You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. [Exodus: 20]
In the Catholic rite, this passage forms part of the first commandment given Yahweh to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
Recently, I overheard a priest tell a lay person who has a statue of the Buddha in their home that it violates the first law of the 10 commandments. That comment is wrong on so many levels that I am not really sure how long this post is going to be.
Let's start with statues. Walk into any Catholic church and you will be surrounded by statues. There will be customary statue of Mother Mary and then those to a plethora of saints. Going by the priest's comment, just by having those statues, every Catholic church in the world violates the first commandment of Yahweh.
Then there is the part that says, "You shall not bow down to them". I have seen people worship and pray to these idols in the church asking for graces and asking the saint to intercede on their behalf. I am yet to see a priest who walks about to these people who are all breaking the first commandment of Yahweh and reprimand them.
Then there is the fact that a Catholic is a Christian and not a Jew. Let us take a look at what Jesus, around whose teachings the Catholic church is built, has to say on the commandments.
In Matthew 22: 37-39, he says, "Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’"
In Mark 12: 29-31, he says, "The most important one, answered Jesus, is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these."
In Luke 10: 26-28, there is a conversation between an expert in the law and Jesus where the expert asks him what one should do to get eternal life.
“What is written in the Law?” he [Jesus] replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
This he follows up with the parable of the good Samaritan where he explains who is your neighbor.
In John 13: 34-35, he says, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
These words of Jesus are recorded in every gospel in the New Testament. Nowhere does Jesus mention idols but he is very clear it has to do with love. Love for God and love for your neighbor. Love is all about intent.
Merely having an idol does not in any way indicate worship. The act of worship includes ceremonies that include prayers, chanting, and singing. Without these accompaniments, any idol is nothing more than a work of art.
Detractors of the Indian national anthem constantly like to remind us that it was written in praise of King George. But if you sing it in praise of India, is it then still in praise of King George? If that is the case, then every love song written about or for a particular person but sung to someone else will be nothing more than a profession of love to the original character for whom it was written.
We have no clue how Jesus looked. None of the gospels describe his features. We don't know how tall or short he was, we don't know the color of his skin, we don't know the color of his eyes, or the shape of his eyebrows. So the various statues of Jesus that we bow and pray to are either someone's rendition of what they hope he looked like. It may also be the likeness of someone who reminds them of Jesus. It doesn't really make a difference that the statue we bow to does not look like Jesus, it is the intent that matters. Does it mean that every time we bow and worship a statue of Jesus we are breaking the first commandment of Yahweh from the Old Testament?
Finally, to go back to the statue of the Buddha, I personally believe that it was not the person who has the statue who broke the first commandment of Yahweh but the priest. To the lay person, it is just a nice statue - a work of art. It was the priest who elevated it to an idol of a person who is worthy of worship.
When I put forward this argument, I am told that lay people need something tangible to worship and to put their faith in. Fair enough, but when someone transcends that level of basic worship, should the church not encourage it?
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