240. What is the purpose of holy images?
(Comp
240) The image of Christ is the liturgical icon par excellence. Other images,
representations of Our Lady and of the Saints, signify Christ who is glorified
in them. They proclaim the same Gospel message that Sacred Scripture
communicates by the word and they help to awaken and nourish the faith of
believers.
“In brief”
(CCC 1192)) Sacred images in our
churches and homes are intended to awaken and nourish our faith in the mystery
of Christ. Through the icon of Christ and his works of salvation, it is he whom
we adore. Through sacred images of the holy Mother of God, of the angels and of
the saints, we venerate the persons represented.
To deepen and explain
(CCC 1159) The sacred image, the
liturgical icon, principally represents Christ. It cannot represent the
invisible and incomprehensible God, but the incarnation of the Son of God has
ushered in a new "economy" of images: Previously God, who has neither
a body nor a face, absolutely could not be represented by an image. But now
that he has made himself visible in the flesh and has lived with men, I can
make an image of what I have seen of God… and contemplate the glory of the
Lord, his face unveiled (St. John Damascene, De imag. 1, 16: PG 96: 1245-1248). (CCC 1160) Christian iconography
expresses in images the same Gospel message that Scripture communicates by
words. Image and word illuminate each other: We declare that we preserve intact
all the written and unwritten traditions of the Church which have been
entrusted to us. One of these traditions consists in the production of
representational artwork, which accords with the history of the preaching of
the Gospel. For it confirms that the incarnation of the Word of God was real
and not imaginary, and to our benefit as well, for realities that illustrate
each other undoubtedly reflect each other's meaning (Council of Nicaea II
(787): COD 111).
On reflection
(CCC 1161) All the signs in the
liturgical celebrations are related to Christ: as are sacred images of the holy
Mother of God and of the saints as well. They truly signify Christ, who is
glorified in them. They make manifest the "cloud of witnesses" (Heb
12:1) who continue to participate in the salvation of the world and to whom we
are united, above all in sacramental celebrations. Through their icons, it is
man "in the image of God," finally transfigured "into his
likeness" (Cf. Rom 8:29; 1 Jn 3:2), who is revealed to our faith. So too
are the angels, who also are recapitulated in Christ: Following the divinely
inspired teaching of our holy Fathers and the tradition of the Catholic Church
(for we know that this tradition comes from the Holy Spirit who dwells in her)
we rightly define with full certainty and correctness that, like the figure of
the precious and life-giving cross, venerable and holy images of our Lord and
God and Savior, Jesus Christ, our inviolate Lady, the holy Mother of God, and
the venerated angels, all the saints and the just, whether painted or made of
mosaic or another suitable material, are to be exhibited in the holy churches
of God, on sacred vessels and vestments, walls and panels, in houses and on
streets (Council of Nicaea II: DS 600).
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