The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - The Statue of Imitations

Episode Date: December 17, 2021

Statues can make a big difference in helping keep our Faith present in our daily lives, especially for kids as they grow up. But, sometimes religious statues make people uncomfortable. Jeff describes how statues are not idols, but rather tools to remind us of our salvation and the virtues we need to cultivate to attain it. Snippet from the Show Religious statues point to the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. A statue of Jesus points to salvation. We do not worship the statue, but rather use it as a tool to inspire our prayer and growth in virtue. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven's show, episode 249, the Statue of Imitations. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show. Thanks for joining me again. so look forward to being with you. And I wanted to talk to you this week about something that is in my home that some people might not like or understand. And they are statues. And we're going to talk about that. Statues. Do you have any statues in your home or your office? Maybe even in your car.

You might have a little statue up there on the dashboard. You know, I grew up with statues in my house. And I got to tell you, it really did make a difference. And I'll tell you why in this podcast, it made a difference. And if you have struggled with this and you don't have a statue in your home, maybe a statue of Mary or St. Joseph or St. Francis or one of the great saints, this show is for you. And maybe it's going to give you a little bit better spiritual feng shui in your home, sort of speak. That's what I should have called this show. spiritual feng shui. Hmm.

Well, anyway, statue of imitations is good enough. Hey, if you want to get the notes for today's show, I've got some paragraphs from the Catechism, some scriptures from the Old Testament, and the New Testament, they're all in the notes. And if you would like to get those, all you've got to do is text 33777. That's the number. But the topic is, my name, Jeff Kaven's one word, Jeff Kavis. text it to the number 3377. And if you're having trouble, maybe they stopped for some reason,

go ahead and sign up again and they'll continue to go. Well, I was meditating this week on Colossians chapter 1 and verse 15. And I've always loved this text where it says, speaking of Jesus, that he is the image of the invisible God. I love that. When you think about Jesus becoming a man, you have someone now who all wisdom and knowledge is in, and he is the ultimate icon. He is the image. He's a man. He is the image of the invisible God. And throughout history, God has been invisible for the most part. And then suddenly, 2,000 years ago, God is not invisible anymore, but he is like us. He's a man. There's an image there, right? So the incarnational aspect of Christianity has made such a difference in the world so much so that we can now have statues which draw us to him, not the statue.

There's nothing in the statue but concrete, nothing there at all, not worth worshipping, nothing's going to happen. In fact, that's sin. But that statue may draw you closer to God. And at the end of the show, I'm going to talk about some practical advantages of this in, your home. Well, throughout history, the history of Christianity, the church has typically used art to tell the story of salvation history. I remember being over in the Ukraine and over in Moscow, and I went into some of the churches, and they were absolutely amazing with art all around. And I remember one church in the Ukraine when you went in, it had the whole gospel

story all around the building on the walls. And I remember. remember our guide saying that years ago, the peasants didn't know how to read or write. So when they went to church, they saw the story sort of, you know, lived out through art. So art has always been a wonderful way to teach the faith. It's a way to educate those who are members of the faithful. But non-Catholics don't like a lot of this, even though they do exactly what we do with images and pictures and statues. Exactly. Exactly.

Well, I have statues in my house, and I keep that on the QT. I'll tell you about them at the end. So in the Old Testament, this is where the objection comes from. In the Old Testament, we have a number of verses that kind of outlaw images, but not just outlaw images. They outlaw our response to those images. So listen to this from Exodus 20. You shall

not make for yourself a graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth, you shall not bow down to them or serve

them. So the idea here is that God is commanding Israel. First of all, you have to understand the context of Exodus, the book of Exodus. They have just come out of 400, you can say that all loud, 400 years of bondage. And they are bowing down and they are worshipping statues and images, even from the sea, from the sea. And so this is why God, he gives them the law that, you know, if I'm bringing you out of bondage and you're going to become a people after my own heart and you're going to accurately live out in the public who I am,

and you're going to, through your actions and your words, you're going to echo me. Well, you can't have for yourself graven images. That's not one thing that you're going to have. And you cannot have, in fact, God says, don't have any likenesses of anything in heaven or on the earth or in the water below the earth. And don't bow down to them and don't serve them. So what Exodus is talking about is not simply the creation of an image per se, but what he's

talking about here is he is talking about their past and what they have become accustomed to, worshiping graven images and so forth. And God is saying, you can't do that now. Leviticus 194, do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods. I am the Lord, your God. God. So the problem was that people had a tendency, if they didn't worship the one true God, they had a tendency to find something to worship. So what would you worship? Well, you worship the things around you. You've got the animals, you've got the stars, you've got the mountains and hills,

and you've got everything that is part of God's created realm. And so if you can't see God and you don't have a relationship with God, then maybe God is in these things. And maybe we can create a bull out of gold and say this is the God that brought us out of Egypt, right? And then that's exactly what they did. So people who oppose religious statuary, they forget, though, that many of these passages that the Lord commanded them were also met with passages where the Lord commanded them to make images. Now, you've got to take it all. You know, in one area, he says, don't create any kind of graven image. And on the other hand, he says, but create this image.

So here's an example, Exodus 25. God says, and you shall make two cherubim of gold, two gold statues of angels, of hammered work shall you make them on the two ends of the mercy seat. make one cherub on the one end and one cherub on the other end of one piece of the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends the cherubim shall spread out their wings above overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings their faces one to another towards the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be well there you go i mean in one part of exodus exodus don't make any graven images of any likeness of anything that is in heaven on earth or below

the earth in the water. The point is he said don't make graven images. Don't make images that you would worship or represent deity. Don't do that. But then five chapters later in chapter 25, do it. Make these images of the angels. Which is right. Well, they're both right. Isn't that right? Right. So this battle, it drug out between what we're called the iconoclast, iconoclast. They're the people who were against statues. They even destroyed them in churches. And this tension between the church and these iconoclasts, it drug on. And to resolve this, the church formally confirmed the use of statues and other art as a means of veneration. We'll get to that word in a minute. veneration at the Second Council of Nicaea in the year 787 AD. So it was in 787 that the church confirmed the proper use of statues. And they clarified and they approved and they actually encouraged the people to honor Jesus, honor Mary, honor the saints.

and even the angels through what? Through the good and proper and holy use of statues. That's what the church teaches. Now there's a reason for that too. Something changed, and we'll get to that in a moment. The catechism of the Catholic Church really provides the best clear instruction on what we believe when it comes to statues at church or statues out in the city park or statues in your home, which I'm more concerned with

that you have statues in your home because they have a proper place and a proper use in your home. And I call this the statue of imitations, all right? Okay, so in the Old Testament, it says, in this is paragraph 2130, let me read these to you here, and then we'll take a break, but in paragraph 2130, in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically towards salvation by the incarnate word. So it was the bronze serpent, the Ark of the Covenant, and the cherubim. So what statues do is they point to something. That's the important thing to remember. They symbolically point to something. And that something is the incarnate word, Jesus Christ. So when you see a statue of Jesus, it is

pointing towards salvation by the incarnate word. And that's kind of the secret right there. Also in paragraph 2132, that whole section is good, by the way, 2130 to 2132, 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 vener, 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. Now, I'm going to talk to you about the difference between God alone and what is due to God alone and what is due to created beings.

There's two different words there, and we're going to take a look at that when we come back. You are listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Hi, I'm Sonia Corbett, the Bible study of Angelista. When I became Catholic, I had a really hard time understanding the role Mary was supposed to play in my life. So I went to her, and I told her, I just don't get it. I need your help. And guess what? Mary did just that. She showed me a way to pray that has revolutionized my entire life. Mary has been called the mother of listening. She didn't just hear the word. She knew how to hear it in light of her own relationships, circumstances, and habits.

And then she let the word transform her. I realized that I had to share what I was learning about Mary's way of praying with others. So I wrote How to Pray Like Mary, a step-by-step guide to discovering God's voice in the scriptures and letting Him transform your heart. I invite you to learn more about how to pray like Mary at ascensionpress.com or on Amazon. on today we're talking about the statue of imitations and i have a few of these statue of imitations in my home and uh i do i confess i'm guilty i try to imitate i try to imitate the virtue and the the gifts and the the way that certain saints certainly jesus the blessed

virgin mary saint joseph um i want to imitate them i want to to imitate them in my life. That, by the way, is the basis of discipleship, his imitation. I wrote about that in my latest book, The Activated Disciple, and you can get that at Ascension Press. But, okay, so sometimes we're talking here about statues in the home and how there has been a history of people who have been against them, and the church has spoken out about the proper use of statues, but there is a reason. There is a reason why it's a Okay, now. A really good reason. We're going to look at that. Sometimes anti-Catholics cite Deuteronomy 5-9, where God said concerning idols, you shall not bow down to them. Since many Catholics sometimes bow or kneel to statues, we need to figure out what that means. So why should we bring statues into our homes? Well, let's talk about that. Let's talk about statues here for a moment. And let's talk about the difference between worshiping God and venerating

venerating someone in the church by means of a statue. You know, as well as I do, whether you're Catholic or whether you're Protestant, that we have a tendency to keep photos in our homes. And you could go down in my house, and you're going to find, I suppose, close to 15 or 20 pictures. Yes, yes, yes, I have pictures on my walls at home. and there's a purpose for it, and I don't feel guilty about it. I don't think you feel guilty about it either, but I have photos on my walls,

and they are photos of my loved ones. I've got a photo of my mom and dad, Emily's mom and dad. We got pictures of the kids. We have pictures of each other right there in our home for everybody to come in and see. They're there, right? And I don't feel a bit guilty. We do not worship these photos. You will never see me.

going downstairs and seeing a picture of my mother or my mother-in-law and find me on my knees saying, I worship thee. I didn't do that. I don't do that. And when they're standing in front of me anyway, I'm not going to do it in front of a picture. I'm not going to worship anything but God alone. We enjoy seeing these pictures, don't we? And it brings back the memory of your family or your grandpa or your grandma.

And it kind of fills your life with a sense of love and, belonging. You've got a history. You got a pedigree. Well, statues of famous people, they go to Washington. They're all over the place. In the government buildings. They're in the parks. There's memorials all over Washington. And what do we do? We honor these famous people. We have that statue, which represents an entire catalog of doings and their words and their deeds. And this is the way that we preserve the memory of their contribution to society. It's the way we recall it. And we have a sense of gratitude for the work that they have done.

I don't hear people up in arms about that, to be honest. I've never, in all my years, and I had 12 years as a Protestant pastor, I have never heard people say, we got to go to Washington and take those statues down because Jesus said, don't, or God said in the Old Testament, you shall not have statues. I don't hear it. But I do hear that coming to you and me in the Catholic Church. In a similar way, like Washington and all the statues, Catholic statues, what do they do? Well, they do the same thing that they do at memorials in Washington.

They preserve the memory of incredible men and women in the church. People that we have already said and have beatified as being very whole. holy, and they're with God in heaven now. A lot of people are with God in heaven, but there are some people that are like, whoa, did they have a life? Did they set an example for us? And you can name them. You got St. John Paul II. You have St. Teresa of Calcutta. You've got St. Teresa Vavala. You have St. Augustine. You got Athanasius. Go on and on. I mean, we have thousands. I whittled that down to a few that I can follow, and I'll mention them at the end of the show. saints are notable people, and they should be honored, and they should be remembered for their

contribution to our church and the way our church has grown. And if you look at Christmas time coming up, you know, go into your Protestant friend's house. Now, don't tell them I said this, but you can go into their house, and I'll tell you what, they just might have a crush. A little nativity scene. And that nativity scene, is going to be filled with images. But they're not wrong. They're not wrong. What are they doing?

They're trying to tell a story. They've got the nativity scene because it tells the story of God becoming one of us. And there's not a lot of complaining about it. Nativity sets, what do they do? They lift our hearts toward God and they remind us of the incarnational miracle that took place over 2,000 years ago. You see, when we are worshiping God, when we worship God, there's one word that is reserved for God alone, and that is the word Latria, L-A-T-R-I-A, Latria. Latria is to worship God alone.

See, worshiping is reserved for God alone, and we worship our Lord when we need. before his likeness. We don't worship that likeness. We don't worship that piece of cement, but we venerate and we worship our Lord and Savior. So the statue acts as kind of a sacramental in a way. It's a reminder. It points to someone, and that is Jesus, the Savior of the world. He is the total object of our love, and he is the one we worship. We don't worship the statue one bit. It's merely a representation of Christ and one that helps to keep our attention focused completely on him. We want to become like him.

There was a time when God's people, the Jews, they didn't make images of God. God was invisible and they didn't make images of God because he had not revealed himself in a form that we could see. And so what are you going to do? Create a bull. You're going to create cows. You're going to create dogs or the moon or a mountain or water in the Nile or what? It's improper to put any created thing in the place of God.

Now, that's not what we're doing as statues. The statue is a reference point that reminds us of who God is, and we can say, I worship you, oh, Lord. Now, here's one of the keys. With the coming of his son, we have seen the face of God. Scripture says in John 14, 9, He who has seen me, has seen the Father. Jesus said that, he said that to Philip. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Whoa, for the first time in history, we know what God is like.

There's an image given to us. He is a man like us, and he's described. and that's why Christians began to lovingly and in a beautiful manner employ the artisans to create amazing images of Jesus. Oh, wow. And that changed everything. You see, the statue itself is merely a reference point. I remember going to Italy a few years ago to Florence,

and I went into a museum where the statue of David, was. And I saw it in, you know, books and encyclopedias and stuff like that. I saw the statue. Everyone knows what the David looks like. And it's a statue of David. I mean, it points us to King David. That's what it does. But when I went there, and maybe this happened to you too, if you've been there to Florence, I went in there and I suddenly turned the corner and there was the statue. It was magnificent. I got to be honest with you. I got tears in my eyes. It just choked me up. I looked at it and I thought, whoa, that points to such beauty, King David. It really did something to me that day. It really did. Now, did I worship it? No way. But I'll tell you what,

It did something to me. So the word Latria is reserved for God alone. We don't worship anything. We don't worship cement. We don't worship ceramics. We don't worship paintings. Nothing. They're all tools that point to something beyond the picture.

It's what a sacramental does. Whether it's holy water, whether it's your scapular, whether it's the rosary, it points to something beyond itself. Whereas, you just go to Mass, you can see all around you. We've got statues in mass, and we have these candles and everything else. And there are so many sacramentals in our worship, and they point to something, but a sacrament like baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, marriage, holy orders, you know, anointing of the sick. All of this is confession. All of this is a sacrament.

It is a direct encounter with Christ. The sacramental points you to Christ, and that's what statues are. Now, the other word that you have to learn is the word dulya. D-U-L-I-A. Dulia means to venerate. You see, there's the distinction between Latria to worship and Dulia to venerate. great is to give great credence and honor to somebody. Now, you know as well as I do, there's nothing wrong with that.

We're never commanded to not honor somebody or to think greatly of someone who is a man or woman of virtue. Give me a break. We're never, never called to not do that. So, Dulia is what we venerate in some sense, the pictures of my mom and dad and Emily's mom and dad and are on the walls downstairs, or no, they're on a table downstairs. There's a sense of duly, a sense of venerating, a sense of honoring my mother-in-law who really played a major role in me coming to a deeper relationship with the Lord and showing

me how to study scripture years and years ago when I was 18 years of age. I'd like to remember her. I don't care who comes marching in my house and tells me that that's wrong. It's not. It's not wrong at all. It's a way to honor her, too, and my parents, too, and my father-in-law, venerate, Dulia. And then there is one phrase that's a little bit different called Hyperdulia.

Hyperdulia is special veneration for the Blessed Virgin Mary, due to her role in the fact that she was conceived without sin, the immaculate conception. There's nothing to do with football. It has everything to do with the Blessed Virgin Mary. Virgin Mary being conceived without sin. That's cool stuff. That's monumental stuff. That's worthy of a picture, don't you say? Walk inside and see that. All right. Well, I think you get the idea. So let me give you seven things that statues are good for. I'll rattle through these fairly quick. Number one, they remind us of our faith, which is incarnational. They remind us of our faith,

which is incarnational. Number two, they are inspiring. I got a statue of St. Michael, the archangel. I wouldn't want to mess with that guy. But that is inspiring to me. I've got a beautiful picture of Pope John Paul II to my office and Mother Teresa. Inspiring. You take those down. All I have is basically off white walls here. Number three, a way of catechizing or teaching. A statue can become a launching point to teach something about the Pieta or the Blessed Virgin Mary or Joseph or John Paul II in our own time in Mother Teresa. Number four, it's a tool to evangelize. People come into our homes and go, oh, that's a beautiful statue. What's that?

Well, sit down. I'll evangelize you. Want a cup of coffee? But seriously, it's a tool to evangelize. And if your house and the walls speak. with images. It's a way of evangelizing your children, too, by the way. When they're growing up and they've seen that picture,

they've seen that statue for 18 years. It meant something. Number five, it's a reminder of what we can become saints. It's a constant reminder of what we can become. And number six, it's a reminder of where we are going. Heaven. Oh, that's my goal. Heaven, heaven, heaven, heaven.

Heaven, heaven, heaven. Everything in my life focused on heaven, heaven, heaven. That's the goal. Statue reminds me that those saints who had that same desire I have, they're in heaven today. And number seven, a reminder of what should and should not come into our house. It is a marvelous reminder that this house is a holy place where holy saints are, and the images of those saints remind me of what kind of man I should be or what kind of woman you should be. That is an amazing thing. It's like the Jews with their tassels on the four corners of their garment. Tseet, they call it. When they look down at those, it reminds them.

They're like a sacramental, and it reminds them their sons and daughters of the commandment. Now, to close this out, I told you, I'd tell you a little bit about me, who's in my house. I built my own posse. It's my own crew, okay? And I'm kind of close to five saints. I walk with them every day. They're in my house. I got some statues in my house, too.

Number one is St. Joseph, because I am a father and a husband. St. Augustine, because I'm a Bible teacher. St. Francis, because I need to be constantly reminded of simplicity. St. Teresa of Calcutta because I need to constantly have my focus on the disenfranchised and those who are poor and those that the world overlooks. St. John Paul II, the great, my hero. My hero, I want to be like him. It's like, I want to be like Mike.

When I grow up, I want to be like John Paul. Yeah, there's so much to emulate there. So that's what I wanted to share with you this week, the Statue of Imitations, and it hasn't run out. The Statue of Imitations is not going to run out as long as we are here on Earth. And I hope when I visit you in your home, you'll be able to walk around and show me what's important to you. Let's pray. Name of the Father's Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord.

We love you. We thank you, Lord, for becoming a man. becoming one of us and now we know who you are and we can now create these beautiful pieces of art that will point us to you. Thank you for this in Jesus' name. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. I love you, my friend.