One final corollary that goes with the Incarnation of the Son of God is this: the hallowing of images. This is, again, not something most people think about. However, it sometimes presents a difficulty for people approaching the Church from a Fundamentalist Protestant, Jewish, or Muslim background. The objection is this: If Scripture bids us as follows:
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. (Exodus 20:4)
…then what’s up with that Mary statue or that crucifix?
It’s a reasonable question, but it’s also worth noting that most critics of the Faith expend almost all their cries of “This breaks the Commandment!” solely on the Mary statue and the crucifix, while paying no attention whatsoever to their own bowling trophies, Bird in Flight sculptures in the Museum, Seattle Salmon Totem Poles, Precious Moments figurines of praying children, and statues of General Humptyfratz in the town square. All these are graven images of things in heaven above, in the earth beneath, and in the water under the earth too. But these images don’t count because they are either not churchy images or they are the right kind of churchy images, acceptable in Evangelical or Fundamentalist circles.
Also overlooked is the fact that God himself, just a few chapters after he gives the prohibition against images, tells Moses:
And you shall make two cherubim of gold; 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 with 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; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. (Exodus 25:18-20)
In other words, the God who (seemingly) forbade all images almost immediately commanded the Israelites to make an image. What gives?
What gives is the prohibition of idolatry. Old Testament piety is absolute in barring Israel from acting like pagans and worshipping creatures—including the amazingly easy-to-worship work of one’s own hands. (Indeed, as pagan myths like Pygmalion and modern phenomena like workaholism show, it is amazingly easy to fall in love with and give your life over to the work of your own hands.)
The constant temptation of paganism was to confuse things which remind us of God with God Himself. And so a whole host of creatures was worshiped by pagan antiquity. But as the graven images of cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant eloquently attest, it is quite possible to have images which are not the object of worship but rather point us to him who alone must be worshipped. That was the silent message of the cherubim as they faced one another on the Mercy Seat, bowing in adoration to the invisible God. It was a sharp but undeniable foreshadow of what was to come when, again worshiped by angels, Israel’s God was born in Bethlehem. That is why Catholics can have statues or icons in our Churches while retaining this commandment in our Bible. It was the destiny of Israel to be turned from the likeness of God to the Reality. And so all short cuts (like physical images) were denied them by this commandment, because they were being prepared, not for the revelation of a God without an image, but for the revelation of Jesus, who is the true “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). When that image came and God stamped his likeness on the human face of Jesus, the prohibition was transfigured. It is still true that no creaturely image can be adored as a god. But it is even truer that the Light of God shines through the Incarnate God who is Jesus Christ as it shines through a stained-glass window. Saints, who are members of his body, are now also windows into God, not barriers to his light or cheap Brand X substitutes for his glory. Therefore, in honoring their images (not worshipping them), we honor (not adore as gods) the saints they represent and in honoring the saints, we honor their Lord, who is the True Image of God.
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