sacred images in Churches so that they be venerated by the faithful is to be maintained… Nevertheless, their number should be moderate and their relative positions should reflect right order. For otherwise the Christian people may find them incongruous and they may foster devotion of doubtful orthodoxy” (Cf Vatican II. The Constitution on the sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium No.125).

The new code of Canon Law also affirms this tradition following the teaching of the Council Fathers. According to the Code,

“The practice of exposing sacred images in Churches for the veneration of the faithful is to be retained. However, these images are to be displayed in moderate numbers and suitable fashion (Canon 1.188).

This assertion immediately sets us unto the distinction between “worship and veneration”.

Worship

The term worship means homage-the attitude and activity designed to recognize and describe the work of the person or thing. Worship is thus synonymous with the whole of a reverent life, embracing piety as well as liturgy. There can be internal only, or also external if the interior sentiments are manifested externally by gestures and words. It is public if it is given in the name of and by mandate of society. The liturgy is the entire body of action by which the Church (the mystical body of Christ) is united to give honour to the Father.



Thus, worship simply put is respect or reverence. For the Longman’s Dictionary of Contemporary English, worship means great respect, admiration paid to God or to a god (P.1272).

Worship can be divided into two categories: Secular and Religious. Secular worship is the respect that is given to people because of their exalted positions. Example is the worship given to judges, governors and heads of state. Religious worship refers to the cult or reverence paid to God, in its absolute form. Religious worship can be seen in three ways which include Latria, Hyperdulia and Dulia.

Latria

This is the absolute honour due to God alone and none other, it belongs
to Him as the Creator of everything and the Lord of all. Once it is given
to anything that is created, it means idolatry. Idolatry is the giving
of the worship that belongs to God alone to anything created or made, even attachment to wealth or pleasures are idolatry (cf Col. 3:5, Phi1.3:19, Eph, 5:5 and Matt.6:24).

The scripture out rightly condemns such attitude.

“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of bondage. Thou shall not have strange gods before me. Thou shall not adore them nor serve them (Exodus 20:1-5).

Hyperdulia

This is the indirect worship or honour due to the Virgin Mother of Jesus
Christ. It is indirect because without the connection of Christ, she would
not deserve it. Hyperdulia is not comparable with Iatria. Catholics give
her special honour because of the special favour she received from God. This honour is insignificantly small when compared to the honour they hold for God, but that this honour given to Mary is at the same time higher than that of the angels and the other saints.

Thus, it is the ignorance of this subtle distinction that makes people to
accuse Catholic of worshipping Mary as God. This honour specifically given came from the fact that God first honoured her (Lk. 1:28-32) and Mary acknowledged the honour from God hence “all generations will call me blessed” (Lk.1:46-48). In other words, Mary paid to God the Latria worship which is His due while acknowledging the hyperdulia which God has conferred on her.





Dulia

This is the relational reverence given to certain persons and things because of their close relationship with God for instance the honour given to the saints in heaven. All those who have lived in this world, suffered all we suffer now, struggled to be good as we do now, and have by God’s grace attained eternal salvation, are known as the saints in heaven. We honour them because they are a source of encouragement to us that we can also attain heaven.

Thus, things like churches, altars, sacred vessels, and religious images
are reverenced in this respect because their use is connected directly- with God. They are respected because of the dignity of the persons they represent and this is where veneration takes its position as distinct from worship exclusively meant to honour God.

Veneration

Veneration is a Latin word “veneratio” meaning an act of expressing

reverence a feeling of high respect and reverence (The Lexicon Webster Dictionary P. 11099). Veneration is not worship but mere honour given to the saints because of the edified life they lived on earth. This is where dulia applies. The code of Canon Law makes this mere emphatic:

“To foster the sanctification of the people of God, the church commends to the special and final veneration of Christ’s faithful, the Blessed Mary
ever Virgin, the mother of God whom Christ constituted the mother of all.
The Church promotes the true and authentic cult of other saints, by whose example the faithful are edified, and by whose intercession they are supported.” (cf c.1186).

According to Edward Yamold, Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints, expressed by statues, pictures, lights, pilgrimages; can express a joy and confidence in the way in which God works through human intermediaries; they depend upon the Doctrine of the communion of saints, which asserts the interdependence of all Christians, living and dead. These practices at their best harness human emotion and create beauty to the service of God, and often lead a gentler, more tolerant spirituality than the austere devotions of a strict Calvinist.

Linked with this position of Edward, the iconodules of the Byzantine world had argued that it is not only legitimate but essential to make images especially that of Christ because to refuse to do so is to imply that this humanity or his body is unreal. Therefore, as the council of Sicea puts it in 784 AD, Images at that guarantee that the incarnation of God the word is true and not illusory’ (Ibid P. 1969). Thus images safeguard not only the authenticity of Christ’s material body but also the spirit-bearing potentialities of all
material things. As John of Damascus would say, “I shall not cease to honour matter for it is through matter that my salvation, came to pass. Do not despise matter, for it is not despicable, nothing is despicable that God has made”(cf In Defence of the Holy 1 Cons.1,16,Et, pp. 23-4).

For Theodore the Studite, “The fact that the human person is made in the image and likeness of God means that the making of images (icons) is in some way a divine work” (cf The Holy Icons, III iii, 5; ET,p.101). Each man or woman is a creation after the image of God the creator, a sub-creator to borrow from J.R.R. Tolkien’s phrase. Each is priest of the created order, refashioning material things, revealing God’s glory in them, and so giving them a voice and making them articulate in the divine praise. Iconography (use of images) bears witness to the royal priesthood that is the prerogative of every human
being. To make an image from plaster or cubes of stone, from wood or paint, and to sanctify that image and incorporate it in the worship of God, is to call down his blessing upon all other forms of human art and craftsmanship.



Therefore, the respect given to the religious images by Catholics does not signify worship in any form and that is why God does not condemn it.

The scripture affirms this position hence from the above analysis; one
understands that God has not in any way condemned the making of images except worshipping them. And the importance God has attached to these images has biblically expressed and exposed the theological value of the religious images. The historical exposition of God’s commendation can be seen in the book of the Ark of the Covenant built with molded image of two angels placed on it.

“Then you shall make a mercy seat of pure fold; two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a halt, its breath… and you shall cut the mercy seat on top of the ark; and in the ark you and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you; you are to make two golden cherubs.. There I shall come to meet you… (Ex. 25:10-22).

In the same manner God commanded the making of the image of a fiery serpent to act as a therapy to the snake bite on the Israelites which came as a result of their impatience and cursing the name of God.

“And the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole,
and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a
bronze serpent and set it on. a pole; and if a serpent bit any man he would look at the bronze serpent and live” (Numbers 21:8-9).

Thus, as God allows the making of images, he also allows the use of images in worship (of 2 Samuel 6:13-14). The reason for this according to Fr. Obinwa is because he knows that man is corporeal and needs some visible works of art to contemplate heavenly realities. Without the crucifix for instance, one will soon forget the price at which his redemption was bought by Christ, and he may relapse into sinful life. The ancient Israel used images in worship as in the case of the ark on which was placed the image of the two angels. And sacrifices were often offered to God before the Ark of the Covenant. When the bearers of the ark of Yahweh had gone six places, he (,David) danced whirling round before Yahweh with all his might, wearing a linen, loincloth round him” (2 Sam. 6:13-14). In the New Testament we have similar commendations about the Cross (Crucifix) of Jesus where reference is made by St. John, author of the fourth Gospel to Num.21:8-9 when he says in the words of Jesus Christ:

“Just as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness (by Moses) so the Son of man shall be lifted up that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life” (John 3:14). Similarly, it is noted in the Acts of the Apostles that; God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul., so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them (Act 19:11-12). We learn from this, that it was not that the handkerchiefs cured the people, but that God in His infinite mercy chose to act through the handkerchiefs as He chose to meet and speak with the Israelites through the ark (Ex.25:17-22). It is on this note that Rev. Fr. J.0. Mbukanma speaks: “There is nothing wrong in the use of blessed medals, holy pictures, crucifixes, rosaries, if these can help us to lift our minds to God. God can make use of any these in showing us His love and mercy”. This shows that the use of religious images in the Catholic Church should not simply be seen as idolatry without looking beyond the images to see the realities they represent since the images act as “a point of meeting, a place of encounter, it is a doer. Therefore, God does not condemn the use of images in the church rather He condemns idolatry and that is the worship of the images and other things which are not of God. This can be seen in Deut. 5:8-10, 4:15-16).

A rather more interesting question here is what is the significance or the
spirituality or the value of the use of images in the church, having known
that we do not worship but venerate, or rather what do we derive from venerating them? To this question, I move straight to provide the answers.



According to Avery Dulles, “images in religious sphere function as symbols. Thus images speak to man existentially and find an echo in the inarticulate depths of his psyche. Such images communicate through this evocative power. They convey a latent meaning that is apprehended in a non-conceptual, even a subliminal way. For images to serve as symbols as Dulles holds, shows that symbols transform the horizon of man’s life, alter his scale of values, reorient his loyalties, attachments, and aspirations in a manner far exceeding the powers of abstract conceptacle thought. There is some isomorphism between what the image depicts and the spiritual reality with which the faithful are in existential contact.

The image is not merely a decoration but a part of the liturgy and outside
the context of prayer it cases to be image and becomes the same thing as the picture on the wall. And within the context of prayer, the image is
not only a “visual aid” but fulfils a sacramental function, constituting
a channel of divine grace. In the view of the seventh ecumenical council,
when we honour and venerate an image, we receive sanctification”. By virtue of the image, the venerator enters the dimensions of sacred time and space and so is brought into a living, effectual contact with the person or mystery depicted. The image serves a means of communion; it ensures that the communion of saints is not simply an article of faith but a fact of immediate experience. Therefore, the images as we have discussed act as spiritual catalysts which speed up our spiritual interaction with our Saviour Jesus Christ. This is the Catholic belief and in holding this view, one has to evade the confusion and problem of worshipping the images. Christians should not exaggerate the importance of images to the point of worshipping them neither should they undervalue the religious images as to destroy them (iconoclasm). The images do to us in the Church what every other statutes ofstatesmen, Heroes and other famous personalities do in the secular world.

Thus, when we pray before the crucifix or any other sacred image, we do not direct the prayers to the image but to what they represent -Christ as represented by the crucifix hence our respect to Holy Virgin Mary and the saints through their images is reflective. So to the question “Do Catholics worship images?” You better judge for yourself.

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