The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 158: Holy Images in the Liturgy

Episode Date: June 7, 2023

We continue our examination of the different elements of the liturgy, specifically holy images in the liturgy. Fr. Mike highlights that because the Word was made visible in the flesh, Christians now can use images of Christ to pray. Liturgical art is a symbol that points to a greater reality than itself. It is meant to lift our hearts and minds to the Lord in a way that words cannot. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1159-1162. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to The Catechism Any Year Podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sure goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism Any Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward a heavenly home, this is day 158. We are reading paragraphs 1159 to 1162. As always, I'm using the ascension edition of the Catacombs,

which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catacombs of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catacism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. And you know what that stands for, that stands for Catacism in here. You can also click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily

notifications. This is day 150. We are reading paragraphs, as I said, 1159 to 1162. Yesterday we talked about music and we talked about singing. We talked about words and actions. Today, we're talking about images. And just it's basically a four short paragraphs, but these four short paragraphs are incredibly important because they talk about the sacred image. four short paragraphs, but these four short paragraphs are incredibly important

because they talk about the sacred image. So recognizing that Christians use images to help them pray. And this is an ancient, ancient tradition that is only made possible because of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, as the word made flesh. We realized that before this, there could be no images made to represent God. Except with the incarnation, the reality, of course, is the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And so now there is the possibility to have a new, what do you call, economy of images. And so we're going to talk about that today. So holy images, not only of our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, but also the saints, our lady, of our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, but also the saints, our Lady, angels, and what's not. So as we launch into today, let's say a prayer,

as we take this next step, talking about holy images in our prayer. Father in heaven, we know that you hear our prayers. We know that you have sent your son into this world, you revealed your glory, you have revealed your heart as you've revealed to us, your son. We ask you to please continue to reveal your heart to us. Continue to unpack the love that you've placed in our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit.

Lord, God, help us to see you in all things, in all things that you have created, help us to see your artistic hand. And in all things that you have created help us to see your artistic hand. And in all things that artists have created, in every beautiful thing, Lord, let us see a trace, a shadow, a sign of your goodness, of your reality, and of your beauty. Help us to see you in all things today. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. And the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, I'm thinking three times now, it's a 150, we're reading paragraphs 1159 to 1162.

Holy Images. The sacred image, the liturgical icon, principally represents Christ. It cannot represent the invisible and incomprehensible God, but the incarnation of the Son of God has ushered in a new economy of images, as St. John Damocene wrote, previously, God, who has neither a body nor a face, absolutely could not be represented by an image. But now that He has made Himself visible in the flesh and is lived with men, I can make an image of what I have seen of God and contemplate the glory of the Lord, His face unveiled. Christian iconography expresses in images the same gospel message that the scripture communicates by words, image and word illuminate each other.

As the second council of Nassia stated, We declare that we preserve intact all the written and unwritten traditions of the church which have been entrusted to us. One of these traditions consists in the production of representational artwork, which accords with the history of the preaching of the gospel. For it confirms that the incarnation of the Word of God was real and not imaginary, and to our benefit as well, for realities that illustrate each other undoubtedly reflect each other's meaning. All the signs in the liturgical celebrations are related to Christ, as are secret images of the Holy Mother of God and of the saints as well.

They truly signify Christ who is glorified in them. They make manifest the cloud of witnesses who continue to participate in the salvation of the world and to whom we are united above all in the sacramental celebrations. Through their icons, it is man in the image of God finally transfigured into his likeness who is revealed to our faith, so too are the angels who are also recapitulated in Christ. The second council of Nicaea further states, following the divinely inspired teaching of our Holy Father's and the tradition of the Catholic Church, for we know that this tradition comes from the Holy Spirit who dwells in her,

tradition of the Catholic Church. For we know that this tradition comes from the Holy Spirit who dwells in her. We rightly define with full certainty and correctness that, like the figure of the precious and life-giving cross, venerable and holy images of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, are in violet lady, the Holy Mother of God, and the venerated angels. All the saints and the just, whether painted or made of mosaic or other suitable material, are to be exhibited in the holy churches of God on sacred vessels, investments, walls and panels, in houses, and on streets. St. John Damocene also further stated,

The beauty of the images moves me to contemplation, as a meadow delights the eyes and subtly infuses the soul with the glory of God. Similarly, the contemplation of sacred icons, united with meditation on the Word of God and the singing of liturgical hymns, enters into the harmony of the signs of celebration, so that the mystery celebrated is imprinted in the heart's memory, and is then expressed in the new life of the faithful.

Okay, so then we have it paragraphs 11-19 to 11, 62. Okay, a couple things to highlight, and I think this is going to be pretty important. Originally, there is no ability. We have no warrant. In fact, we are prohibited from making any representational artwork when it comes to the Lord, when it comes to God himself, right? I mean, this goes all the way back to the Old Testament. This is all all the way back to the Ten Commandments that we shall not make any grave an image. And so the big question is, wait, are Christians violating the Ten Commandments or one of the Ten Commandments when they make an image? But the answer comes from, you know, we have the history of the church. We also have this second council of Nassia, seven, eighty seven. That looks at this and realizes, okay, well, previously God, this is John Demacine, previously God who had neither a body nor a face absolutely could not be

represented by any image, but now he's made himself visible in the flesh and live with men. So therefore, I can make an image of what I've seen of God. And so there was a group of people called the iconoclasts, right? And iconoclast means like the destroyer of images. So they would want to destroy all images of our Lord, or of Mary, or of the saints, any kind of images that would represent the Lord or holy things. Because they saw that as a violation, right, of the Ten Commandments, or one of the Ten Commandments.

And yet, we recognize, and I love this, this is the second council of Nicaea, that makes this so clear that we have preserved, the church has preserved intact, has preserved intact and unwritten traditions of the Church. And one of those traditions consists in the production of representational artwork, which goes all the way back to the very beginning of the preaching of the gospel. And I love that their explanation for this.

It says, this confirms that the incarnation of the Word of God was real and not imaginary. That we actually get to say, no, Jesus did come in time. This is not a myth. This is not one of those stories. It's not a fable that when we have artwork depicting Jesus doing something, right? Jesus healing the blind man. We have artwork depicting Jesus on the cross or Jesus rising from the dead. These are historical realities. This is not a myth. This is not something that was dreamt up. This is not a fable. And so part of this representational artwork

is trying to put into time the reality of what happened actually in time. And not only that, but here's the church is saying, we have the words, I mean, literally, we have scripture. And what is scripture, other than images, we've already talked about this, right? Words are symbols that represent a deeper reality. So what is good artwork artwork is a symbol.

There are represents a deeper reality. And this is this is I hope this is helpful for for all of us to understand the role of art. Right. So the role of art is meant to unveil right the? The role of art is meant to point to something greater than itself. And so you have these transcendentals, right? You have the true, the good, the beautiful. And words are meant to reveal the truth. Like words are meant to draw us closer to the good. Words are meant to unveil beauty. And so similarly, art is meant to do this as well. Art has to be true, it has to be good, it has to be beautiful. So here's liturgical art.

That liturgical art is meant to lift the mind and the heart to the Lord. And it does this in a way that words sometimes can't do. Hopefully, maybe you've experienced this, remember reading about a man who had grown up in atheist. And he was pretty committed atheist by the time he was college age or shortly after college. And at one point, he was in Europe and he walked into Shartz Cathedral in France. And he walked into Shartz and this, he said, literally, he walked into this cathedral,

into this Catholic church, and he was so struck by the beauty that was in the artwork that he said, I mean, he was convicted, he's God is real, and this is true. And there's something, there's something about that argument for God's existence, the beauty. Yes, you can reason God's existence, you can logic your way to that kind of a thing. You can have an argument about the whole thing. But there's also other ways we communicate the true and the good and the beautiful.

And part of that is artwork, iconography. Part of that is what we talk about when we have our churches decorated with beautiful imagery. And that's one of the things that, in some ways, has been lost in a lot of modern churches. They've stripped themselves. They have maybe one or two pieces of artwork. They have maybe a couple statues, as opposed to just being suffused by beauty. When you walk into the church, you're stepping into another world, essentially, right?

You're stepping into a place where here is the cross is revealed and the ugliness of the cross, which points to the beauty of God's love, that the reality of the saints, the reality of the angels, who are always present to us, especially, especially present to us in the Holy Eucharist, in the context of the Mass. And so when we have churches that reveal that beauty, what to do? Well, again, St. John Damocene, who's been quoted twice today, he says, the beauty of the images move me to contemplation, just like how natural creation, right? He says, the beauty of a meadow delights the eye and subtly infuses the soul with the glory of God. And so at this point,

if you have some art in your house, some art that just points to the Lord, that lifts your mind and your heart to God in a way that other things just don't do, that's here, your blessed. And if you don't have that, I might you just to look, like what is there? What can art might there be out there that you'd be able to bring into your home

and to just have that present so that as your gaze just looked around your own home, looked around your room, your mind would be able to be raised to the Lord to contemplation. Your heart would be maybe just that much more set on fire with the love of God because that's what art is meant to do. It's meant to raise our minds and our hearts to the Lord through what is good, what is true, and what is beautiful. Anyways, here we go.

To stay 158 and wow, what a gift to be able to travel through this year with you. I'm so honored and I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. God bless.