Images are manufactured not as objects of worship but as a method of honoring Mary and the Saints for their zealous quest of doing God’s will

By: Allan Elutin Ecleo

In my engagement in this ministry which I have been enduring for approximately 2 years now, the stereo-type issue that non-Catholics have been unexhaustinglly taking up is about idolatry.  It’s very tiring in the process but needed to address repeatedly hoping that it would provide enlightenment in the long run, through God's grace.  Just this morning, the first thing that popped up in my notification is this issue again using different biblical references to imply smashing of carved image.  The post with an attachment of a broken image of the Blessed Virgin Mary which I preferred not to re-post as I found it very debasing, shows like this :

The verse that this brother posted has this specifics:

⁹On that day, says the LORD, I will destroy the horses from your midst and ruin your chariots;

¹⁰I will demolish the cities of your land and tear down all your fortresses.

¹¹I will abolish the means of divination from your use, and there shall no longer be soothsayers among you.

 ¹²I will abolish your carved images and the sacred pillars from your midst; And you shall no longer adore the works of your hands.

¹³I will tear out the sacred poles from your midst, and destroy your cities.

¹⁴I will wreak vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations that have not hearkened.

Micah 9-13 talks about the restoration of Israel and the removal of elimination of everything that pulled them away from the Lord both the OBJECTS OF WORSHIP and the WEAPONRY which the IDOLATERS had relied on while setting aside God.

Sacred poles cited in verse 13 are WOODEN POLES erected by the Canaanite in near their shrine’s altar in honor of their god Baal which is an imaginary god created by their illusive mind.  (pls. see Exodus 34:13)

Exodus 34:13  Tear down their altars; smash their sacred pillars, and cut down their sacred poles.

Statues, icons and pictures of the saints are there to remind us of the person portrayed and the honor which they bestowed upon God.

The use of all images in worship of God is not forbidden by the first commandment (second commandment as Non-Catholics number them). Exodus 20:4-5 says "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God".

The proscription here is not the production of images (pictures), but the worship of the images instead of God, just like how the Canaanite worship their god Baal.

It is interesting to note that God orders the Israelites through Moses to: "make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover (of the Ark of the Covenant)" (Exodus 25:18).Cherubim are angels; something in heaven above. Subsequently, God charges them to make an image of something on the earth: "Make a lampstand of pure gold and hammer it out, base and shaft, its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms . . . Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms . . . " (Exodus 25:31-40) 

The Israelites would kneel before these images as part of their Temple worship; not in worship of the images but in worship of God.

ALL Christians both Catholics and non-Catholics use a symbol of a fish to depict Jesus. The fish is something in the waters below.

Kneeling in prayer before a statue doesn't signify of a person worshiping the sculpture or the person represented by the statue.

Worship is bestowed only upon God while honor and praise are given to the saints for the model emulated and assistance they have provided in our mission to achieve God's will.

The use of images has Old Testament starting points where it is commanded by God; not as a objects of worship, but as objects used in the worship of God. Statues, icons, and stained glass windows turned to be popular in the early church as the people at the time had no Bibles on obvious reason that printing had not been discovered yet. Even if they had been able to acquire them, the average Christian could not read. The images told the Bible stories and were used as methods of evangelization and instruction.

Common sense:  If I’d smash your loved ones images in front of you, do you think you would leap in jubilation.  Similarly, do you think Jesus will be grateful of your harsh acts by smashing His Mother’s images, who bore Him for 9 months and who endured the most traumatic, painful, unbearable experience that a mother could experience, while her son suffered the most excruciating pain of crucifixion. The fourth commandment (Honor your father and mother.) is not limited to honouring own parents alone, as one of the brethrens responded when I cited this verse, but most especially Jesus' mother whose obedience to God is incomparably selfless.

Instead of concentrating on this, why don't focus on the more profound meaning of the so-called idolatry (premarital sex,  same sex marriage, abortion, wars, terrorism, trespassing on territorial boundaries, divorce, labor malpractice, piracy, corruption, monopoly, drug trafficking, chronic disrespect of elderly, cyber-sex, pornography, etc.) by providing alternatives of prescriptions/solutions for them to return to God's love than focusing on this? 

References:

1. St. Charles Borromeo, Catechism of the Catholic Church 
2. http://www.truthnet.org/Bible-Origins/4_How_was_Bible_written/#_ftnref1,  How was the bible written  
3. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07125a.htm,Hammurabi