May Crowning 2024 “On Catholics Worshipping
Statues”
Most non-Catholic
houses of worship do not contain any statues of saints nor images of any
saints. Why is this? It is based on a misreading of Exodus
20:4. Exodus 20:4 says “You shall not make
any GRAVEN images” and lest anyone doubt that God meant “NO STATUES NOR IMAGES”
in Exodus 25 God COMMANDS Moses to make 2 statues of angels for the Tabernacle.
And on
whether it is right to seek anyone to intercede for us, it is important to remember
that we all ask each other to pray for things all the time…"Dave, please pray
for this issue in my life right now”
And if I
asked my Mom to pray for me, no one would scream “Why don’t you just pray to
Jesus?” And if my Mom died and I went to
her grave and whispered some prayer intentions asking her to intercede for me
with Jesus, no one would say “Why don’t you just pray to Jesus?” And if I had a statue of my Mom made at her
grave and brought flowers to her grave, no one would ask “Why are you worshipping
that statue and bringing flowers to it?”
That is exactly what we are doing today in crowning this statue of our Blessed Mother and bringing flowers to place in front of her statue.
Furthermore, one of the 10 Commandments command each of us to honor our mother and father. There are many different verses in the New Testament that say that we are adopted brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ through our baptism. (one example: Romans 8:15 "You received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba, Father!”). So to not honor Mary is to not honor our Mother, which is a direct violation of one of the commandments. So any person who is baptized in Jesus Christ and yet does not HONOR Mary commits a grave sin.
Please know that what we are doing this morning in crowning this statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary is both right and just!
Holy Mary, Mother of
God, please pray for us!
