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One of the first things that strikes a
non-Orthodox visitor to an Orthodox Church is the prominent place
assigned to Holy Icons. The Iconostasis is covered with them, while
others are placed in prominent places throughout the Church building.
The walls and ceiling are covered with iconic murals. The Orthodox
faithful prostrate themselves before Icons, kiss them, and burn candles
before them. They are censed by the clergy and carried in processions.
Considering the obvious importance of the Holy Icons, then, questions
may certainly be raised concerning them: What do these gestures and
actions mean? What is the significance of Icons? Are they not idols or
the like, prohibited by the Old Testament?
Icons have been used for prayer from the first centuries of
Christianity. Sacred Tradition tells us, for example, of the
existence of an Icon of the Savior during His lifetime (the
"Icon-Made-Without-Hands") and of Icons of the Most Holy
Theotokos immediately after Him. Sacred Tradition witnesses that the
Orthodox Church had a clear understanding of the importance of Icons
right from the beginning; and this understanding never changed, for it
is derived from the teachings concerning the Incarnation of the Second
Person of the Holy Trinity .
"No one has ever seen God; only the Son, Who is in the bosom of the
Father, He has made Him known." (John 1:18), the Evangelist
proclaims. That is, He has revealed the Image or Icon of God. For being
the brightness of [God’s] glory, and the express image of [God’s]
person (Hebrews 1:3), the Word of God in the Incarnation revealed to the
world, in His own Divinity, the Image of the Father. When St. Philip
asks Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father", He answered him:
"Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know Me, Philip?
He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:8-9). Thus as the
Son is in the bosom of the Father, likewise after the Incarnation He is
constubstantial with the Father, according to His divinity being the
Father's Image, equal in honor to Him.
The truth expressed above, which is revealed in Christianity, thus forms
the foundations of Christian pictorial art. The Image (or Icon) not only
does not contradict the essence of Christianity, but is unfailingly
connected with it; and this is the foundation of the tradition that from
the very beginning the Good News was brought to the world by the Church
both in word and image.
St. John of Damascus, an eighth century "father" of the Church, who wrote
at the height of the iconoclastic (anti-icon) controversies in the
Church, explains, that because "the Word of God became flesh"
(John 1:14), we are no longer in our infancy; we have grown up, we have
been given by God the power of discrimination and we know what can be
depicted and what is indescribable. Since the Second Person of the
Holy Trinity appeared to us in the flesh, we can portray Him and
reproduce for contemplation Him Who has condescended to be seen. We can
confidently represent God the Invisible - not as an invisible being, but
as one Who has made Himself visible for our sake by sharing in our flesh
and blood.
Holy Icons developed side by side with the Divine Services and, like the
Services, expressed the teaching of the Church in conformity with the
word of Holy Scripture. Following the teaching of the 7th Ecumenical
Council, the Icon is seen not as simple art, but that there is a
complete correspondence of the Icon to Holy Scripture, "for if the
[icon] is shown by [Holy Scripture], [Holy Scripture] is made
incontestably clear by the [icon]" [Acts of the 7th Ecumenical
Council, 6].
As the word of Holy Scripture is an image, so the image is also a word,
for, according to St. Basil the Great "By depicting the divine, we
are not making ourselves similar to idolaters; for it is not the
material symbol that we are worshipping, but the Creator, Who became
corporeal for our sake and assumed our body in order that through it He
might save mankind." We also venerate the material objects through
which our salvation is effected--the blessed wood of the Cross, the Holy
Gospel, Holy Relics of Saints, and, above all, the Most-Pure Body and
Blood of Christ, which have grace-bestowing properties and Divine Power.
Orthodox Christians do not venerate an Icon of Christ because of the
nature of the wood or the paint, but rather we venerate the inanimate
image of Christ with the intention of worshipping Christ Himself as God
Incarnate through it.
We kiss an Icon of the Blessed Virgin as the Mother of the Son of God,
just as we kiss the Icons of the Saints as God's friends who struggled
against sin, imitating Christ by shedding their blood for Him and
followed in His footsteps. Saints are venerated as those who were
glorified by God and who became, with God's help, terrible to the Enemy,
and benefactors to those advancing in the faith. The Icons of the Saints
act as a meeting point between the living members of the Church
[Militant] on earth and the Saints who have passed on to the
Church [Triumphant] in Heaven. The Saints depicted on the Icons
are not remote, legendary figures from the past, but contemporary,
personal friends. As meeting points between Heaven and earth, the Icons
of Christ, His Mother, the Angels and Saints constantly remind the
faithful of the invisible presence of the whole company of Heaven; they
visibly express the idea of Heaven on earth.
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