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Reply. Relative but not absolute adoration of latria must be given to
the image of Christ.
Authoritative proof. St. John Damascene quotes St. Basil as
saying: "The honor given to an image reaches to the
prototype."[1655] There are several declarations of the Church
concerning the relative cult of images. The Second Council of
Nicaea says: "The honor paid to an image is transferred to the
original, and whoever adores the image, adores the subsistence (or
person) depicted in the image."[1656]
Theological proof. There is a twofold movement of the mind toward an
image; the first is toward the image itself as a certain thing; the
second is toward the image so far as it is the image of something else.
Moreover, as St. Thomas says in the body of this article: "the
movement that is toward an image as an image, is one and the same as
that which is toward the thing that is represented."
Hence no reverence is shown to the image of Christ inasmuch as it is a
certain thing of gold or silver; but inasmuch as it is an image of
Christ, the same reverence is shown to it as to Christ Himself, but
as referring to Christ.
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