It would appear to me that . . .
in view of the relentless posts hereon to that effect . . . that the obvious answer is most certainly, yes, RC’s do precisely that.
The implications of that are horrendous.
God Almighty is a jealous God.
Even all the granite monuments, edifices, statues in the world are but chaff—or worse—before Him.
Folks who treat such otherwise may well be in for a big surprise.
I wonder . . . take two identical twins . . . one an RC and one a Pentecostal Protty.
Imagine them shipwrecked with only their multi-tools on to very similar fruitful but deserted South Pacific Islands.
Upon their crawling upon the beach, a voice from Heaven instructs both: Worship me in spirit and truth—the Almighty God of the Angel Armies and of The Bible—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and your Lord Jesus Christ.
All well and good.
After a few hours or a few days . . . these naked-before-God twin brothers begin to get some shelter together and have staked out some fruit trees.
The RC starts to carve a shrine and female figure to enclose in it. Stepping back a few feet to admire his handiwork, a lightening bolt out of a blue sky incinerates the shrine to ashes quickly blown away.
He ponders that for a few days. After a week, not being the brightest bloke in Parochial school, he decided to try again.
He gets the shrine foundation placed on a sheltered but prominent rock outcropping and goes to get another piece of wood to carve. As he turns his back and takes a few steps away, another lightening bold zaps the wood foundation of the shrine AND the entire rock outcropping to oblivion.
He begins to get a clue.
Still, he has lots of prayers to Mary he can recite so he begins to dutifully apply himself to those without a shrine or image to facilitate his devotions.
After all, he’s REALLY missing his Mommy’s about then.
Truble is, every time he begins to say “Mary....” there’s an ozone bearing !ZOT! dangerously close centered right in front of him.
Every time.
Being a bit of a slow learner, it takes him a week to begin his prayers, with “Lord Jesus...” or “Heavenly Father . . . “
He’s pleased to notice there’s no ZOT.
Over the first month, he discovers that any time he reaches out to God directly, he is drawn closer.
Any time he retreats into RC ritual and mumbo jumbo—he nearly gets ZOTTED.
The Pentecostal Brother has been praying merily along to God, Lord Jesus in English and in tongues all along and feeling closer to God than ever in his life.
If we were to consider the two brothers about 15 days into their isolation . . . I wonder which one would feel and be closer to God.
Which one would be more inclined to feeling like a fish out of water . . .
What would it be like for a thoroughly conditioned and entrenched RC to have to face God and God alone without a single RC distinctive, accoutrament, trinket . . . ?
What would be the emotions, the thoughts, . . . ?
What would be the real focus . . . the REAL focus . . . THEN?
And how hard would it be to focus directly, wholesale 100% totally and only
on
GOD ALONE?
LOL. Great little story.
It reminds me of that horrible Tom Hanks movie, "Castaway," where writer/director Zemekis doesn't make Tom Hanks grateful to have survived the terrible plane crash that killed everyone else. Instead, he's thoroughly furious at being shipwrecked.
And NOT ONCE in that movie do we see Tom Hanks praying to God to save him or protect him. Not once do we see Tom Hanks on his knees thanking God for sparing his life or asking for guidance and strength.
Rather, he builds himself a little shrine to talk to and love and protect and be consoled by an idol of his own making...
Compare that to Hanks' earlier movie, "Joe Vs. the Volcano" where Joe Banks, adrift at sea and about to die, drops to his knees and thanks God for his life.
That's called "progress" in Hollywood.