One of the reasons I love being Catholic is that the Church understands a harmonious integration and understanding of our souls AND bodies. Because of the fact that we experience through our 5 senses and primarily because of the fact that God became man, became flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ, we as Catholics use many "external signs" to point us toward (and reveal to us) truths of our faith.
We have pictures of Jesus and Mary and the saints and angels to lift our hearts up toward the divine. We have holy water as a reminder of our baptismal promises. We use candles as a symbol that Christ is the light of the world. We have crucifixes to remind us of the great and perfect love God has for us by giving us His only Son to die for us. We have stained glass windows - these windows may have pictures of the saints, holy objects, stories from the Gospel and Scripture - all to tell us a story about our faith. We use incense because in Revelation and in the OT we see that incense is a symbol of our prayers rising before the throne of God. Our churches are filled with statues to give us a visual of sacred mysteries, the saints, the life of Christ. The Stations of the Cross retell the story of our Lord's passion and death. Man I could go on!!! (I really love this about our Faith too because it helps SOOOOOO much in teaching our children about the Lord and our Faith! - Parents, take advantage of this!!)
This is yet another reason why I love being Catholic - we have all these signs and symbols that pass through our senses in order to lift us up to God. God knows we are not just spirit. Angels are pure spirit. Christ came in the flesh - as a Person. Christ perfectly "wedded" humanity with divinity. We live in the flesh. We are not some type of soul trapped in a body (which is a heresy called Gnosticism and was condemned in the early 1st and 2nd centuries); we are both body AND soul. Our body and soul is what makes us a human person.
"As a being at once body and spirit, man expresses and perceives spiritual realities through physical signs and symbols. As a social being, man needs signs and symbols to communicate with others...The same holds true for his relationships with God." (CCC #1146)
Remember, in Genesis, God formed man from the dust of the earth and THEN breathed into Him His breath of life. Flesh and spirit. He made our bodies and then filled us with His spirit.
Some people like to say these external signs we use are "idols" and we are worshipping them. As Catholics, we condemn worshiping anyone/anything else but the Blessed Trinity. When we become accused of worshiping statues, or Mary, or saints, or anything else, it's because people have a misconception about these things. When I kneel before a statue of our Lord, I'm not worshiping the statue (though from the outside that's what it may look like to a person who does not understand Catholicism)...but what is really happening is that my heart and mind are being lifted up to God. I make use of that statue to recollect myself interiorly before the presence of Jesus.
This is the one and only purpose of all the external signs and symbols we use.
Catholic Answers has a great summary:
"The Holy Spirit revealed himself under at least two visible forms—that of a dove, at the baptism of Jesus (Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32), and as tongues of fire, on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1–4). Protestants use these images when drawing or painting these biblical episodes and when they wear Holy Spirit lapel pins or place dove emblems on their cars.
But, more important, in the Incarnation of Christ his Son, God showed mankind an icon of himself. Paul said, "He is the image (Greek: ikon) of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." Christ is the tangible, divine "icon" of the unseen, infinite God.
We read that when the magi were "going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh" (Matt. 2:11). Though God did not reveal a form for himself on Mount Horeb, he did reveal one in the house in Bethlehem.
The bottom line is, when God made the New Covenant with us, he did reveal himself under a visible form in Jesus Christ. For that reason, we can make representations of God in Christ."
In fact, back in the 7th and 8th centuries there was a heresy condemned by the Catholic Church. It was called Iconoclasm. This heresy arose when a group of people known as iconoclasts (literally, "icon smashers") appeared, who claimed that it was sinful to make pictures and statues of Christ and the saints, despite the fact that in the Bible, God had commanded the making of religious statues (Ex. 25:18–20; 1 Chr. 28:18–19), including symbolic representations of Christ (cf. Num. 21:8–9 with John 3:14).
There ARE group of Christians today who believe in this heresy. Jehovah Witnesses also believe this.
That idea that Christianity is purely spiritual, that the Church is only spiritual, that our souls are in a war against the body, therefore the spirit/soul is good but the flesh is bad is wrong. These are all heresies that have been condemned centuries ago. Believing these things puts one out of the full communion with God that He desires one to have; people miss out on the richness and the fullness of the truth when they deny the use of symbols and signs and believe these heresies.
As Catholics, we must be able to give an answer to our faith to help others understand why we make use of the gift of our senses to bring us closer to God and help others understand why we use all of this rich symbolism. It is a gift to us as human beings! And we need to undestand that EVERY action, gesture, sign and symbol that we use a Catholics - from making the sign of the Cross to genuflecting before entering a pew, and standing at the Gospel - ALL have a deeper spiritual meaning.
We stand at the Gospel because those are the words of Jesus Christ and standing is a sign of reverence and respect. We revere the words of Christ.
We genuflect when we enter churches because God Himself dwells within the tabernacle.
We make the sign of the Cross to remind us that we belong to the Blessed Trinity and it is in this triune Godhead that we profess and believe.
The altar is raised AT LEAST one step as a symbol of Calvary, the hill upon which Christ died to give us life. And it is upon that altar that we are made sacramentally present to that saving sacrifice on Calvary.
Did you know that? Now you do!
God bless!