Statues- symbols of worship, not objects of worship

It cannot cease to amaze that there are some who openly posit that Catholics actually believe that images like this are actually alive and, not just merely alive, but Divine. That is the absurdity that comes from the "Catholics worship statues" crowd. We see this as what it is- Art.

What magnificent art, though.

True, this is not Jesus and Mary any more than a picture of the President of the United States actually is the President of the United States.

However, if you showed this picture to anyone, who would they say it is?

True, we do not have definitive proof of exactly what Jesus and Mary looked like but that is not the point of the sculpture. It is meant to convey two things to us-

• The realness of Jesus' death

• The real grief of His mother.

You cannot view this sculpture without a cold heart and not be moved.

That's the point of statues. They are not objects of worship, they are symbols of worship. They focus our mind on who we truly adore and what that adoration costs. That is, what it cost Him as well as what it costs us.

Too often, the critics of statues are those who believe in salvation with no cost to us. "He did it all", they say, despite the fact that He is recorded in the gospels no less than 5 times saying that His would-be disciple must carry his cross and persevere to the end.

At the end of the day, our salvation does come down to what Jesus did on Calvary but by participation, not imputation.

Colossians 1

24 I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. 25 I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me.

We complete what Christ began by cooperating with the freely given Grace that enables us to do that work (Ephesians 2:8-10). Easy? No. Jesus didn't promise easy.

Matthew 7:14

For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

What He did promise is that those who truly believe can make it.

Back to the statues.

A curious thing happens in Catholic churches when we get to a couple of weeks before Easter. It is actually a profound symbol that often goes almost unnoticed.

That statues get veiled.

Often overlooked as just another one of those "Catholic rituals", it is soul-quaking penetration into the mystery of Jesus. To explain this mystery, we start with what all Christians accept about Jesus and that is that He is fully human and fully Divine.

That's easy to say.

Penetrating how it works is another thing altogether.

It gets really hard in two particular places. First, in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prays "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass" and, secondly, on the cross where He cries out "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

How could Jesus- who is God - not know that the cup could not pass? How could He believe He was abandoned by the Father?

To these questions, we can add still more.

• How can God be born by a woman He created?

• How can God collapse from the weight of a cross?

• How can God die on that cross?

Yet all of these do not seem as puzzling as how could Jesus not know that the cup couldn't pass and how could Jesus, who is God, feel abandoned by God?

The astounding truth is that the only way Jesus could not know is the allow Himself not to know and the only way He could do that is by ''veiling'' His Divinity. This veiling is what the church symbolizes through this practice. It is some mysterious way that Jesus temporarily shielded Himself from His Divine knowledge because it was the only way He could experience the fear that the cup was too much to drink and the utter despair of believing God had totally abandoned Him.

I believe many have experienced the first, but fewer have experienced the total blackness of the 2nd. I have. It is a horrific and desolate place. It is a blackness so deep and pervasive that the thought that you could ever climb out of it is an absurdity. It is a small taste of hell.

Why on earth would Jesus allow Himself to experience such a suffering?

Again, I have been there. It was the darkest moments of my entire life- a moment that I was absolutely certain that God exists but just as certain that He had utterly abandoned me.

Jesus suffered this for the same reason He was baptized. He made the waters of suffering holy and salvific just as He did to the Jordan River and beyond. The greater the suffering, the greater the value to convert, to purge, to atone.

I can tell you for certain that the very real belief that God had abandoned me was the deepest suffering I have ever experienced. Jesus was right there with me. As I cried out, He cried out

My God! My God, Why have you abandoned me?

That was the farthest I have ever felt from Jesus when the reality was that I was closer to Him in that moment than I have ever been. I just couldn't see it.