https://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Catacomb_of_Priscilla

God didn't want people to wroship statuery as a deity

Christ is, “The image (Gr.-icon) of the invisible God.” Christ is the ultimate
icon!
He reveals God the Father. When Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the
Father,” in John 14:9,
he does not mean that he is the Father. He isn’t. He’s the Son. Hebrews 1:3 tells
us Christ “reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature.”
That is the essence of what statues and icons are. Just as “the word became flesh”
(John 1:14)
and revealed the Father to us in a manner beyond the imaginings of men before the
advent of Christ,
representations of God’s holy angels and saints are also icons of Christ who by
their heroic virtue “reflect the glory of God” as well.
Just as St. Paul told the Corinthians to hold up his own life as a paradigm when
he said, “I urge you, then, be imitators of me,” the Church continues to hold up
great men and women of faith as “icons”
of the life of Christ lived in fallen human nature aided by grace.

having statues honoring God or great saints brings to mind the God we adore and the
saints we love and respect
The Catholic Church does not believe any statue or image has any power in and of
itself

The Lord commanded the Ark, which held the tablets of the Law, to be topped by—what
else?—statues of two cherubim.
The statues were to be made of gold, and the wings of the cherubim were to be held
over the Ark, as though protecting it.
So here we have the Lord, in chapter 20 saying, “Don’t make statues,” according to
Fundamentalists, and in chapter 25 the Lord says, “Make statues.”

The key to this apparent contradiction is the purpose behind the making of the
statues.
In chapter 20 statues used in idol worship were condemned; in chapter 25 statues
used for a proper religious purpose were praised.

Bowing:
1 Kings 2:19 - Revised Standard Version
<19> So Bathshe′ba went to King Solomon, to speak to him on behalf of Adoni′jah.
And the king rose to meet her,
and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne, and had a seat brought for the
king's mother; and she sat on his right.

Genesis 33:3 - Revised Standard Version

<3> He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until
he came near to his brother.

The problem was not with the bowing; it was with the adoration, angel in
Revelation 19 rebuked John, respectively, specifically for adoring them as if he
was adoring the Lord

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catacomb_of_Priscilla

Why would God use these images of serpents, angels, palm trees, and open flowers?
Why didn’t he heal the people directly rather than use a “graven image”? Why didn’t
he command Moses and Solomon to build an ark and a temple void of any images at
all?

God uses both spiritual and physical means. He will use statues, the temple, or
even creation itself to guide us to our heavenly home! FACTS

Nor is it idolatrous to look at statues of great saints of old in order to honor

them for the great things God has done through them.
It is no more idolatrous for us to desire to imitate their holy lives and honor
them than it was for St. Paul to exhort the Corinthians to imitate his own holy
life

God doesn’t prohibit the making of statues or images of various creatures for
religious purposes (cf. 1 Kgs. 6:29–32, 8:6–66; 2 Chr. 3:7–14)

David:
Lord commands the making of statues. For example: “And you shall make two cherubim
of gold
[i.e., two gold statues of angels]; of hammered work shall you make them, on the
two ends of the mercy seat.
Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece of
the mercy seat shall you make
the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above,
overshadowing the mercy seat with
their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of
the cherubim be” (Ex. 25:18–20).

David gave Solomon the plan “for the altar of incense made of refined gold, and its
weight;
also his plan for the golden chariot of the cherubim that spread their wings and
covered the
ark of the covenant of the Lord. All this he made clear by the writing of the hand
of the
Lord concerning it all” (1 Chr. 28:18–19). David’s plan for the temple included
statues of angels.

Further, in 1 Kings 6, Solomon built a temple for the glory of God, described as
follows:

In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olivewood, each ten cubits high. . .
. He put the cherubim in the innermost part of the house. . . . He carved all the
walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees, and
open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms. . . . For the entrance to the inner
sanctuary he made doors of olivewood. . . .
He covered the two doors of olivewood with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and
open flowers; he overlaid them with gold (1 Kgs. 6:23, 27, 29, 31, 32).

Catholics use statues, paintings, and other artistic devices to recall the person
or thing depicted.
just as it helps to remember one’s mother by looking at her photograph, so it helps
to recall the example of the saints by looking at pictures of them.
Catholics also use statues as teaching tools. In the early Church they were
especially useful for the instruction of the illiterate

Colossians 1:15 tells us Christ is, “The image (Gr.-icon) of the invisible God.”
Christ is the ultimate icon!
Kissing:
We have a culture that has become so inundated with everything sexual, we’ve lost
what the ancient people of God did not so much put to words as they did live from
the core of their collective being.
They knew how to love and respect each other. St. Paul, for example, encouraged
Christians to greet one another with a holy kiss
(Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26).

i'ts sad that protestants fear any act of reverence directed toward a human or
angel will bring the immediate wrath of a “jealous God.”
How far is this removed from what we saw from Jesus in Rev. 3:9!
or from the clergy in Ephesus who we find embracing and kissing Paul after his
final discourse to them in Acts 20:37.
the context of these passages make clear that these are acts of affection, not
adoration!

Prayers to the dead. Macaabess

“The noble Judas exhorted his people to guard themselves from sin, for with their
own eyes they had seen what happened to those who died in battle because of their
sin. 43He then took up an offering from his soldiers amounting to two thousand
silver drachmas, and sent it to Jerusalem to present as a sin offering. In doing so
he acted properly and with honor, taking note of the resurrection. 44For if he were
not looking for the resurrection of those fallen, it would have been utterly
foolish to pray for the departed. 45But since he was looking to the reward of
splendor laid up for those who repose in godliness, it was a holy and godly
purpose. Thus he made atonement for the fallen, so as to set them free from their
transgression.”