The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 158: Holy Images in the Liturgy (2026)

Episode Date: June 7, 2026

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. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. 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 in Ear 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 in Ere 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're reading paragraphs 1159 to 1162. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism at the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism in a year reading plan by visiting

ascensionpress.com slash CIY and you know what that stands for. That sense for catechism in here. You can also click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. This is day 158. 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 it's basically a 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 equateical. all economy of images. 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, angels, and what's not. So as we launch in to 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, 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. In 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 day 158. 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 Damascene 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 has 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 Nicaa 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 sacred 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 life, 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 fathers and the 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, our inviolate 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 and vestments, walls and panels, in houses, and on streets.

St. John Damascene 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 there we have it, paragraphs 1159 to 1162. Okay, 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 the way back to the ten commandments that we shall not make any graven 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 an asia in 787 that looks at this and realizes, okay, well, previously God, this is John Damascene, 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 all the written 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 they're explaining. 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 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 role of art is meant to point to something greater than itself and so you have these these transcendentals right you have the true the good the beautiful and words are meant to reveal the truth like words are meant to to draw us closer to the good words are meant to unveil veil beauty. And so similarly, art is meant to do this as well. Art has to be true. It has to be good and 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. I remember reading about a man who had grown up an atheist. And he's 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 Sharts Cathedral in France. And he walked into Sharts, and he said, literally, he walked into this cathedral, into this, into this Catholic church. And he was so struck by the beauty that was in the artwork that he said, I mean, he was, he was convicted. He said, God is real. And this is true. And there's something, there, you know, there's something about that argument for God's existence. via beauty. Yes, you can reason God's existence. You can, 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 some modern churches. 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 present to us in the Holy Eucharist, in the context of the mass. And so when we have churches that reveal that beauty, what's to do? Well, again, St. John Damascene, 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 that lifts your mind and your heart to God in a way that all the things just don't do, that's here you're blessed. And if you don't have that, I invite you just

to look like what is there? What kind of 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. This day 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's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.