Expert: Marco - 10/16/2007

Question
dear marco,
i was goin thru ur past answers in one of them u said that standing infront of a statue and praying to the real god can be done , but it sounds a bit illogical because if u r prayin the true god then why u need the statue at all ? why the level of consciousness is so low that u need a clay made statue for concentration ? the analogy u used that looking at children's photos and prayin infront of  a statue sonds too illogical.what happens to the 1st commandment thou shalt have no gods b4 me and 2nd thou shalt not have any thee graven image.throw some light
danish from india

Answer
Dear Danish,

praying in front of a statue does not violate the first commandment. In fact "thou shalt hane no gods before me" is not violated, because the peson does not direct his prayers to the statue, but only to the true God.
Besides "you shalt not have graven images" refers to the graven images of God the Father.
Idolatry consists in the belief that material objects may have divine personalities and powers.
When the "the Word was made flesh" (see John's Gospel) the Lord became visible as every other man. So, Jesus Christ could be seen as any other man. They could have taken some photographs of Him if photographs had been already invented.
It is then logical that we can now make some representations (pictures, statues, etc.) of Jesus.
Of course we can represent only His human body, and NOT his divine nature.
Obviously this does not mean that a catholic has to pray in front of a statue.
When I pray at home, I never pray in front of any statues or  pictures.
This is simply a free personal choice.
What matters is not praying in front of a statue or not, but  praying with our heart to the true God, the God of Jesus Christ.

Your brother in Christ,

Marco