One of the first things
that strikes a non-Orthodox visitor to an Orthodox church is the prominent
place assigned to the Holy Icons. The Iconostasis (Icon-screen) dividing the
Altar from the rest of the church is covered with them, while others are placed
in prominent places throughout the church building. Sometimes even the walls
and ceiling are covered with them in fresco or mosaic form. The Orthodox
faithful prostrate themselves before them, kiss them, and burn candles before
them. They are censed by the Priest 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 these Icons? Are they not idols or the like, prohibited by the
Old Testament?
Some of the answers to these
questions can be found in the writings of St. John of Damascus (f776), who
wrote in the Mid-Eighth Century at the height of the iconoclast (anti-icon)
controversies in the Church, controversies which were resolved only by the 7th
Ecumenical Council (787), which borrowed heavily from these writings.
As St. John points out, in ancient
times God, being incorporeal and uncircumscribed, was never depicted, since it
is impossible to represent that which is immaterial, has no shape, is indescribable
and is unencompassable. Holy Scripture states categorically: No one has ever
seen God (John 1:18) and You cannot see My [God's] face, for man shall not see Me and
live (Ex. 33:20). The Lord forbade the Hebrews to fashion any likeness of the
Godhead, saying: I7ou shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any
likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth (Ex. 20:4). Consequently, the Holy
Apostle Paul also asserts: Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think
that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art
and imagination of man (Acts 17:29).
Nonetheless, we know that Icons have
been used for prayer from the first centuries of Christianity. Church 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. 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 — Our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. The use of Icons is grounded in the very essence of
Christianity, since Christianity is the revelation by the God-Man not only of
the Word of God, but also of the Image of God; for, as St. John the Evangelist
tells us, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).
No one has ever seen God; the only
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 (Heb. 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 consubstantial 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 in image. This truth was so self-evident, that
Icons found their natural place in the Church, despite the Old Testament
prohibition against them and a certain amount of contemporary opposition.
St. John Damascene further tells us
that because the Word 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 He Who was
incorporeal, without form, quantity and magnitude, Who was incomparable owing
to the superiority of His nature, Who existed in the image of God assumed the
form of a servant and appeared to us in the flesh, we can portray Him and
reproduce for contemplation Him Who has condescended to be seen.
We can portray His ineffable
descent, His Nativity from the Blessed Virgin, His Baptism in the Jordan, His
Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor, His sufferings, death and miracles. We can depict the Cross of
Salvation, the Sepulcher, the Resurrection and the Ascension, both in words and
in colors. 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.
As the Holy Apostle Paul says: Ever
since the creation of the world [God's] invisible nature, namely, His eternal
power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made
(Rom. 1:20). Thus, in all creatures we see images that give us a dim insight
into Divine Revelation — when, for instance, we say that the Holy Trinity
Without Beginning can be represented by the sun, light and the ray, or by the
mind, the word and the spirit that is within us, or by the plant, the flower
and the scent of the rose.
Thus, what had only been a shadow in
the Old Testament is now clearly seen. The Council in Trullo (691-2), in its
82nd Rule, stated:
Certain
holy icons have the image of a lamb, at which is pointing the finger of the
Forerunner. This lamb is taken as the image of grace, representing the True
Lamb, Christ our God, Whom the law foreshadowed. Thus accepting with love the
ancient images and shadows as prefigurations and symbols of truth transmitted
to the Church, we prefer grace and truth, receiving it as the fulfillment of
the law. Thus, in order to make plain this fulfillment for all eyes to see, if
only by means of pictures, we ordain that from henceforth icons should
represent, instead of the lamb of old, the human image of the Lamb, Who has
taken upon Himself the sins of the world, Christ our God, so that through this
we may perceive the height of the abasement of God the Word and be led to
remember His life in the flesh, His Passion and death for our salvation and the
ensuing redemption of the world.
The Orthodox Church, then, created a new
art, new in form and content, which uses images and forms drawn from the material
world to transmit the revelation of the divine world, making the divine
accessible to human understanding and contemplation. This art developed side by
side with the Divine Services and, like the Services, expresses the teaching of
the Church in conformity with the word of Holy Scripture. Following the
teachings 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
(f379), “what the word transmits through the ear, that painting silently shows
through the image” [Discourse 19, On the 40 Martyrs]. In other words, the Icon
contains and professes the same truth as the Gospels and therefore, like the
Gospels, is based on exact data, and is not a human invention, for if it were
otherwise, Icons could not explain the Gospels nor correspond to them.
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, and, above all, the Most-Pure Body
and Precious Blood of Christ, which have grace-bestowing properties and Divine
Power.
As St. John Damascene asserts: “I do
not worship matter but I worship the Creator of matter, Who for my sake became
material and deigned to dwell in matter, Who through matter effected my
salvation. I will not cease from worshipping the matter through which my
salvation has been effected” [On Icons, 1,16]. Following his teachings, we, as
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 fought against sin, imitated 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 — but not as gods and
benefactors themselves; rather they were the slaves and servants of God who
were given boldness of spirit in return for their love of Him. We gaze on the
depiction of their exploits and sufferings so as to sanctify ourselves through
them and to spur ourselves on to zealous emulation.
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.
In venerating the Icons, then, the
Orthodox are championing the basis of Christian faith — the Incarnation of God
— and, consequently, salvation and the very meaning of the Church's existence
on earth, since the creation of the Holy Icons goes back to the very origins of
Christianity and is an inalienable part of the truth revealed by God, founded
as it is on the person of the God-Man Jesus Christ Himself. Holy Images are
part of the nature of Christianity and without the Icon Christianity would
cease to be Christianity. The Holy Gospel summons us to live in Christ, but it
is the Icon that shows us this life.
If God became man in order that man
might be like God, the Icon, in full accord with divine worship and theology,
bears witness to the fruits of the Incarnation and to the sanctity and
deification of man. It shows him in the fullness of his earthly nature,
purified of sin and partaking of the life of God, testifies to the
sanctification of the human body and displays to the world the image of man who
is similar to God by grace. The Icon outwardly expresses the sanctity of the
depicted Saint, and this sanctity is apparent to bodily vision.
Thus, according to St. John Damascene,
those who refuse to venerate an Icon also refuse to worship God's Son, Who is
the living image and unchanging reflection of God the Invisible. Be it known,
he says, that anyone who seeks to destroy the Icons of Christ or His Mother,
the Blessed Theotokos, or any of the Saints, is the enemy of Christ, the Holy
Mother of God, and the Saints, and is the defender of the Devil and his demons.