One of the professors from the School of Art in the Diocese was invited to help in the remodelling of a parish Church. As he entered the parish grounds he noticed a number of statues of the Blessed Mother in different parts of the parish courtyard. "Father why in the world do you have so many statues of the Blessed Mother out in the yard?" To the question the parish priest answered that he asked for a donation for a statue and 5 parishioners, who could not be persuaded otherwise, left him with this problem of conscience. He couldn't give the statues away and could not destroy them, so the predicament.
In Korea the Protestants have difficulty with statues and crucifixes for they see them as images that are prohibited from their reading of the Old Testament. The Catholics have heard this but pay little attention. You also see at times a statue of Jesus or Mary on the top of a church building that turns to different parts of the parish. The professor of art would not see a difficulty with using statues and images but the place and surroundings should be considered in their placement.
In conclusion he reflects that we are influenced concretely with the connection we have with time and space. The images that we see affect the mind and heart that we do not see. No matter how good the image is, it can never express the reality that we want to see. That is why we have to be very careful with our images. That is true, he says for the images that we have outside the Church but more so for the images that we have in the church.
We should not attempt he says to decorate the Church in the way we decorate our homes. The Church is the place where we keep the Blessed Sacrament, Our Lord is the master there, present in silence and in word those of us working pastorally, he concludes, should always remember this.
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