27 July, 2009

Discussion with richardatf about Idolatry

(richardatf) The picture is not an idol granted, the statue is. The foot of the statue of "St Peter" (which is actually a statue of the Roman god Jupiter) has been worn away by all the lips of the worshiping catholic people who have kissed it. How many times have you been on your knees before a statue of Mary? This is worship.

(Cristoiglesia)A statue is not necessarily an idol. It can also be a work of art. For it to be an idol one has to believe it to be a God and to worship it as a God. Catholics are forbidden in the Catechism of the Catholic Church to worship anyone or anything but God. Here is what the Catechism says:

Idolatry

2112 The first commandment condemns polytheism. It requires man neither to believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the one true God. Scripture constantly recalls this rejection of "idols, [of] silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see." These empty idols make their worshippers empty: "Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them."42 God, however, is the "living God"43 who gives life and intervenes in history.

2113 Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and mammon."44 Many martyrs died for not adoring "the Beast"45 refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.46

2114 Human life finds its unity in the adoration of the one God. The commandment to worship the Lord alone integrates man and saves him from an endless disintegration. Idolatry is a perversion of man's innate religious sense. An idolater is someone who "transfers his indestructible notion of God to anything other than God."47

How is a statue of St. Peter a statue of the Roman God Jupiter? Are you trying to say that they are one in the same person? Excuse me for saying this but that is an idiotic assumption. Are you trying also to draw a parallel that kissing an object or I would guess also a person is somehow in your mind worshipping them? I assume you kiss your loved ones, does that mean that they are your Gods and you worship them? How do you come to this leap of logic?

I have never prayed on my knees before a statue of the blessed mother but I am not opposed to it. Why would you be? I even pray while kneeling beside my bed. In your twisted logic I guess I would be accused of worshipping my bed.

(richardatf) The catholic symbol for the "host" is a sun, put it in a well named sunburst monstrance and we see only one example of sunworship in catholicism.

No, the sun is not a symbol of the host in the Blessed Sacrament. There is no sun worship in Catholicism. The truly real and substantial Body of our Lord is placed in the monstrance which depicts by the rays of light coming from His Body that He is truly the light of the world and the object of our worship.

John 8:12 (King James Version)
12Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

God bless!

In Christ
Fr. Joseph

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