The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 277: Agnosticism and Graven Images (2025)

Episode Date: October 4, 2025

As we reach the conclusion of the section on the first commandment, we end by taking a closer look at agnosticism and graven images. Fr. Mike unpacks the different forms that agnosticism can take. He also examines the veneration of images and their relation to the first commandment. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2127-2141. 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 a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward a heavenly home. This is Day 277. We're reading paragraphs 21, 27 to 2141 as always. I am 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 of the Catholic Church.

You can also download your own catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CIY, and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates. And daily notifications today is day 277, reading paragraphs 2127 to 2141. That means we're getting all way to the end of this First Commandment, which means partially a Nugget Day, which is great. but also we're looking at two more things. Yesterday we looked at atheism as well as some other sins against the First Commandment. Today, we're looking at agnosticism and what exactly that is.

I mentioned that there's been a rise in atheism in our day yesterday. There's also been a rise in agnosticism in our day, which makes sense. With so much confusion, someone might not even be at the place where they're willing to say, I know that God exists or I know that God doesn't exist. There's kind of that, I don't know. that confusion is so real that it's that's what it ends up being agnosticism is basically i don't know and so here i am we're also looking at the last little bit before the nuggets is the last part of that first commandment you shall not make for yourself a graven image and so we're looking at that

because this is important well it's more for all of us it's important for us as catholics because we have images right we have images in our churches in our homes we have paintings we have statues we have all we're we're surrounded by images and so the question we get to ask is wait a second It is really clear and kind of obvious in the Bible here that we're not supposed to make any images. So what's with the images, right? So we're looking at that today, as well as I said, looking at some nuggets to summarize this whole First Commandment. As we launch into today, let us first launch into the Father's Heart with prayer. Father in heaven, I give you praise and glory.

Thank you so much for bringing us here to this moment, to this day, today 277. Thank you. Also, Lord, thank you. bring us to a place past not knowing, past being uncertain, past being, I'm not sure, or even, Lord God, in the midst of uncertainty, in the midst of not being sure, thank you for bringing us to a place where we can declare, God, I know you are, and God, I know you are good. Thank you for bringing us to this place of faith so that we can't be, we're not merely stuck

in that place of not knowing. Lord God, you surround us with beauty, help us to see you in, beautiful things, but not to stop in those beautiful, created things, but look through them to see you, Lord God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day 277. We're reading paragraphs 2127 to 2141. Agnosticism assumes a number of forms. In certain cases, the agnostic refrains from denying God. Instead, he postulates the existence of a transcendent being, which is incapable of revealing itself, and about which nothing can be said. In other cases,

the agnostic makes no judgment about God's existence, declaring it impossible to prove or even to affirm or deny. Agnosticism can sometimes include a certain search for God, but it can equally express indifferenceism, a flight from the ultimate question of existence, and a sluggish moral conscience. Agnosticism is all too often equivalent to practical atheism. You shall not make for yourself a graven image. The divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God by the hand of man. Deuteronomy explains, since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horib out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a raven image for yourselves in the form of any figure. It is the absolutely transcendent God

who revealed himself to Israel. He is the all. But at the same time, he is greater than all his works. He is the author of beauty. Nevertheless, already in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically towards salvation by the incarnate word. So it was with the bronze serpent, the Ark of the Covenant, and the cherubim. Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate word, the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea in the year 787, justified against the iconoclasts, the veneration of icons, of Christ, but also of the mother of God, angels and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new economy of images. The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the First Commandment which

prescribes idols. Indeed, the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype and whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it. The honor paid to sacred images is a respectful veneration, not the adoration due to God alone. As St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, religious worship is not directed to images in themselves considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is. In brief,

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. The First Commandment summons man to believe in God, to hope at him, and to love him above all your heart. all else. You shall worship the Lord your God. Adoring God, praying to him, offering him the worship that belongs to him, fulfilling the promises and vows made to him are acts of the virtue of religion which fall under obedience to the First Commandment. The duty to offer God authentic worship concerns man both as an individual and as a social being. Men of the present day want to profess the religion freely in private and in public.

Superstition is a departure from the worship that we give to the true God. It is manifested in idolatry, as well as in various forms of divination and magic. Tempting God in words or deeds, sacrilege, and simony are sins of irreligion forbidden by the First Commandment. Since it rejects or denies the existence of God, atheism is a sin against the First Commandment. The veneration of sacred images is based on the mystery of the incarnation of the Word of God it is not contrary to the First Commandment

All right there we have it paragraphs 2127 all the way to the nuggets at the end of 2141. Let's start with agnosticism. There's something fascinating about this so it says 2127 agnosticism assumes a number of forms just like atheism does

it says in certain cases the agnostic refrains from denying God instead he postulates the existence of a transcendent being, which is incapable of revealing itself and about which nothing can be said. So the agnostic can be someone who's like, I don't know. I get that all this came from somewhere, but we have no idea what that thing, what that being, what that person, if it is a person, what that is. So it's the idea here that someone's being honest, right? You can't have something come from nothing. You can't have a universe come from nothingness. So there must be some

kind of creator, some kind of creation. If there's a creation, there must be some kind of creator. But then they stop there and say, but I can't say anything about that. So that might be one form of agnosticism. In other cases, it says the agnostic makes no judgment about God's existence, declaring it impossible to prove or even to affirm or deny. So they're like, yep, I mean, there's no proof for it. There's no way to invalidate the claim that God exists. Therefore, I'm out. It's impossible because they're using a certain measurement that I would say is limited. That measurement being, if I can't measure it, I can't see, taste, touch, all those things, using my senses, then it must not be real. It goes on to say 2128, agnosticism can sometimes

include a certain search for God, but it can equally express indifferenceism. Now, let's look at this. So you can have an agnostic who's honest, an agnostic who actually cares. I've met agnostic like this. I've met people who I really actually do care about the question. I just don't know. so it can be a search for God. And we know God is Jesus has said. Anyone who knocks the door will be opened, right? So if you're seeking, you're going to find. That's what Jesus says.

But you can also be an agnostic because you're kind of indifferent. Just like, well, you know, who knows? So I'm going to throw up my hands and not even try to ask the question. It could be a flight from the ultimate question of existence. It could be a sign of a sluggish moral conscience. Like I don't, I don't really care and I don't really want to know. And also, if I did know, then I'd have to change, and I don't know if I want to do that.

So there can be so many different reasons, right? And we all have those same reasons in our hearts. Like, we all have those same things. I mean, here we are studying the catechism, and here we are coming up to the commandments. And it could be the case that there are some commandments that you and I are saying, I don't really know if I want to know. I don't, do I really, do I really want this? And so we're no different.

We're no different than the agnostic. We are also tempted toward this thing called practical atheism. So keep that in mind as we move forward. the other thing, the last thing you really hear, is the last part of that first commandment, you shall not make for yourself a graven image. And this is incredibly important. Obviously, it is so clear in the old covenant that Deuteronomy, since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly than making a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure. So here's this completely, absolutely

transcendent God reveals himself to Israel and says, don't try to capture me. me in representative form, right? Don't try to capture me by making an idol to me. Don't make a graven image. Now, at the same time, people say, again, this is the big question, but you guys have, you Catholics, you have statues, you Catholics, you have paintings, you have, I mean, so much art all over your churches and even in your homes. So are we breaking this first commandment of mimicking for ourselves a graven image? The church points even to the old covenant, the Old Testament and points out how even then God sometimes commanded and other times allowed the Jewish people, the chosen people, to make an image, right? So remember in the book of numbers when all of the

Israelites, many of the Israelites were bitten by seraph serpents and they're dying. And so God commanded Moses to form a bronze serpent mounted on a pole and all those who look at that serpent will be healed. If they've been bitten, they'll be healed. You have God commanding the construction of the Ark of the Covenant with the angels on top the Ark of the Covenant. So even in the Old Covenant, after God himself declares, do not make a graven image. He then also instructs them to make images. So keep that in mind. Then later on, as Christianity came on the scene, there was this movement called the

iconoclasts, the iconoclastic movement. So icons, image, and clasm or clastic, that want to break, destroy the images. This is my rough interpretation of these languages. English. So the breaking down of images, the iconoclastic heresy was that big question that would say we must not have images at all. But the church in the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea in the 8th century, right, year 787, said, wait, let's pause. In becoming incarnate, right? In becoming one of us, God has revealed himself in human form. So God has revealed himself in the incarnation, right?

So this changes the making of graven images. We can actually capture in some ways or express in some ways artistically the image of the son of God. We can also have the images of the mother of God and other aspects of what we believe. Now, this veneration, and not just have the images, but also venerate the images. And I love this. It's so important and so really, it's truly, truly helpful for us in paragraph 2132. It says very clearly,

The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the First Commandment, which prescribes idols. So when we venerate images, whether you know you touch the statue, you kiss the holy card, whatever that thing is, he says, indeed, the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype. So if you've been raised Catholic, you know that you've never ever been tempted to worship a statue. You know you've never passed by a holy card or anything like this and thought like, oh, this is an idol. You just say, oh, this is a reminder. This is a reminder that here's Joseph, the husband of Mary, or here's Mary, or here's Jesus, here's the crucifix. All these things, they've just been reminders to you of like,

oh, that's right. Here's the one I love. And the image I always give is, in my Bible, I used to have a photograph of one of my goddaughters and my niece, my goddaughter. And sometimes I take it out, just give it a little kiss, you know, that kind of that sense of just, yeah, that's like, oh, here's Maron, just give her a little kiss. And it wasn't as if I thought that that was anything, like, that's not her, that's an image. But that expression of affection cultivates affection, right? We all know this. That, I mean, how many times we've seen those movies of like the fighter pilot and he gets in his plane and he has a picture of his sweetheart, you know, on the, on the dash of the fighter, you know, and he kisses his fingers and touches the, the photograph

with his fingers. Like, what is that for? Well, that could be superstitious, obviously. That could be like a good luck thing. Or it could be a simple expression of his affection and that expression of affection increases affection. So that makes sense? We all know this. That expression of affection increases affection. And we are meant to love God more and more, to have more and more affection for the Lord. And so when we have these images, the idea behind veneration of them is not adoration, it's not worship. It's when I see this image and I respond to it somehow, I ponder it, I look upon it, or maybe even reach out and touch it, there is an expression of affection that's meant to amplify and grow my affection. Anyways, I could keep making the case,

but I would say this. I would say that I'm guessing that 100%, or at least 99.9% of the people, if you've been raised in the church, you've been raised with statues and images and all these things, you know that this is just, it's almost one of those questions that is, wait, people actually would think that because you've never been tempted to ever adore or worship an image, but that veneration has become so natural, just as natural as loving to have a picture of your family up in your house. Just it's simple as that. These are the people that are my family. These are the people that I love, whether that be your mom and dad, your siblings, your grandparents, or our Lord himself, our mother, Mary's husband Joseph, like all those. It's just, there's just

reminders. Again, it's simply the veneration is an expression of affection that grows our affection. I hope that makes sense. Anyways, tomorrow, you guys get to go to Article 2, aka the Second commandment. The name of the Lord, your God, is holy. And we're talking about that tomorrow. Until then, he's a little secret. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.