446. Does the commandment of God, “You shall not make for yourself a graven image” (Exodus 20:3), forbid the cult of images?
(Comp 446) In the Old Testament this
commandment forbade any representation of God who is absolutely transcendent.
The Christian veneration of sacred images, however, is justified by the
incarnation of the Son of God (as taught by the Second Council of Nicea in
787AD) because such veneration is founded on the mystery of the Son of God made
man, in whom the transcendent God is made visible. This does not mean the
adoration of an image, but rather the veneration of the one who is represented
in it: for example, Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Angels and the Saints.
“In brief”
(CCC 2141) 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.
To deepen and
explain
(CCC 2129) 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 Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you
act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any
figure...." (Deut 4:15-16). 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" (Sir 43:27-28). He is "the
author of beauty" (Wis 13:3). (CCC 2130) Nevertheless, already in the Old
Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed
symbolically toward salvation by the incarnate Word: so it was with the bronze
serpent, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim (Cf. Num 21:4-9; Wis
16:5-14; Jn 3:14-15; Ex 25:10-22; 1 Kings 6:23-28; 7:23-26). (CCC 2131) Basing
itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word, the seventh ecumenical council at
Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons - of
Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels, and all the saints. By
becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new "economy" of
images.
Reflection
(CCC 2132) The Christian veneration of images is not contrary
to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor
rendered to an image passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates
an image venerates the person portrayed in it" (St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto 18, 45: PG 32, 149C;
Council of Nicaea II: DS 601; cf. Council of Trent: DS 1821-1825; Vatican
Council II: SC 126; LG 67). The honor paid to sacred images is a
"respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone:
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 (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II, 81, 3 ad 3).
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