Latest / The Uncensored Catholic / Show 160: THE VENERATION OF IMAGES OF THE SAINTS

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Show 160: THE VENERATION OF IMAGES OF THE SAINTS · The Uncensored Catholic

0:41
The Ayah Welcome to this show, will continue to talk about the whether a
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Catholic can be loyal as a citizen of his nation while following the guidance of
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the Pope, which is obviously he can. We cannot agree to follow and
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help enforce or even fund immoral laws and policies. We have a duty.
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Like if the Nazi government tells you to come turn in your Jewish neighbor to
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have them killed, you can't do that as a Catholic. Or we cannot
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vote for abortion supporting American politicians, but we can certainly be Americans who are
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loyal to our country and will fight for our country in a war. Or
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English this person this question is English or Australians, or French or what have
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you? You know, as a person of at least one third French heritage,
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I would certainly say there have been times when I don't think a Catholic
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could have in any way supported, fought for, or even paid taxes to
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the government of France following the Revolution. But to the best we can,
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and to the ability we can, in so long as it does not violate
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our religious duties and morals, we have that obligation and duty you know,
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my favorite comedian of all time was Jackie Mason. Now Jackie Mason was hilarious,
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Jewish, very you know, heavy accent. He was actually his father
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was a rabbi, and he was supposed to be a rabbi and he ended
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up being a comedian. He talked so fast that I mean even Yankees have
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trouble understanding him, especially in the early years. He slowed down as he
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got a whole He was absolutely hilarious. But speaking of paying taxes, he
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said, the government didn't even seem to know who I was before I was
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successful. Now I made some money and they act like they're a partner.
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They want fifty percent. You did bupkus for me, Now you want fifty
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percent. This is like nineteen sixty eight, right. He's like, I'll
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tell you what. It's hard not to do the accent. You know,
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when you started thinking about him, he was so funny. He says,
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the budget in the United States is of one hundred billion dollars. This is
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like nineteen sixty eight, right. He's like, you're gonna spend a hundred
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bion dollars? Be a little short. Didn't come hit me up. Maybe
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I'll kick in twelve bucks or so. Yeah, it was just great.
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Have you ever had, like one of my favorite movies top five all time,
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The Jerk starring Steve Martin. Jackie Mason plays his boss at when he's
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working at the gas station, and it is such a good role. The
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man was just hilarious. He really was. He was a conservative, big
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Trump supporter, big Trump supporter before you know Trump was even popular. He
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was a big Trump supporter. And you know, May rest in peace.
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He's an American legend, just one of the funniest men of all time.
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And man that he hates Starbucks coffee. He said, why would she Why
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would you need coffee from Starbucks? It's point It's point coffee. You pay
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fifteen dollars for a couple of point coffee. You know, he was great.
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But of course I'll never forget that scene in The Jerk where the sniper's
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shooting at Steve Martin and he starts hitting the oil cans behind him, and
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Steve Martin turns to him and says, he hates these cans. And Steve
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Martin was funny. Literally one of my favorite movies of all time. I
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know I said that, but you know, okay, so I said,
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you know, my family's a third French. Well, they spent about that
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side of my family. He spent about one hundred years on the island of
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Guadaloupe. I am Creole at least, you know, one third, even
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though I was as white as a sheet rock wall. Okay, it's sort
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of a myth that Creoles are black. People think that outside of Southern Louisiana.
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Nobody in New Orleans and Southern Louisiana, et cetera, Shreveport. I
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don't care. Nobody in Louisiana thinks they're black. You have black Creoles,
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sure, but you also have white Creoles. And you have a lot of
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people in between that are called creole people of color or they just don't even
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bother to name themselves as a race. They're creole. That means people of
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partially French heritage usually mix you a little Spanish, maybe a little African,
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it depends, not always. Maybe a little of you know, the Native
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Caribbean peoples, not always. It depends. If your family comes from the
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creole culture, you are creole. In fact, Jelly Roll Morton, one
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of the well he claimed to have invented jazz. Okay, he was certainly
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one of the first three or four guys that played as he called himself creole.
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He was creole. He had dark skin, and he was actually very
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racially biased against black people. He hated black people. He wouldn't play music
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with black people. And for some reason, like you watch Ken Burns jazz
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or like anything on PBS and they call him black. He would have literally
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punched him in the face for that. I mean, I don't have any
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racial bias, but he did. He was creole. He was not black.
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Okay, so you have to understand that creole does not necessarily mean any
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shade of the color of your skin. It really has more to do with
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just your heritage and how you cook. Well. But you can understand me
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being as white as Steve Martin essentially and playing the banjo. Okay, I
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don't have he I mean, he had like white gray hair from his twenties
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on. I mean, my hair is brown, but you know I'm not
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quite as colorless as he is. If you've ever seen The Jerk, you
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can understand why I love this movie. Okay, So he was like in
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an orphan He's raised by a black family in Mississippi, right, he for
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all intents and purposes, thinks he's black even though he's as white as can
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be. And it's totally politically incorrect, and in the year tween twenty four.
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But I mean, this was the movie down in the seventies and it's
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hilarious and if you haven't seen it, you got to watch it. It's
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an absolute classic. He starts out like he's you start the movie at the
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end, right, He's gonna start telling you his story. He's born in
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humble beginnings on a little farm in rural Mississippi, raised in a black family
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of sharecroppers, you know, and becomes a millionaire and then loses everything.
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And so he's on the streets and he's drinking, you know, cheap wine,
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and he says, oh, hello, you want to hear my story?
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I was born a poor black child in rural Mississippi, you know.
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I mean, it's just it's so absurd because he's like the non blackish person
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there is on the phase of the earth. I mean, the only thing
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more absurd than that, would, of course, be Joe Biden saying,
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if you don't blow and vote for me, you ain't black. Right.
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I am amazed a black person did not do him severe physical harm for that
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about the I mean, wow, you talk about a racist statement, but
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if you can handle a little non PC you know, slightly racial humor,
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like you know, Red Fox used to doing San frum Son, the funniest
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show ever on television. And you haven't seen the jerk, Shame on you.
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You got to watch jerk. Bernadette Peters was hilarious. What was her
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name, Jamie Lee Curtis is in there never have been a fan of hers.
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Actually didn't like her father at all. Man, I could not stand
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Tony Curtis. I hated the odd couple. I mean there's there's a phrase
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like you say someone's a bad actor. That's one thing, and then you
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say they're not believable as a human being. That's kind of where I put
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him. But no, she was. She was really cute, but not
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a very good not a person I ever liked as a character. I mean,
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she made me a very nice person the characters she played I never I
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never liked her movies. I'll just put it that way. I don't know
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anything about her personally. Whether she's you know, a good person, a
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bad person, moral or whatever. I don't know. So I'm not making
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a value judgment. But Jackie Mason and Steve Martin absolutely hilarious. I mean,
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what would I say the best comedy movies of the seventies and eighties,
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that's gonna be when I'm you know, absolutely blazing Saddles, Caddy Shack,
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Naked Gun. Airplane, Oh, you can't beat Airplane. Now, you
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talked about some good non PC humor Airplane, Young Frankenstein, Young Frankenstein.
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You know, however you want to pronounce it, love that stuff. That's
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and Steve Martin did so many good ones. Oh wow, Mamma two Brains.
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That was so good him and Lily Tomlin and you actually get him to
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see him play jazz guitar one of the I mean, he's a great musician.
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He's really a fantastic musician. And you know, he did some really
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funny movies. No, that was all of me. I'm sorry, that
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wasn't Mamma two brains. Mamma two brains. Wasn't that funny? All of
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me? Yeah, with Lily tom When that was fantastic. Definitely one of
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my favorites. The National Lampoon movies with Chevy Chase and Beverly Dangelo. There's
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so many just really funny movies. The Blues Brothers. You know, The
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Blues Brothers has actually been named by the Vatican his official Catholic movie. You
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know, the Pope's got a sense of humor. I'll at least poke John
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on the second. Did Pope Francis Maybe? Who knows? I have no
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idea, but yeah, I can't see Pope Benedict cracking up over The Blues
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Brothers. I don't think he would have understood any of it. But John
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Paul Second loved American music and would have I'm sure really did enjoy that movie,
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even though it is a little off color in some places. But uh
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yeah, amazing that that's an actual, like official Catholic movie. I love
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it, love it. Love the Blues Brothers. Of course, I grew
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up on that music. You know. My mom was in Motown. My
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uncle was an early rock and roll and soul DJ. He was actually friends
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with James Brown and Isaac Hayes and people like that, you know. So,
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I mean I grew up on on soul music, on Stack's Vault,
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on muscle shoals, on Oh Chess and Checker. I mean I got I
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got a stack of Muddy Waters and Holland Wolf Records, and I mean,
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you know, Otis Redding was like my hero as a kid. I'm not
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kidding. And of course, you know, I grew up watching Eddie Murphy
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on TV, you know, early year Sarah Live, and I learned to
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do the James Brown shuffle and all that kind of a mess he used to
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do. So I was a kid, Yeah, I wanted to play guitar
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at very well. I was in my teens. I mean a lot of
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people are instruments a lot earlier than I did. But I really got heavy
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the blues a lot younger than most people do it. I learned thanks to
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Doc Watson, a legendary bluegrass musician. He had friends, He loved blues,
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and he had friends among you know, all genres of blues players,
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mostly old black folk. Edda Baker was a big influence Lightning wells oh.
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He was a great friends with Mississippi John Hurt and Saint Terry and Brinnie McGee.
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Miss sipp John Hurt's probably my biggest influence actually, But yeah, I
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mean I played Delda blues, I played jump blues, I played Chicago blues.
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I played every kind of blues you can imagine. To the point that
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was known as that funky white boy, you know. And I was like
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fifteen sixteen, eighteen years old. I had long hair and I played guitar,
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and they called me that funky white boy. So I wasn't trust me.
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I have fewer racial is then, Jilly row Morton. That's that's for
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sure, all right. So let's get into this, all right. So
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the English stir the Englisher, as we say in North Carolina, the Englishman,
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and that is North Carolina slang. It comes from Andy Griffith, shop
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does not believe a Catholic can be a loyal English citizen, right, So
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he says, if you are not satisfied with the king, why do you
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accept him as your protector? Why not get out? Why continue to accept
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his hospitality? Isn't that amazing? I mean they actually think that people live
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in England or in English territories due to the hospitality of the King. I
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mean, Dad, just you know that blows my mind. I mean,
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trust me, my ancestors did not think that. When they fought in the
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American Revolution in the War of eighteen twelve, they wanted to get them the
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heck out of the country. They didn't think they were here due to his
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hospitality, you know, being predominantly Irish, we don't really go in for
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that very much. So he says, the priest answers, I am quite
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satisfied with the King and wish to hear nothing to his discredit. I do
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not accept his hospitality. A child does not accept the hospitality of his own
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parents. I was born a British subject. I do my duty, the
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king does his. I admit that he is the head of the Anglican Church,
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although I deny that he is the head of the True Church of Christ.
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The question of the relative merits of the Anglican and the Catholic Church has
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nothing to do with national status and loyalty. Very well, said person says,
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you could not say these things in other countries. The answer, in
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other countries, I would not have to deny that the temporal ruler was the
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head of the church. That anominally seems peculiar to the peculiar to the British
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Empire. Of course, it is no fault to our present in good king.
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They did have a pretty good king in the nineteen thirties. You know,
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the royal family. I don't really recognize the House of Windsor my ancestors
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having come from the House of Wessex. My ancestors were the Catholic Kings of
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England. These are the Protestant Kings of England, which I don't believe are
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legitimate at all. But as far as the integrity of say, you know,
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Queen Elizabeth and her mother and her father, I mean, they were
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pretty dark good I mean as monarchs got I mean, not perfect by any
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means, and they're still anti Catholic and treated the Irish horribly. But as
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far as doing I think what they thought was in the best interest for their
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country, I think they did. Okay. Now her children, King Charles
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and what Andrew, I mean the yep, hey, their documents coming out
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from Epstein's Island. I don't think it's going to look real good for them,
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let's just put it that way. Wow. Absolutely Anyway, the priests
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of course had just said that it was no fault of the king, and
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he actually said I think he must feel very uncomfortable about it at times.
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So he was being very charitable for the king, and like I said,
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among the kings of England, he was not a bad one in modern times.
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The guy goes on tell us. Plainly do you put church first in
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country second? And I'm going to tell you, as a loyal American citizen,
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you better sure as hell put the church first and country second. God
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does not need America, American needs God. Anything the United States does that
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is in contra is in violation of the moral teachings and the doctrine of Christ
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and his Holy Catholic Church is by definition evil, and we have every duty
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to fight it. Not just the right under our constitution that my ancestors helped
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write. Okay, yeah, we put God first in country second. We
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actually put God first, family second, in country third. Third, Why
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did my ancestors fight in the Civil War. Well, they didn't have slaves.
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They were minding their own business, and suddenly Union troops came in started
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burning their field, shooting their family members and burning their houses and raping their
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daughters. We put God first, then family, and then country. And
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that's why I'm sorry. I don't need slavery aside. Slavery was not an
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issue that started the Civil War. It was a sub issue. Okay,
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we'll get into that another day. But Abraham Lincoln was not a fan of
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black folk, Okay, not until much later in his life when he started
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justifying his actions. Then he started you know, yeah, he opposed slavery.
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I'm not saying he didn't oppose slavery, but he said he would absolutely
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preserve slavery if it meant he could save the Union. By his own words,
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slavery was not the primary issue. Okay, I am opposed to slavery.
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My ancestors were opposed to slavery, except for, of course, Charles
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Carroll, the signer of the Decoration of Independence, one of our founding fathers,
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the largest slaveholder owner in the entire United States, and the richest man
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in America, was the Catholic who funded the American Revolution. Trust me,
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he was not have appreciated Abraham Lincoln, my ancestor who founded this country,
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would have had a Abraham Lincoln hanged. Okay, I got major qualms against
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any president who will not sit down at the negotiating table and work out a
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deal and instead will send his army to go slaughter American citizens didn't appreciate it
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when Clinton did it with you know, Ruby Ridge or the branch Davidiants.
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Sure there are a bunch of coultest nuts. Still they had the right to
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be coultest nuts. You can't go knock your house down with tanks and send
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them on fire. That's not what my ancestors intended. That is what Abraham
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Lincoln did. Okay. He was a horrible evil man, not a hero.
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Sure he had his good points and bad but he led to the slaughter
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of over two hundred thousand American citizens, and a lot of them A lot
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of those American citizens were free blacks, free black people in the South who
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fought for the Confederacy. We have whole divisions of the sons of Confederate veterans
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that were black. The first slave of the first man in America to sell
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an African slave was a black man. He was a black free man who
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owned slaves and he sold them to another person. I can't remember his name
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right now, but the bill of sale is in the you know, the
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archives of the Library of Congress. You could see it. It's not the
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South and the Civil War is not a racial issue. It's a state's right
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issue. It really came down to a lot, a big, big part
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of it. And if you had to do with territory and had to do
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with gold, it had to do with a lot of things. But if
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I'm not mistaken, I may have the date wrong. I know there was
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a system of canals being built. I believe it was the Erie Canal.
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And basically the North England states that were going to benefit from the Erie Canal
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wanted the federal government to pay for it, and the federal government went essentially
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wanted the South to pay for it, and this owl said we're not paying
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for a new England canal. That was a start. I mean, it's
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a little obscure now, but and of course it also had to do with
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territories as things expanded west, and there were abolitionists. There were abolitionists on
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both sides. Robert E. Lee was an abolitionist. He was far more
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opposed to slavery than Ulysses s Grant. Okay, Sherman was a demon possessed
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man. He was just his own troops thought he was demon possessed. He
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slaughtered innocent men, women in shore for fun. Yeah. Anyway, the
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South was right in the Civil War. And if that offends you, I'm
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sorry, go read your history and don't read a history written by the victors.
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As they say, the victors always write the history. Read contemporary authors
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at the time actually read what Abraham Lincoln wrote when he said things like the
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negro and the white man can never live together in peace unless the negro is
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subject to the white man. Is that what you learned in high school?
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I didn't. I didn't, and I grew up in the South. He
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was really he thought black people were inferior. You know, James Monroe wanted
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to ship them all back to Africa. There were it's not this like this,
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this this idea that like, oh, you know, the North was
22:00
anti slavery, in the South was pro slavery. Not true. There were
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people on both sides that felt different ways. Tons of Quakers and such in
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the South were very much against slavery. New York City actually sided with the
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Confederacy and rioted. Did people in New York City wanted to keep their slaves.
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Actually, Lincoln declared that all Union officers could keep their slaves. He
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never made that much of a pretense that the war had anything to do with
22:27
slavery, except that the lead up to it to get some moral support behind
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it from the Quakers and such. And then when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation,
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and he did that in hopes that the slaves in the South and the
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free blacks in the South would turn against the South. They didn't. Some
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of them walked off and left. Yeah, but a lot of them just
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wanted to go back to their normal lives. And like I said, a
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whole lot of them actually fought for the Confederacy. So what you've been taught
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in school is like the most ridiculous, actually bigoted myth because it's bigoting against
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Southern people, the people who stood up and fought for the independence and what
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the Declaration of Independence actually said that the federal government should be limited and the
23:17
states should make their own rules. And they, you know, the South
23:21
didn't want the North taking all its wealth. The money was in the South
23:25
and the people in the in the North. And you know, I'm sorry,
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I know you're gonna hate me for saying this. A lot of you
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will, because I mean, I know, even really good people like Rush
23:33
Limbaugh and Steve Bannon just like thought Abraham Lincoln was fantastic. Mark Levin thinks
23:37
he's on the moon. I'm telling you he was a mentally unstable and he
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admitted that he suffered from manic depression. He was a mentally unstable, very
23:48
likely homosexual. Yeah, that's a little controversial, isn't it. But let's
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actually look at his life. Who did he marry an older woman? How
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many children did he have? Okay, I'm just saying, very likely homosexual,
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bloodthirsty, genocidal dictator. I mean he was eloquent, he was like
24:08
Barack Obama and his eloquence. But he was a horrible man who used the
24:14
words of God to justify murder. I mean not. No, I do
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not celebrate anything having to do with Abraham Lincoln, not saying everybody in the
24:25
South was great. I mean, you know, what was his name,
24:29
John C. Calhoun, great orator? Not a good man, No,
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I mean, you know he was right over there in Clemson, South Carolina.
24:37
I mean he was. He literally believed in the cause of slavery.
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I don't. My ancestors didn't. Not. By the time they were in
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North Carolina, you know, they were not on that side. They fought
24:51
for the Confederacy, like I said, because they were being invaded and killed
24:56
by the North. In fact, my great great great great grandfather was captured
25:03
at Fort Fisher. You know, when the South seceded from the from the
25:06
Union, a not a shot was fired. It was a peaceful transfer of
25:11
power that was in South Carolina, and suddenly the army started marching. So
25:18
my great great great grandfather goes to fight at Fort Fisher. He was captured
25:22
and contracted dysentery on board ship to a prison camp in Elmira. And this
25:29
is you know how much the North followed the laws of war. He contracted
25:37
dysentery and they threw him overboard to drowned alive. We know that because his
25:41
cousin was taken to Elmira and forced to stand naked in four feet of snow
25:45
until his limbs froze and he died of gangreen. This is the moral good
25:52
on the side of the people North. They were not. They were not,
25:59
and the North would not have won without hiring mercenaries, many a lot
26:04
of Germans, the Hessians and such. And there's a famous line this German
26:11
officer has captured one of the grandson of one of the signers a Declaration of
26:17
Independence, and he said, why are you rebels fighting the good noble United
26:22
States of America. And he looks at and says, because y'all are down
26:25
here. My ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence under the understanding that if they
26:33
no longer wanted to be part of America, they could leave it, just
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as they had just seceded from England. If Lincoln had just let people follow
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the Decoration of Independence and leave when they found it was you know, when
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in the course of human events, you know, you know how the decoration
26:48
begins, you have to dissolve the bands that tie you together. Two hundred
26:53
thousand lives could be saved. Slavery would have ended within fifty years because of
26:59
technology, the steam Ini Injine was being built, et cetera. Nothing he
27:04
did can be justified. And he slaughtered a lot of Cherokee and sue and
27:11
I mean he he hated Indians, Okay, I mean he he may have
27:18
once he got God, became friends with Douglas. He may have found some
27:22
respect for some black men, but he hated Indians. Okay, he was
27:27
not who you think he is if you were taught in the American public school.
27:33
Anyway, back to the book, Well, Randa wandered off a tangent,
27:38
there, didn't I But anyway, there were a lot of Catholics that
27:41
fought for the Confederacy, a lot, and probably say many of them were
27:47
my ancestors. They were wiped out afterwards pretty much by the Klan, which
27:52
was a part of the Masonic Order of which Abraham Lincoln was an officer.
27:57
He was a very high ranking Mason, and he hated Catholics. By the
28:02
way. He especially wanted to punish Louisiana because it was a Catholic state.
28:07
He sent down there generally called spoons because he stole everybody silverware. I mean,
28:11
he was a really bad guy, a really really bad guy, and
28:18
as anti Catholic as they come anyway, to the best of my knowledge,
28:22
I don't want to say something it's not true, but that's to the best
28:25
of my knowledge. Ah. The person says, tell us plainly, do
28:32
you put church first? In country second? And they said, if there
28:36
be a conflict between the two interests, I put church first. God comes
28:40
before Caesar. The Church, as the kingdom of God, is more important
28:45
than any earthly kingdom. No country has rights against God. And in our
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own case, if there be a question of soul and body, the soul
28:55
was more important, and the body must give way to its interests. It
28:59
is better to die keeping God's law than too live breaking them. If a
29:03
man is faithful to God and to his conscience, and there is some hope
29:07
of his being faithful to If a man is faithful to God into his conscious,
29:11
there's some hope of his being faithful to lesser duties. But if a
29:15
man will not be faithful to God, how can a thing so much less
29:19
than God, as one's country expect him to be faithful to it? Think
29:23
it over and let's see, oh, two more short questions. The guy
29:32
says, I see the Catholic viewpoint, but a far greater difficulty. The
29:34
difficulty arises from me concerning your church in so far she claims within her spiritual
29:41
fears to be infallible, and they have to just answer. She makes that
29:47
claim under certain conditions, and the person says, this is their most remarkable
29:51
claim, and they answer it is. But then the Catholic Church is very
29:55
remarkable. She was not founded on Martin Luther, or by Henry the or
30:00
John Knox, but by Jesus Christ, who guaranteed her as his official representative
30:06
in this world. Yet, although the Catholic Church is a remarkable church,
30:10
it is not really remarkable that Christ should have kept his promise to her.
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All right, we will wrap it up there with radio replies and we'll get
30:18
on too, the exhaustive Catechism of the Catholic Church, and we're going to
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talk about the veneration of images of the Saints and Father. Sprago tells us
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the veneration of sacred pictures and images is as old as Christianity itself, and
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the Catacomb's representations are found of Christ, the Mother of God with the Divine
30:38
Child, and of biblical scenes from the Old or New Testament, calculated to
30:44
strengthen the Christians in times of persecution by reminding them of God's omnipotence and a
30:48
future resurrection, of a future resurrection. With the spread of Christianity, the
30:53
veneration paid to images increased. Pictures, statues, and crosses were not seen
30:59
in the churches alone, but in the marketplace and highways. In the eighth
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century, the Emperor of the East prohibited the veneration of images. This is
31:08
the Orthodox is when this split began. Now, the Orthodox are the biggest
31:12
proponents of images of the saints. They do more iconography than ever anybody.
31:18
Really. The figures of saints were broken to pieces or burned, and paintings
31:22
on the walls of churches were whitewashed over and any persons who persisted in venerating
31:26
images were punished. This was called the iconoclastic movement, and that comes from
31:32
the Orthodox Church. I mean, people don't know that the veneration of images
31:37
answers our need, a need of our human nature. We respect the portraits
31:42
of those whom we love or esteem. Moreover, it is the will of
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God that man who lost true happiness for the sake of material things should regain
31:51
it by means of material things. That's an interesting concept, huh. The
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Jews were strictly forbidden to make images or to bow down to them Exodus twenty
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verse four, because they had a strong propensity toward idolatry, and the Son
32:05
of God had not then become man. In spite of this prohibition, there
32:08
were two golden cherub him, one on each side of the propitiatory of the
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Holy of Holies. We basically talk of the art of the Covenant right Exodus
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twenty five eighteen, and we read of the brazen serpent in the wilderness,
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the brass serpent, whereupon the Israelites were commanded to look that they might be
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healed Numbers twenty one eight by aid of sacred pictures or statues. In other
32:31
words, God actually commanded them to make images, okay, and to iterate
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them by Sacred pictures or statues are meant representations of Christ, or the saints,
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or the truths of religion. The manner in which our Lord has ordinarily
32:47
depicted is familiar to us all the expression of his countenance. His grave is
32:53
grave and benign. His eyes are blues. Here is a ruddy brown curling
32:57
and parted in the middle. His beard is short. Of course, we
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have many other images. Now they're a little different, depending on your culture,
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doesn't really matter, and a burning heart is often placed upon his breast.
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The Mother of God is represented in various ways as the help of Christians.
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She holds the Divine Child in her arms, as mother of dolars or
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sorrows. The dead Christ has laid across her knees, as our Lady of
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the Immaculate Conception. She is as she appeared at Lords in a white robe
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without her infant son, as Queen of Heaven, as noted in Revelations twelve
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to one, with her head encircled with twelve stars in the moon beneath her
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feet. The most celebrated and well known pictures of the Mother of God are
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one. The painting of the Church of Santa Maria magic I can't pronounce it
33:45
m a gg io r e in rum, supposed to be the work of
33:50
Saint Luke. Yes, Saint Luke actually probably painted the first picture of the
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Blessed very Virgin Mary that early Christians venerated to the Madonna of d Sansisto,
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painted by Raphael three. The Miraculous Picture of Our Lady a Perpetual Sucker,
34:06
painted on wood and dating to the thirteenth century in the Church of Sa Alfonsis
34:10
and Rome. The representation of the saints are easily recognized. They have a
34:15
nimbus around their head sly, a halo right, and are accompanied by emblems
34:20
either of their office or their special virtue that distinguished them, or by the
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instruments wherewith they suffered martyrdom. The four Evangelists are known by their symbols.
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Saint Matthew has an angel in human shape beside him because the Gospel begins with
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the general genealogy of Our Lord. Saint Mark is a lion because he speaks
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in the opening chapter of a voice crying in the wilderness. Saint Luke is
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accompanied by an ox because he begins with Zacharia's sacrifice, Saint John by an
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eagle, because his Gospel begins with sublime and lofty truths. We also call
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those sacred pictures which portray some great truths, such as the doctrine of the
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Holy Trinity, or purgatory, or some event recorded in Holy Scripture. The
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three divine persons are presented in the form they have assumed when appearing to men.
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But all delineations of the Godhead do no more than give an idea of
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certain attributes or actions of the Deity, for it is not within the power
35:15
of man to make an image of God. Pictures or statues of saints by
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means of which or before which miracles have been worked are called miraculous images.
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There are a great many places of pilgrimage on the continent of Europe where an
35:28
image of Our Lady is to be seen by means of extraordinary favors and graces
35:32
have been or are obtained. Among these is Einsildine in Switzerland, Alotting and
35:38
Bavaria, Kevalier and Rhineland, and others may be mentioned. It is also
35:45
well known that many cures have been affected through devotion to the Infant Jesus of
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Prague. A wax statue in the Church of the Carmelites is in that city.
35:52
Especially at the time of the pestilence. In seventeen thirteen, the Empress
35:57
Maria Teresa had a great veneration for that image. She worked a rogue for
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it with her own hands, richly embroidered with gold. Many of the miraculous
36:07
images have been preserved from destruction in a marvelous manner. They have, for
36:10
instance, been in the fire without being burned. Many signal cures have been
36:15
wrought in a moment in answer to prayers offered before them. Such miracles are
36:20
permitted by God as an attestation to the truth of the Catholic Church, and
36:24
it would be a sin on the part of any Catholic to deny their authenticity.
36:29
A strict investigation is made of these miracles by the Holy See, and
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then the statue of the Saint is crowned above all representations of saints or holy
36:37
things. We venerate the cross of our Redeemer. There ought not to be
36:42
a single church, or altar or cemetery without a crucifix. Such is the
36:46
honor in which the Church holds the Christ. The Cross of Christ. That
36:51
she allows no sacrament to be administered, no Master to be celebrated, no
36:55
act of divine worship to be performed, unless in the present of a crucifix.
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That's Christ on the cross. That's not just an empty cross. By
37:05
the way, the cross is in the hands of the dying Christian when he
37:07
draws his last breath, and it accompanies him to the Great The sacred symbol
37:14
ought to be found in every Christian household. It does not speak well for
37:17
the inhabitants of a house if none but secular pictures adorn its walls. We
37:22
honor the image of the saints by giving them a place in our dwellings.
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We say prayers before then we salute them respectfully. We adorn them with offerings,
37:30
We make pilgrimage pilgrimages to their shrines. The reverence we pay to the
37:36
image of a saint is not paid to the picture of the image itself,
37:38
but to the individual it represents, that is, to Christ or to one
37:43
of the saints. When we adore the cross, we adore him who died
37:46
thereon. By showing respect to the portrait of a king, we testify our
37:51
respect to the monarch and disrespect manifested to his portrait is a personal affront to
37:55
him. When the book of the Gospels is kissed, is the word of
37:59
God therein contained that is venerated. When we kiss our parents or our children,
38:05
we express love and fondness of our hearts, And in venerating images we
38:09
express our love for the person they represent. And when instances burned or tapers
38:15
lighted before images, it is a symbol of the light of the Holy Ghost
38:19
and the virtues wherewith the saints were in doubt. It is not from the
38:22
images themselves that we ask help. It is from God through the intercession of
38:27
the saints. But none, none but the heathen imagine that there is any
38:31
virtue or supernatural power in an image itself. Moses did not think that his
38:37
staff work miracles, but God, who powerfully assisted him. Through venerating the
38:42
images of the saints, efficacious and oftentimes supernatural graces are obtained. They are
38:46
also useful as a means of avoiding distraction in prayer and affording us a silent
38:52
admonition. Saint John Demassin says that the Holy Spirit surrounds the images of saints
38:59
with a certain halo grace. Wherever the cross has erected, the malicious designs
39:02
of the evil one are defeated. How often a soul sunk con sin has
39:07
been touched and comforted by the sight of an image. How often have pictures
39:10
comforted and encouraged devout persons, especially at the moment of their death, While
39:15
gazing upon an image, we pray with greater recollection. Images are steps whereby
39:20
we ascend more easily in spirit to heaven, And as one's prayers when offered
39:24
at the shrine of some saint or more fervent, so they are more readily
39:29
granted. The ex votos hung beside the image testified to the efficacy of the
39:35
saint's intercession. They are also a constant admonition to us, either by placing
39:40
vividly before us one of the truths of the religion, or exhorting us to
39:45
imitate the example of the saint. The work of the artist does, indeed
39:47
often prove more influential than the words of the preacher, For the impressions we
39:52
receive through the ear have less effective on the mind than those which we receive
39:57
through the eye. Saint Gregory the Great caused pictures the books of the unlearned
40:01
in the Middle Ages, before there were any printed books, pictures were widely
40:06
disseminated among people from the time we date the crib. From those times,
40:13
we date the crib, the sepulture, the stations of the Cross, etc.
40:16
In other words, let me spell this out for all the Protestants that
40:22
are freaking out right now. Okay, we do not worship statues, We
40:29
do not worship pictures. We venerate the saints, as we talked about yesterday.
40:34
We give them honor. We do not adore them as we do God
40:37
alone. We honor them, and when we look at a picture or a
40:42
statue of a saint, we remember who they are, their virtues, their
40:45
admonitions, and we ask them to pray for us. And that's it.
40:49
That's it. They are actually very good things that have been used at the
40:53
very beginning of Christianity by the earliest Christians, at least one of whom was
40:58
one of the Apostles. More than likely they were used from even before the
41:06
Resurrection, because we know that Jesus taught to his apostles a respect for Saint
41:12
Joseph, who had passed on the earliest prayer to the saints is a prayer
41:16
to Saint Joseph. The second earliest is a prayer to the blessed Virgin Mary.
41:22
We don't worship statues. Statues and pictures are actually really good for us
41:29
for our religious devotion for a variety of reasons. And before about two hundred
41:35
years ago three at the most, most Christians were illiterate, whether in England,
41:40
in America, in Italy or Germany, or China, or you name
41:45
it right, Turkey, Northern Africa, just keep going to the list,
41:50
they were illiterate. Universal literacy is a very new thing, okay, even
41:57
you know, protests say that Martin Luther said everyone should read the Bible.
42:00
That's fine, everyone should read the Bible. Everyone couldn't read the Bible.
42:05
He deluded a lot of people because he said there was a lot of stuff
42:07
the Bible said that it didn't okay, he changed the words of Jesus.
42:12
He can only do that because he was preaching to an illiterate audience. What
42:15
they could understand was the Bible, stories portrayed and stained glass windows, paintings,
42:23
statues. It's literally just the physical representation of the Word of God in
42:30
that case, or it's a picture of a saint whose great virtues we should
42:36
imitate, okay, and Christians have been doing it since you know, trust
42:43
me, long before any Protestant ever had any i clue of coming up to
42:50
a conclusion that one shouldn't. Or the head of the Orthodox Church in Greece
42:57
who soon gave way to a Muslim kalib who ran the Orthodox Church for quite
43:02
a while, and they lost quite a bit in terms of their original depositive
43:08
faith. So we'll take it from there. We pray for the reunification of
43:15
the Orthodox Church. A lot of it has to do with politics, especially
43:20
the Russian Orthodox Church, which is essentially a state church. But really they
43:28
were kind of off and on in communion until the Muslims kind of took him
43:30
over for a while, and then we really haven't been able to agree in
43:35
a lot since then. But we sure agree on iconography. I mean,
43:39
they totally turned against their belief of destroying images. They make more statues and
43:45
paintings and wood carvings, beautiful stuff. It's one of the best things they
43:50
do. And as Catholics, I mean I'm a wood carver, I think
43:52
we should really get into making icons without a doubt, we should imitate the
43:59
Orthodox in that on that one. These days now they have it right.
44:02
A few centuries ago they were really really, really wrong and destroyed a lot
44:07
of the most beautiful historical artifacts of our faith. But they came around.
44:15
So there's hope for everybody. And you know, I'm sure there are gonna
44:17
be people that listen to show and think I am just absolutely wrong. I
44:22
mean, just just an absolute against you know, the Ten Commandments for saying
44:27
it's good to venerate statues and to honor our saints and our Lord through them.
44:34
And there's gonna be a lot of you got really mad about me about
44:36
what I said about Abraham Lincoln. So you know, it's it's gonna be
44:39
fourth of July next week, and you know, maybe you go up to
44:43
DC and you go to the Lincoln Monument and you're gonna stand before this big
44:49
statue of Abraham Lincoln and in your mind you're gonna think about what a great
44:53
man he was. Hey, guess what you just did. You just venerated
44:59
a staff And in the words of Saint Padre Pierre, pray, hope and
45:05
don't worry. I'll talk to you next time.