From a New Discovery

“Whose are this image and the inscription?” St. Matthew, 22:20.

One of our American missionaries to China was telling some years ago of the difficulties in keeping convert Catholics faithful to the Church, and how laborious a task it was to keep some in the fold and bring others back in. He told this incident.

One of their best catechists was traveling to a village in the interior. A catechist is a layman trained to teach the fundamentals of the faith. This lay teacher called on a friend named Peter, who was mayor of his little village. Peter was a practical Christian. One proof of this was found in the many beautiful religious pictures which he had hanging in his home. As the two friends talked, a third friend from a neighboring town dropped in to discuss some business with Peter. As he entered the house he caught sight of a striking picture of our Savior on the far wall. He dropped to his knees bowed his head, struck his breast, and repeated the Act of Contrition in a clear, ringing voice. His sincerity and devotion impressed the two men who had never suspected that this fellow was a Catholic.

Later they learned that he had joined the Church over thirty years before, but had drifted away, mainly because he was too far from a Catholic church. A few weeks after this incident he made his confession, received Holy Communion, and expressed his determination to live a full Catholic life from then on.

A picture of our Savior was the means, under God, of bringing a soul back into the fold. It is also the means of keeping many in the fold and of winning many to it. Religious pictures are sacramentals, in use since the dawn of Christianity. They are prints or paintings representing some Christian character or truth:

1. Pictures of our Lord are of almost limitless variety. He is pictured in every condition and situation: in the crib; on the cross; in the garden; on the mountain; in the tomb; at work; at prayer; preaching and working miracles; laboring at the carpenter’s bench and teaching in the temple. What an inspiration are these paint and canvas portraits of our Redeemer!

2. And who could ever know even one part of all the Madonnas, paintings of our Blessed Mother under every possible title, and in every phase of her sweet and selfless life!

3. We also represent the saints and martyrs, who were of every age, of every trade, profession and walk of life.

4. Religious pictures also represent certain religious truths. In the December, 1949, issue of “Life Magazine” we find several full- and double-paged reproductions in color of many masterpieces of Michelangelo, especially his murals in the Sistine Chapel. There we see, for example, the creation of the world, the judgment, and similar truths graphically told with the artist’s brush.

5. Religious art also expresses spiritual symbols, common things used to express spiritual truths.

All such pictures of our Savior, His Mother, His saints, and His teachings, are not contrary to Sacred Scripture or the express law of God. Rather, they have been commanded by God and fostered by God’s Church.

Even the most poorly instructed Catholic will tell you that in honoring a picture we do not believe that any divine power is in the picture itself. Every Catholic knows that we do not pray to these pictures, or worship them, as though they had power in themselves. Why, then, do we make so much of religious pictures?

1. They remind us of our Lord and of the many inspiring incidents in His holy life. A picture will often bring out ideas, instill devotion, stir the soul, when words would fail.

2. A picture will fix our attention and keep away distraction. With a representation of our Lord before you, your prayer is more likely to continue its direction toward the Lord to whom you are praying.

3. Kneeling before a painting of our Blessed Mother or of the saints, we indirectly honor the person represented. Who would foolishly maintain that the little flower placed before the picture a man might keep of his mother, is offered to the paper and cardboard of the picture?

4. Pictures are blessed by Mother Church. They are sacramentals; that is, of themselves they are powerless, but they serve to stir up spiritual thought and determination, they serve to concentrate our attention, they serve to inspire our better selves. Sometimes God makes the occasion of their use the means or instrument of bestowing great blessings.

Look at a fine picture every day, look at a portrait of the best people who ever lived every day, and by degrees, definite degrees, it will become a part of you. The life of that person will weave itself into your life. His virtues, his good deeds, will be models for you.

It was Hazlitt, the great English writer, I believe, who wrote that if a man were contemplating some wicked or disgraceful deed, and stopped for a moment to look at some fine picture which had inspired him before, he would be turned from his crime. Proof of that is an everyday happening in the Catholic Church and the Catholic home. That was what a picture did for the Chinese convert of our story.

Again we repeat that religious pictures are not essential to Catholic life, but they are extremely helpful. Accordingly I want to make a few suggestions:

1. Have a number of carefully selected pious pictures in your home, in your prayer-book and other books.

2. Get into the practice of looking at these pictures regularly and whispering a prayer to the person represented.

3. Teach your children from youngest years to look upon these pictures of our Lord, His Mother, and His saints with respect and devotion.

4. Take notice of the pictures in our church and in other places you visit. Let them keep you in touch with Christ and His own. Religious pictures will be powerful helps in following Christ. Amen.