"Make ready the way of the Lord, make straight his paths." St. Luke, 3:4.
A famous British poet and novelist died in 1928. His name was Thomas Hardy. The following story was told by Hardy's barber. It seems that an American who was extremely fond of Hardy's writings accidentally stopped in the shop where the great novelist used to get his hair cut.
"Have you ever seen Thomas Hardy?" asked the American.
"Oh, yes," replied the barber, "he sat in the chair you're sitting in."
"In this chair?" shouted the American excitedly.
"Yes," repeated the barber, "I cut Mr. Hardy's hair."
"Did you keep the hair you cut off?" eagerly questioned the customer, putting his hand into his pocket.
"No, I didn't. Why?" queried the hair cutter.
"Well, that's a pity," fairly moaned the Yankee, "because if you had, I'd have bought it."
In this incident we see the extreme veneration which a man of a different country had for a famous writer of novels and poems. So highly did the American esteem the literary power of the Britisher that he was ready to buy some of the hair that was cut from his literary head. In a word, he wanted a relic of his idol, Thomas Hardy.
Much more reasonable and profitable is the Catholic practice of venerating relics. A relic can be the body or part of the body of some holy person. I t can be something that belonged to a saint: a book, rosary, article of clothing or piece of furniture he used. A relic may also mean something that touched the body of a saint, as a handkerchief, such as that spoken about St. Paul. (Acts, 19 :12)
It is a natural instinct to honor anything that had anything to do with a great person. Everyone with common sense knows that a son does not worship the picture of his mother or sweetheart which he keeps on his desk. Everybody with a grain of grey matter knows that no man worships the locket or watch left him by his mother or some loved one.
In the same way no Catholic worships the relics of the saints. On the contrary, we honor those keepsakes of the heroes and heroines of God to remind us of the heroic things they did in the service of the Lord. God Himself has approved such devotion both in the Old and the New Testaments. The body laid in the prophet's tomb came to life. (4 Kings, 13 :21) A woman was healed upon touching our Lord's garment. (St. Matthew, 9 :21) The very shadow of St. Peter healed those who were sick. (Acts, 5 :15) The linen cloths from St. Paul's body had a similar power to cure. (Acts, 19 :12)
Christian history is filled with the wonders God worked through things which had been used by His special friends.
Relics are also the source of many spiritual benefits. Who that venerates a relic of St. Anthony of Padua does not think of the purity of his apostolic heart, and imitate it? Who that honors something from the life of St. Francis of Assisi, does not find inspiration to follow his life of love?
Always it must be remembered that the relics themselves do not perform these physical and spiritual miracles. Every Catholic knows that God works these wonders. Accordingly, it is not superstition when we keep and honor some piece of bone from a saint, some leaf from his prayerbook, some remnant of his holy habit. We do not adore and serve these relics.
The same applies to the Catholic practice of honoring images, statues and pictures of Christ, His Blessed Mother, His saints, and the truths of our glorious religion.
Here, too, the Bible backs up the practice of God's Church. From the very infancy of Christianity the Catholic Church, the only Christian Church at the time, used pictures and statues to teach and to inspire. We read in the Old Testament of the two golden cherubim, that is, statues of two angels, one on each side of the Holy of Holies. (Exodus, 25:18) We read of the brazen serpent upon which the Israelites were commanded to look that they might be healed. (Numbers, 21 :8)
We honor the images of the saints by giving them a prominent place in our churches and homes, by saying prayers before them, by saluting them respectfully, by adorning them with flowers and other decorations, and by making pilgrimages to their shrines.
Everybody knows that we do not honor the wood and glass of the picture itself, but we honor the individual represented. When we kneel before the ~ross or crucifix we do not adore the wood and plaster of Paris of which it is made, but we adore the adorable Christ whom it represents.
Neither is it from the images themselves that we ask favors of body and soul. It is from God, through the request of His special friends, from whom we ask the favors.
Furthermore, by venerating the images of saints we often obtain great graces, we are helped in keeping our minds on holy things, and we are reminded of their heroic lives. Weare inspired to follow them. Even the American of our story had sense enough to realize that he would not honor the hair of Hardy if he had been lucky enough to secure some of it. That hair simply would have been a reminder of the literary greatness of the man upon whose head it had grown.
Every relic and image in the Catholic Church is a means to honor God, a means to remember God. Every relic and image should and does help us to "make straight the way of the Lord." It is a human thing, a material thing, a dead thing, that helps us to think of the living Lord and to make our way to him. Amen.
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Adapted from Talks on the Commandments by Fr. Arthur Tonne
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